Paddington in Peru

If, like me, you agree that the first two Paddington films are amongst the greatest films ever made this will be both an enjoyable essential but also a disappointment.

Because it's not about Paddington adapting to living with a family in London or how a normal family adapts to living with a bear, it loses its original charm and certainly its humour. This is just another jungle adventure movie...but with a bear. It has a different feel about it - more sentimental and noticeably not as funny. Whereas the first two were hilarious to a decrepit old Marx Brothers fan like me, this one is definitely more of a family film clearly aimed at children.

I could say we need more of the Brown family and of their neighbours.....I could also say we need Sally Hawkins but what's the point. We had all that in the first two and since they were...dare I say, perfect, there'd be no point trying to copy them.

So yes, this is different, it's horribly over-sentimental at times and nothing like as funny but it's still Paddington. Routine family fun rather than hilarious quirky cuteness.

Paddington in Peru is an ok movie that could have been so much more due to its international setting but it the weakest of the three movies in my books.

Slow buildup in the first act does significant damage to the well crafted narrative of the movie. Funny antics of our titular Bear does save the grace but what takes the cake is the performance of Antonio Banderas who seems to have a ball with his character.

The third act is the saving grace as the lovable family finally catches up in the majestic mountains of Machu Picchu and the Inca civilization.

However, I feel the audience were expecting more of silly adventure in the Peruvian Jungle and the Amazon than it turned out to be.

All the key plot points and characters are there. But the script seems underdeveloped which meant the characters were more like finger puppets being paraded through each scene. Most of the time if felt like the cast were just waiting for their lines to be written.

The pace was also too slow which would have been helped by some good writing and perhaps editing.

The overall story is good and the last act certainly pulls at the heartstrings which leaves you feeling a certain degree of satisfaction.

I wished the script had more wit and charm to pump some life into the characters. The movie is like an uninflected doll. If it had air pumped into it, it would have come fully to life!

The first two Paddington films were great fun and full of charm, alongside some superb cameos. This film never quite gets going and you wonder what happened to the scriptwriters. Generally the performances are a bit clunky or barely fleshed out, and there are precious few laughs.

A real shame as Paddington 2 in particular was a gem, mostly driven by Hugh Grant being superb but ably supported by the prison crew. Paddington 3 is very run of the mill by comparison... it needed a much better script, fleshed out characters and funnier action scenes. An hour after watching it, you will perhaps hardly remember it at all....

Paddington in Peru is comfortably the weakest of the trilogy with the absence of Paul King and Simon Farnaby definitely being felt but this is still a delightful third instalment that loses none of the heart and brings everything set up in the first act to a neat conclusion thanks to another satisfying third act. It's a consistently funny adventure which never forgets the immigrant story at the heart of this as Paddington struggles to balance his past and future.

Ben Whishaw remains endlessly precious with another pitch perfect vocal performance so Paddington continues to be a much needed cinematic balm. Hugh Bonneville is really funny as he tries to be more courageous and Emily Mortimer is a worthy replacement even if Sally Hawkins is missed. Antonio Banderas gets to do everything Dial of Destiny stopped him doing, having a ball whilst he does it and Olivia Colman as a suspicious singing nun is another big highlight.

Dougal Wilson's direction brings enough whimsy through carrying over ideas from the predecessors and some new inventive ones as well as a few well placed references to other films. There's a lot of slapstick here as usual and it always escalates in unexpected ways. The CGI is pushed like never before, making it all the more impressive that the effects that bring Paddington to life rarely falter despite the sheer amount of CG bears this time.