Skip to content
Paddington in Peru opens in the country in question, with a flashback to when our titular lead (Ben Whishaw – This Is Going To Hurt) was a cub, and stayed with Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton – Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget) after his parents’ death, but now, he’s getting a yearning for returning.
This third film comes a whole ten years after the firts, and it’s clear that the audience has disappeared because on a Sunday afternoon at 5pm, the auditorium was dead!
For the family, son Jonathan Brown (Samuel Joslin) has grown 10ft tall in the intervening time and become an inventor, including the Gobsleigh for an easy way to eat without leaving his bedroom.
But why no Sally Hawkins as Mary Brown? Apparently, she wants to hand the reins over, but really?! Why wouldn’t anyone want to continue to be in a trilogy franchise? Even without the empty cinema, you’d rarely expect a series to run more than three films – especially since it took 7 years to make the threequel – so why step down unnecessarily? There must be more to it than that, other than one wag’s suggestion on Reddit, “Sally Hawkins had disparaging comments made about paddington and when he heard, he fired her”.
As such, when new Mary (Emily Mortimer – Mary Poppins Returns) has flashbacks to the first film, even though she wasn’t in it… erm?!
Similarly interestingly, the first two films’ Paul King doesn’t return as director. Turns out he was busy with Wonka at the time. That didn’t come out until Christmas last year, with this one in November this year, and was actually filmed last year, so it’s been a long time in production.
Henry (Hugh Bonneville – Douglas Is Cancelled) has a new boss in Madison (Hayley Atwell – Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft), telling him to take more risks in life (and apparently American, but not, as it’s Hayley Atwell), but that tips things in his favour to take the trip to Peru with the family.
For want of a plot, Aunt Lucy lives at the Home For Retired Bears – run by Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman, who did crack me up with her theme tune, to the film’s title, playing a guitar in the Alps, as a The Sound Of Music spoof) – where they read “The Grrrdian”, and writes, wanting wants Paddington to come back, but she’s gone for a wander, and the only way to find her, and in a place called Rumi Rock, is by chartering the boat owned by Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas – Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny), although he’s more interested in finding the lost city of El Dorado, with the promise of gold. However, I’d rather go searching for a potential return for the 1992/93 BBC soap opera, Eldorado. That was ace.
All that said, there’s just so little actually going on in Paddington In Peru, that its sheer existence makes as much sense as why Hunter’s boat has a player piano! That’ll weigh it down too much!!
And with a total of FIVE people involved in the writing of this movie, I can’t see how this non-story took so many people to put together?! Never mind a holiday to Peru, everyone involved is taking a busman’s holiday!
Paddington In Peru even borrows a Harold Lloyd joke, where the bear goes through a door, slams it shut, walks forward just enough, the wall falls down, and he just happens to be standing in the right place for a window hole to fall around him.
Overall, let’s hope this is the end of the line for Paddington. The first one was good, the second one was terrible, and this is even worse.
As the fictional Bible quotes in Matthew 19:14, ‘Jesus said, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, as we’re going down the Odeon to see Paddington 3!”‘.
NOTE: There is BOTH a mid- AND post-credit scene, as per my video above.
Paddington In Peru is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 106 minutes
Release date: November 8th 2024
Studio: Studiocanal
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 2/10
Director: Dougal Wilson
Producers: Rosie Alison, Ivan Entel, Claudia Roca Bravo
Screenplay: Mark Burton, Jon Foster, James Lamont
Story: Paul King, Simon Farnaby, Mark Burton
Creator: Michael Bond
Music: Dario Marianelli
Cast:
Paddington: Ben Whishaw
Henry Brown: Hugh Bonneville
Mary Brown: Emily Mortimer
Judy Brown: Madeleine Harris
Jonathan Brown: Samuel Joslin
Mrs. Bird: Julie Walters
Reverend Mother: Olivia Colman
Mr. Gruber: Jim Broadbent
Hunter Cabot: Antonio Banderas
Gina Cabot: Carla Tous
Aunt Lucy: Imelda Staunton
Photo Booth Voice: Oliver Maltman
Joe the Postman: Joel Fry
Mr. Barnes: Robbie Gee
Dr. Jafri: Sanjeev Bhaskar
Colonel Lancaster: Ben Miller
Miss Kitts: Jessica Hynes
Student Rep: Ella Dacres
Madison: Hayley Atwell
Madison’s Assistant: Aloreia Spencer
Barry the Air Steward: Simon Farnaby
Passport Control Officer: Carlos Carlín
Zayden: Amit Shah
Phoenix Buchanan: Hugh Grant
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.