In the 11 years of what we can fairly call “the Paddington era,” the bear, himself, hasn’t changed so much as a toggle on his blue duffle coat. Paddington’s great appeal, in an otherwise often fearfully changeable world, is that he stays exactly the same. He’s just as optimistic, prone to pratfalls and marmalade-mad as ever.
And that’s made Paddington not just a dearly beloved big-screen icon but something like the mascot to modern Britain — another guileless Pooh deserving of his own “The Tao of” bestseller.
But if “Paddington 2” ascended to the ranks of all-time great sequels like “Toy Story 2” and “The Godfather Part II” (and it did), the new third installment, “Paddington in Peru,” has the challenge of keeping up the good cheer for ever-darker times.
As if to accentuate this point, the “Paddington in Peru” screening that I attended at an AMC featured almost exclusively R-rated trailers — not just trailers for R-rated movies, but R-rated trailers — sending mothers and children fleeing images of horror and blood before they returned, relieved, for the cuddlier and more heartening feature attraction. Paddington, more than ever, is a refuge.
What has changed in “Paddington in Peru,” which opens in theaters Friday, is the director. The principle font of whimsy from the first two movies, Paul King, has moved on. (He instead made “Wonka” and gets a “story by” credit.) In his directorial debut, Dougal Wilson steps in and soldiers on, but he can’t quite summon the same comic spirit. Still, “Paddington in Peru,” bright and buoyant, will do. If some of King’s Wes Anderson-inspired pop-up book designs and skill with fine character actors is missing, the bedrock earnestness and unflaggingly good manners of its ursine protagonist remain charmingly unaltered.
“Paddington in Peru,” which the opening credits describe as a Marmalade Pictures release, takes the same basic structure as “2.” Life has again moved along for the Brown family in Windsor Gardens, with montages to check in on everyone’s developments. The kids, who have always been curiously uninvolved in these films, are growing up. Judy (Madeleine Harris) is applying to colleges. Jonathan (Samuel Joslin) is a bedroom-bound gamer. Mary Brown has changed entirely, with Emily Mortimer replacing Sally Hawkins as the mother. (Mortimer is a perfectly fine replacement but the switch inevitably has threequel-overkill vibes.)
Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) has a new American boss who touts embracing risk, rather than mitigating it. So when Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) gets a call from the Reverend Mother ( Olivia Colman ) at a retired bears home in Peru telling him Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton) isn’t herself and badly misses him, Mr. Brown jumps at the chance to fly Paddington and the whole family to Peru.
The Browns could use some bonding, too. A through line in “Paddington in Peru” is the difference between the ties of family and of tribe, as Paddington, finding Aunt Lucy missing, goes on a jungle adventure looking for her in his childhood stomping grounds.
You can feel the formulas of the first two movies a little more obviously this time. Following in the footsteps of “Paddington 2” standouts Hugh Grant and Brendan Gleeson (both of whom deserve honorary Oscars — no, Nobel Prizes — for their previous efforts), those supporting roles this time go to Colman, as an obviously distrustful singing nun, and Antonio Banderas, as the river guide Hunter Cabot.
Hunter and his teenage daughter Gina (Carla Tous) ferry the Browns and Paddington into the Peruvian forest in a quest for Aunt Lucy that soon combines with his family’s generations-long hunt for the mythical city of El Dorado. Just as Grant donned many disguises in the last film, Banderas plays his Spanish ancestors, figments of his increasingly unhinged imagination.
There are some gags to be had, including a stone facade version of a famous Buster Keaton stunt. But as much as I endorse finding any role here for Colman, particularly as a shifty nun, I do question whether there might have been a more compelling storyline in Paddington returning home.
Once Paddington and the Browns set foot on the river boat, “Paddington in Peru” gets swept away just as Klaus Kinski did in “Fitzcarraldo.” Tales of madness in the Amazonian jungle are their own cinematic tradition, but I’m unconvinced a bear-version of El Dorado was where the Paddington movies needed to go. Does Paddington need a trip overseas when just a visit to a photo booth (for his passport picture) provides all the necessary entertainment?
These films have always been much more at home in London than South America, anyway. As the lovely coda to “Paddington in Peru” reminds, Paddington (officially a British citizen for the first time) is himself a migrant who once arrived from a foreign land with a tag reading: “Please look after this bear.” It’s a gentle reminder that many, not just the bear at the center of this lovable franchise, need looking out for.
“Paddington in Peru,” a Sony Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for action, mild rude humor and some thematic elements. Running time: 106 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
