I’ll admit I was nervous about the third Paddington movie. The first one is a miracle of a children’s film: genuinely funny for all ages, warmhearted and touching without ever being cloying. It was made by people who understand that children deserve even better films than adults get. The second film is a masterpiece. An absolute all-time classic that was so good, its power became a running gag in a different movie, made by different people, for a different audience.
Now I don’t think Paddington in Peru tops the second one, but there are only a handful of films that do. What we get instead is a charming, fun adventure that allows the Brown family to grow and change without changing their fundamental natures, and that continues the tradition of being proudly pro-immigrant, pro-inclusion, and coming down again and again on the necessity of empathy and the belief that everyone deserves another shot.
While the previous two Paddington films were directed by Paul King (he of The Mighty Boosh and Wonka) the third installment is the feature debut by Dougal Wilson, and written by Mark Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont, from a story by Paul King, Simon Farnaby, Mark Burton—and if all those names make you nervous, too, I can assure you that this movie is a fun, sweet, cohesive whole.
Ben Whishaw gives his perfect voice to Paddington, and Hugh Bonneville, Madeleine Harris, and Samuel Joslin return as dad Henry Brown, elder sister Judy Brown, and son Jonathan Brown, while this time out Emily Mortimer replaces Sally Hawkins as mum Mary Brown. Julie Walters returns as the family’s unflappable housekeeper Mrs. Bird. There are three new members of the Paddington-verse: Olivia Colman as an upbeat (and occasionally musical) Reverend Mother to an order of nuns who run the Home for Retired Bears, Antonio Banderas as Hunter Cabot, intrepid Amazon riverboat captain, and Carla Tous as his long-suffering daughter Gina—the one who actually knows how to drive the boat.
To set the scene: imagine me, alone, in a Saturday afternoon matinee surrounded by screaming kids and exhausted parents. I’m at the theater that’s also a bar and restaurant, and i am sipping a neon pink frozen rum cocktail. To my left are a pair of pre-teen boys attending the film sans adult guardians; to my right is a family that I think were French, but seemed to speak at least two other languages as well. The smallest member of that family was so small, in fact, that he needed a booster seat to see the screen.
The kids shrieked, talked to the screen, and explained things to their adults during the Minecraft trailer. The “live-action” Lilo and Stitch teaser was met with a couple of kids ecstatically screaming “STITCH!!!” when he first appeared. But when the trailer for Legend of Ochi started, pin-drop silence fell over the theater, and apart from a few gasps, no one made a peep. So a note to parents: I can’t speak to the experience of the feature length film, but it seems like if you want a break from your beloved child’s voice for a little while, that might be the way to go. (It seems intense in a 1980s Spielberg way, though.) The chatter picked right back up during the trailer for the new Karate Kid Legends trailer, which the two boys next to me were very excited about.
No one was quiet during Paddington in Peru. They yelled, they laughed, they asked questions, one kid screamed during a scary moment (I don’t blame her, but it was over in a second and I don’t think it would be too intense for anyone over the age of 6) and from the sound of it just about everyone applauded at the end. (At one point, when Mrs. Brown lamented the fact that her kids are growing up and leaving home, and wistfully asked Mr. Brown, “What’s next? one of the tweens next to me deadpanned “DIE.” At another moment, when Paddington tells the family they’re lost in the Peruvian Amazon, the tiny child next to me murmured “C’est mort”. I cannot recommend seeing this movie with kids highly enough.) There is some during-credits stuff which I think was hilarious, but by then most of the kids were DONE with sitting still and being (somewhat) quiet, so I didn’t hear most of it, and there’s an after-credits scene which I can attest is great, because by then they’d all left, and it was just me and the waitstaff surveying the wreckage.
The movie itself is excellent. Director Dougal Wilson keeps things light and fun, and clearly enjoys the surrealism that made the first two special; ghosts pop up occasionally, and miracles abound. There is a dark undercurrent about greed and addiction, but it never gets too dark. The plot is a lark that turns into a quest: Paddington learns that his Aunty Lucy misses him just as Mrs. Brown is feeling the full impact of Judy leaving for college and Jonathan being enough of a teen that he wants to chill by himself in his room. They decide to go to Peru as a family to kill all the familial ennui birds with one stone. Once they arrive, the cheerful Reverend Mother informs them that Aunt Lucy went off on a quest into the jungle—naturally the Brown family has to go after her. They are aided by Hunter Cabot and his daughter Gina, on a trek that sometimes gets pretty intense but is also always silly and over-the-top.
