Paddington in Peru

Synopsis: A bear living in London travels back to his home country, Peru. His aunt is missing. His human family comes along on the search & rescue adventure.

The hero of Paddington in Peru is a spectacled bear. There are fewer than 18,000 spectacled bears living in Andean countries, with the largest population in Peru. Paddington Bear lives in London with his human family the Browns. Spectacled bears are omnivores, but most of their diet consists of plants, including fruits and bromeliads. Paddington is crazy about marmalade sandwiches, which do sound like they’d be good served in chilly London with hot tea.

Michael Bond’s 1958 book,” A Bear Called Paddington” introduced children to the little bear who was taken in by the Brown family after being found alone at a London train station with a tag ’round his neck reading “Please look after this bear.” When you are little with a round wooly face and big brown eyes, you’re pretty cute already, but add a shopworn hat and oversized coat and you are irresistible.

Paddington made his live action debut in Paddington (2014). The film was full of his cute antics as he learned to live among humans. Nicole Kidman tried to kill him! Or her character did, I mean. Paddington 2 found the bear framed for a crime and sent to prison! 

Paddington in Peru will take us to guess where? Right you are, Peru. Paddington is happily settled in a posh London neighborhood with Mary Brown (Emily Mortimer), Henry Brown (Hugh Bonneville) and their high school-aged kids, Judy (Madeleine Harris) and Jonathan (Samuel Joslin). The teen actors would have a hard time screwing up these roles, as they have little to do. Judy is preparing for uni and Jonathan holes up at home making inventions that make it ever easier to hole up at home. Hugh B is fine as a family man who’s slightly uptight–I mean, he’s English, after all. Mary Brown is sweet as ever, but she does look different. Sally Hawkins had the role in the first two Paddingtons, but the new mummy is Emily Mortimer. The whole family, including Paddington, seem fine with this.

With London escapades having run their course in the other two Paddington films, it’s time for something more exciting. How about a trip abroad? With their imperial past and lousy weather, Brits are more than happy to set sail.

We’re off to Peru, Paddington’s home country. I’m intrigued by southern hemisphere countries, as I’ve never been, so I was pleased with the destination. Unfortunately, many of the location scenes were in Colombia, which offers filming incentives that Peru did not. I guess I shouldn’t be too much of a stickler on verisimilitude, since the star of the movie is an animated bear with his voice acted by Ben Whishaw. Ben W conveys Paddington’s bright and curious nature.

Paddington & his human family set off to Peru after the bear receives a letter from the nun who runs the Home for Retired Bears where his aunt Lucy lives. She writes that Aunt Lucy is missing Paddington. Said nun is played by none other than award-winning actor Olivia Colman. She’s lots of fun here as a dotty reverend mother.

Paddington arrives in Peru with British passport in hand, so we don’t have to be concerned about our ursine friend being forcibly repatriated to a Peruvian cloud forest. Where would he get his marmalade there?

Arriving at the Home for Retired Bears –a very nice place by the way– the nun tells the family that Aunt Lucy has disappeared. For reasons that I won’t go into, Paddington believes that his aunt has set off to a place in the wilderness, Rumi Rock. They set out to hire a boat to make the river trip that leads there.

Get ready for a movie star–It would’ve been nice to see a South American star. Unfortunately, native English speakers don’t know any South American actors. So, we get a Spainard: Antonio Banderas. I guess it was going to be him or Javier Bardem.

El capitan, Hunter Cabot aka Señor Caboto, is mysterious and louche. He acts as though he is struggling to contain some addictive behavior. His daughter Gina (Carla Tous) is first mate and tsks tsks at her dad when he slips away into a reverie. Yeah, it’s probably best to steer the boat instead of listening to your ancestors’ voices inside your head. Fun for us, though, is we get to see Antonio’s voices pictured as a conquistador, a woman pilot–all portrayed by Antonio.

Proceeding along the river, it looks like there are literally and figuratively rapids ahead. While the Browns demonstrate their complete ineptitude at wilderness survival, Paddington ups his chances of survival by always having a marmalade sandwich cached away in his hat. Granny (Julie Walters) has wisely stayed back at the Retirement Home for Bears- but manages to get into her own hot water.

Thankfully, there is no way that a movie about Paddington, whether it’s this one or Paddington 10, is going to kill off any of the kindly characters. This gives Paddington in Peru solid “cross generational appeal’ standing. Which got me thinking…

Who is this movie made for? Paddington kept its focus on little ones’ curiosity about Paddington in a fish-out-of-water story. Or bear-cub-out-of-Peru story. (Too bad there is not a censored version omitting the lady trying to kill him a la One Hundred and One Dalmatians.) Paddington 2 managed to pull off sly humor while having Paddington leading an entourage of baddies and softies.

But Paddington in Peru leaves behind little kids, who won’t be able to intuit that some of the characters are deceitful. And there aren’t enough bear mischief scenes. Little ones have too few delightful scenes like one in which Paddington tries to settle into a hammock for the night. Older kids –those immersed in puberty– will probably think they are too cool for this kids’ movie that’s short on the semi-sophisticated humor that floated Paddington 2.

Alas, I don’t want to sour you on Paddington, this sweetest of bears. (Or would that be that Winnie the Pooh?) And you do want to be there for the discovery of Aunt Lucy. Sometimes a narrative doesn’t have to be compelling if the star is a cute animated bear.

P.S. Maybe Paddington in Peru will get some kids interested in real Peruvian/Spectacled Bears which have white rings around their eyes and top out at about 200 pounds. They spend their days foraging and climbing trees where they can fashion platforms for sleeping or storing food. No hat-wearing bears have been reported.

 Paddington must be careful of traffic in London, but real bears are endangered by habitat loss, poaching and being shot to keep them away from cattle. Although proof of loss from spectacled bear predation hasn’t been sufficiently documented. Like Paddington, they are mostly docile and just want to snack.

For more info on Spectacled Bears click here.

Movie Loon Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  B-

Cut to the Chase:  Paddington is very sweet and makes the film worth watching if you are craving cute.

Humor Highlight:  When Olivia Cole, as a nun, sings and strums a guitar as she parades in the mountains like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.