Paddington (voiced by Ben Whishaw) receives a letter from the Reverend Mother (Olivia Colman) at the home for retired bears in Peru where his Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton) lives. The letter suggests that Aunt Lucy deeply misses him and needs his company, so he sets off with the Brown family in tow to visit her.

In Peru the Browns will discover that Aunt Lucy has now gone missing. So they set off into the Amazon with the help of river boat captain Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas) to find her. Their adventure will take in rapids, spiders, the mysterious city of El Dorado… and of course marmalade.

Paddington In Peru has an awful lot to live up to. Paddington (2014) and its sequel Paddington 2 (2017) are absolute gems in the pantheon of all movies, not just family films. So it is with a heavy heart that I have to report Paddington In Peru is just simply fine, ok, passable, meh… as far as it goes. And it would seem that we have the wonderful Wonka to blame for that fact. Because the creative team of Paul King and Simon Farnaby responsible for creating the first two Paddington films stepped away from the franchise to make an entirely different British literary staple into a movie. Filling their shoes we have James Lamont, Jon Foster and Mark Burton on writing duties and experienced music video director and first time feature film maker Dougal Wilson on directing duties. The outcome is entirely functional and loses the charm and comedy of the original movies.

The plot sees Paddington get to grips with the fact that his heritage now intertwines two homes; Peru and England. Whilst the Brown family face into the fact that their family is growing up and spending more time apart as the children get ready to leave the nest. Newcomers Reverend Mother and Hunter Cabot are the antagonists of the film and unfortunately fail to live up to the roles that Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant fulfilled in the first two films.

As far as the cast is concerned Olivia Colman is typically fun as the Sound Of Music inspired nun, her song and dance number near the beginning being a rare bright spot in the film. Antonio Banderas is functional playing multiple roles of a family obsessed with gold. And it is worth calling out that Emily Mortimer does well stepping into the shoes of Sally Hawkins who decided to step away from the franchise as Mary Brown (Hawkins also appeared in the aforementioned Wonka along with Hugh Grant). Otherwise the returning cast just bumble along in a rather dull “adventure”.

I could try and argue that the film is fine and just struggles to live up to the heights of its predecessors. But ultimately it just feels completely uninspiring, fails to generate any laughs and certainly does not give the warm and fuzzy feeling of caring and loving the originals do.

Paddington In Peru is a huge disappointment then. But I suspect it will not be the last we see of him.