This is a movie that respects its audience’s intelligence and good faith. It trusts that kids will pay attention to the important stuff even if they talk during some of the slower scenes—given that a few kids asked pointed questions along the way, and almost everyone clammed up again during the resolution, I think the filmmakers are right.
The more adult-oriented stuff is done well. Mrs. Brown’s sadness at her kids’ impending nest-leaving is nuanced. We see that sometimes her clinginess is objectively annoying, but also that Judy and Jonathan need to have a little more empathy for their mum. (Don’t worry, they get there.) Mr. Brown doesn’t have some tired mid-life crisis—instead he’s challenged to take more risks and welcome adventure rather than always relying on a manual for life. Antonio Banderas is fantastic as Hunter Cabot, and the script plays with his long-standing status as one of the most beautiful human beings to ever walk this Earth. We are, as always, lucky to be alive at the same time as Olivia Colman.
Now speaking of adult stuff. This movie has references to everything from Raiders of the Lost Ark to The Sound of Music to Alien to Furiosa (!!!) to Black Narcissus (!!!!!) to freaking Fitzcarraldo, so if you’re into that sort of thing, you’re in for a treat. Wilson and the writers have layered this stuff into the film itself, not just shoved references in as a sop to the adults. (It’s my cherished hope that at least a few adults show their kids an Indiana Jones movie after this.)
There are two things I want to mention that are spoilers, which sound ridiculous, but I really want to highlight them, but part of the joy in them is seeing them for yourself? So please whimsically skedaddle out of here until I tell you it’s safe.
First, there’s a running gag about Mr. Brown being terrified of the “Purple-Kneed Spider” and of course, at a crucial moment Mr. Brown absolutely has to turn a crank to save everyone, and of course there’s Chekov’s Purple-Kneed Spider, asleep on the crank. He asks for a large tumbler, no one has one. Then he raises the enormous, hardcover “Peru Manual” he’s carried with him for the duration of the trip, and for a brief second you think he’s going to squish the spider, but no, he holds it out and gently nudges his greatest eight-legged fear onto the book. And then of course it jumps onto his face, Alien-style. But he still doesn’t squish it! This is a movie about love and acceptance—even when it means accepting a frightening Purple Spider.
And second, as in the prior films, there’s is a lovely painting of a flowering cherry tree in the Brown’s stairwell. This tree often reflects the mood of the family, blooming or wilting as needed. At the end of Paddington in Peru, as I hoped it might, it bursts into plants from the Amazon, tropical fronds uncurling and waving with the cherry blossoms, as Paddington embraces his Peruvian heritage.
SPOILERS OVER! It’s safe to come back!
Now as for what the movie’s about. Paddington is quintessentially British. In the opening scenes of this movie, he finally gets his British passport. His friend Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent) warns him that becoming a British citizen might lead to complicated feelings about his heritage, but he shakes it off. He’s British now, and proud of it! But once he goes back to Peru, just as Mr. Gruber said, he starts to wonder where he really belongs.
There’s a wonderful moment when he hears his Bear name. It sounds like more roaring to his human family, but he knows that he’s been seen by the other Bears, that they’ve welcomed him back to one of his homes. The movie has a light touch here as always—the Browns are frightened by the roaring until Paddington explains what the Bears have said, then they’re delighted to meet his extended family. But it was lovely to see that here, in this gentle children’s film, they make the point that Paddington has another language, and another culture, that is just as much him as his Britishness and the name the Brown family gave him.
Paddington wants to claim all of himself. In the world of the film, of course, he can—because again, the world of Paddington is one that holds empathy as a virtue, refugees and immigrants are not just tolerated but welcomed. That world expects the best of everyone, and the people who have messed up are given second chances; but even the people who have proved they can’t be trusted aren’t forgotten—they just get visits in jail rather than being left loose to wreak havoc. The world of Paddington values everyone—be they piranha or llama or Purple-Kneed Spider or nun or sexy riverboat captain or introverted teen or penniless refugee bear with a marmalade addiction—and it was a joy to live in that world for a while.
