paddington in peru
★★★★★
starring: ben wishaw, hugh bonneville, emily watson, and antonio banderas
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REVIEWER: lyall carter
Paddington returns to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown family in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey.
Beginning just over a decade ago, the big screen adaptation of Michael Bond’s iconic Paddington books have reached commercial success with the second entry entering into film folklore as one of the best reviewed films of all time. So absolutely no pressure for director Dougal Wilson in not only his debut in the Paddington franchise but his first feature length film. Paddington in Peru picks up right where we left off - filled with a cracking family adventure and all the cosy warmth of a blue duffle coat and a marmalade sandwich. One of the best family films of the year.
When Paddington discovers his beloved aunt has gone missing from the Home for Retired Bears, he and the Brown family head to the jungles of Peru to find her. Determined to solve the mystery, they soon stumble across a legendary treasure as they make their way through the rainforests of the Amazon.
As well as having the challenge of a new director, Paddington in Peru, as the title suggests, also has the unenviable task of being the first of the franchise to be based primarily outside of the UK. The fear being that this film, without being set in London, could lose a lot of its whimsical, cosy Britishness that was such a staple to the success of the previous two.
But this is where the success of Paddington in Peru lies in that that sense of Britishness has to be instilled even more so in the characters and their development supported by a fun-filled, family adventure. The characters that we all know and love all have great arcs and the new, supporting characters are superb not only in what they bring comedically but also what they bring to this rip-roaring adventure with Olivia Colman and Antonio Banderas utterly superb.
When it comes to children and family films, I’m often asked how our little one fared through it. While, for our three year old there were a couple of moments where she worriedly yelled out ‘Paddington, noooooooooooooo!’ in the packed cinema when Paddington was facing some perilous situation, she was completely immersed in the film from start to finish especially when Colman’s Reverend Mother burst into song. The only consequence is that now we seem to be stuck in a loop of watching the first two films on repeat.
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Paddington in Peru picks up right where we left off - filled with a cracking family adventure and all the cosy warmth of a blue duffle coat and a marmalade sandwich. One of the best family films of the year.
★★★★★
