Olivia Colman performs a singing nun. I’m nearly ready to say that’s all that you must learn about Paddington in Peru: that Olivia Colman, residing English treasure, will get her Julie Andrews on and leads a song-and-dance sequence on an alpine meadow that tells us that the hills are nonetheless very a lot alive. It’s not a lot of a spoiler to say that her Reverend Mom proves to be one thing lower than exemplary within the lethal sins division, at the very least those that contain mendacity. That’s the most effective bit, in actual fact: the singing nun within the naughty nook.
Paddington in Peru is the third movie to adapt Michael Bond’s iconic kids’s tales. All of it’s positive, really, not simply Colman’s homage to the Von Trapps. Directing duties have handed from Paul King to Dougal Wilson, who might not have King’s Midas contact with bodily comedy, however has in any other case saved the ship regular. The story parts, for instance, are recognizable: we’re on one other treasure hunt, with one other glamorous villain and extra slapstick sequences the place Paddington will get wrong-pawed by the workings of on a regular basis gadgets. The one distinction – and it’s a spectacular distinction, admittedly – is that we’re not in picture-postcard London any extra. We’re within the Andes, wanting down at Machu Picchu.
The journey kicks off briskly. Paddington receives a letter from Peru telling him that his beloved Aunt Lucy has inexplicably gone lacking from her jungle cabin on the House for Retired Bears. What to do? Mr. Brown (Hugh Bonneville), underneath fireplace at work for being insufficiently risk-taking, is persuaded that the entire household ought to go to Peru to search for her, braving tarantulas, piranhas and different quantifiable risks. With Mr. Brown in his new, sartorially risk-taking vacation wardrobe, they’ll absolutely discover her in a jiffy.
A change of continents has allowed Paddington’s manufacturing designers, this time headed up by Andrew Kelly, to double down on their spectacular inventiveness. The House for Retired Bears, benignly administered by the musical nuns, resembles an island gents’s membership in early Bond motion pictures: assume cane furnishings, the wistful whiff of Empire and a faintly sinister air.
Then we’re all on board dashing Captain Cabot’s boat, a wonderful confection of brass fittings and polished wooden, heading upriver. Aunt Lucy, it transpires, has gone searching for the misplaced Inca treasure of El Dorado; Captain Cabot (Antonio Banderas), haunted by the grasping ghosts of his conquistador forebears, is set to beat her to it.
The dramatis personae are comfortably acquainted. As Paddington, Ben Whishaw’s barely plaintive voice merges seamlessly with Pablo Grillo’s furry animation. Has a hero ever been extra irresistibly lovely? Bonneville, because the ineffectually pompous Mr. Brown, all the time gives the look of getting a whale of a time. The Brown kids (Madeleine Harris and Samuel Joslin) are 10 years older than they had been at the beginning, however nonetheless reassuringly batty; crotchety Mrs Hen (Julie Walters) continues to assault misbehaving electrics with an enormous spanner.
Different characters are new, however we see instantly the place they match. Banderas primarily serves the identical objective as Hugh Grant did in Paddington 2: he’s excessive and as much as no good. So sturdy is the established Paddington mannequin, in actual fact, that we barely register that Mrs. Brown is now being performed by Emily Mortimer relatively than Sally Hawkins. Mortimer is grounded and mumsy the place Hawkins was flighty and impetuous, however she slots in so properly – or maybe the slot itself is so effectively crafted – that she appears to have all the time been there.
In one other respect, nonetheless, the brand new story (by Paul King, Simon Farnaby and Mark Burton) takes us into new territory. Everyone knows that Paddington Bear arrived as an immigrant with no papers, past the label saying “Please take care of this bear,” and was adopted and guarded by the Browns. This movie begins with the arrival of his new British passport, making him a citizen finally. Even on that glad day, nonetheless, he feels the tug of one other residence when he seems at an Inca carving within the vintage store owned by Mr. Gruber (Jim Broadbent). That pull of the previous turns into overwhelming within the Peruvian jungle, Paddington is ready to hint his roots for the primary time.
The bear is torn, a divided self; it’s the immigrant expertise, conveyed with out condescension however in a approach that even very younger kids will perceive. On the finish of the hunt, he faces a dilemma — the place does he belong? – even because the Browns restate their love for him. I admit I acquired a bit teary.
It doesn’t matter if this movie is way the identical type of factor because the final one, warmed over. The truth is, that’s precisely what you need: third time round, the story of the little bear welcomed by strangers stays magical. And if it’s novelty you’re after, there’s Olivia Colman, twirling on a mountain-top in a nun’s behavior. You recognize you wish to see that.
Title: Paddington in Peru
Distributor: Studiocanal/Sony
Launch date: November 8, 2024 (UK)/January 17, 2025 (U.S.)
Director: Dougal Wilson
Writers: Mark Burton, Jon Foster, James Lamont, Paul King, Simon Farnaby
Forged: Hugh Bonneville, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Imelda Staunton, Carla Tous, Madeleine Harris, Samuel Joslin, Olivia Colman, Antonio Banderas, and Ben Whishaw
Ranking: PG
Working time: 1 hr 46 minutes
