All the screenshots in this post were taken directly from the movie by me.
Under the direction of Paul King, Paddington and its sequel are two of my all-time favorite movies, stories that, inspired by the British literary character of the same name created by Michael Bond, are a perfect example of comfort cinema, without giving up artistic quality and several excellent performances by actors of the caliber of Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant and Sally Hawkins, to name a few examples.
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And, while we must recognize that Paddington In Peru does not reach the same level of excellence, several of its characteristic elements remain, and it is always nice to revisit the charismatic bear with an English accent and a questionable addiction to orange marmalade.
If Paddington 1 and 2 were built as intimate comedies supported by British humor as well as a couple of slapstick moments, Paddington In Peru raises things to another level, taking us to the Peruvian jungle on an adventure where the Brown family must do everything possible to rescue Paddington's aunt, Lucy.
As you might expect, this will mean that we meet a couple of new characters, played this time by Olivia Coman and Antonio Banderas, organic additions to the Paddington universe that don't clash with the supporting (and antagonistic) characters from the previous films.
Unfortunately, although the writing remains equally decent, there are a couple of weak points that end up overshadowing the overall experience a bit, especially because its premise ends up following a predictable course and on several occasions we spend more time than necessary with characters that perhaps we don't care about that much.
And, while this is still a franchise with a primarily child-focused approach, and there are moments where the special effects are simply beautiful (especially at the beginning and end of the film), I miss the artistic vision that King brought to each scene, with a style very reminiscent of something we could see in a Wes Anderson film.
Paddington In Peru remains a funny and touching film, and in terms of pure quality it remains head and shoulders above any other children's film, it's just that we have to acknowledge (with a bit of bitterness) that the level of its predecessors was not reached.
Score taken from my Letterboxd account.
Twitter/Instagram/Letterbox: Alxxssss
I've never seen a Paddington movie so far but I only really heard good things about them.