Film Brain joins the loveable London bear on a trip back home to Peru, but taking the bear out of the city has meant he's lost something in the journey...
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00:00Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, Paddington Bear returns to Peru in his latest adventure.
00:07PADDINGTON BEAR'S LATEST ADVENTURE
00:23In London, Paddington Bear, voiced by Ben Whishall, gets a letter from the home of retired bears
00:28overseen by Olivia Colman's Reverend Mother that his beloved Aunt Lucy, voiced by Imelda Staunton, has gone missing.
00:35So Paddington and the Brown family, Hugh Bonneville's Henry, Emily Mortimer's Mary, Madeline Harris's Judy,
00:41Samuel Joslyn's Jonathan and Julie Walter's Mrs Bird, fly to Peru to try and find her.
00:47They enlist the aid of Hunter Cabot and his daughter Gina, played by Antonio Banderas and Carla Tews respectively,
00:52to sail downriver, but Hunter believes that Paddington holds the key to finding El Dorado.
00:58This is the third film adapting Michael Bond's beloved children's book character to the screen.
01:02In fact, Bond has a very quick posthumous cameo early on in the film.
01:06He appears as a stamp on the top corner of an envelope of a letter, if you look closely.
01:11Sadly, Bond himself passed away in 2017, just a few months before the release of the second film.
01:17But under the direction of Paul King, the Paddington films have brought a huge resurgence to the character.
01:22King, in Horrible History's writer Simon Farnaby, kept very true to the spirit of Bond's writing,
01:28and the mix of quirky, very British humour and the wholesome, non-judgemental title character
01:34meant that they quickly overcame early cynicism about bringing Paddington to film.
01:39And yes, that included me at the time.
01:42I saw those early trailers that focused on the slapstick, and I thought it was going to be a disaster.
01:47And then I saw the movie, and I loved it.
01:51But really though, it was the second film that was the one that became just universally beloved.
01:56It was more confident, and even more charming,
01:59but it also had that hysterically dastardly villain role from Hugh Grant,
02:03revelling in getting to be a bad guy and sending himself up.
02:07And that supercharged his own career reinvention.
02:10But since then, Paddington has met Queen Elizabeth II,
02:13there's been a spin-off animated show, The Adventures of Paddington,
02:16which is pretty good from what I've seen,
02:18and Paddington 2 has been celebrated from the likes of Letterboxd
02:21to even getting a shout-out in the unbearable way of massive talent.
02:25The Paddington films are just lovely movies, made of positivity and joy,
02:29powered by the belief that, as the bear himself says,
02:32if we're kind and polite, the world will be right.
02:36But getting a third film off the ground has been harder than expected,
02:39and it's taken seven years to get there,
02:41with a whole host of speed bumps along the way.
02:44Paul King is no longer directing,
02:46having left to helm the similarly cheerful confection Wonka,
02:50and Harry Potter producer David Heyman left alongside him.
02:53In King's place is Dougal Wilson,
02:56a music video and commercial director who makes his film debut here.
03:00Simon Farnaby also left to write Wonka as well.
03:03Both he and King have story credits on Paddington and Peru,
03:06and Farnaby briefly reprises his role as Barry from the first two films,
03:10who's now a flight attendant, but it's only a very small cameo.
03:13But the most visible change in front of the camera
03:15is that Sally Hawkins was unable to reprise her role as Mrs. Brown,
03:19meaning that Emily Mortimer has had to replace her.
03:22But that's not to say that the people staying on for the third film
03:24aren't familiar with Paddington.
03:26James Lamont and John Foster, who developed the animated show
03:29and wrote the Queen sketch, also did the script here,
03:32along with Armand's semi-regular Mark Burton,
03:35who did add some additional material for Paddington 2.
03:38But the biggest question is,
03:40can Paddington and Peru live up to the massive expectations of Paddington 2?
03:44Well, few things can, to be honest.
03:46It can't improve on perfection.
03:48From the moment that Paddington and Peru begins,
03:50you can immediately feel that it's trying to recapture the spirit of Paddington 2.
03:54In the opening scenes, it brings back a number of recognisable faces,
03:57especially for British viewers as the Browns' neighbours,
04:01like Ben Miller, Jessica Haynes and Joel Fry,
04:04Also returning for one scene is Jim Broadbent,
04:07as the antiques dealer Samuel Gruber that Paddington has befriended.
04:11But noticeably absent is Peter Capaldi,
04:14as the Paddington-hating Mr. Curry,
04:17presumably because he would be a very tiny cameo at best
04:20in the limited amount of time that this film spends in London.
04:23But in that last statement, therein lies the problem here.
04:27You can take Paddington out of Peru,
04:29but it's very hard to take Paddington out of London.
04:32It's literally in his name, after all.
04:34And the city and its cultural identity are so intrinsic to the character
04:38that it inherently loses something by leaving it.
04:41A lot of what defines the Paddington films
04:44are the way it stylises London and the UK.
04:47As anyone who has ever visited London will tell you,
04:50it's definitely not an accurate depiction of the city or the country,
04:53but it is an idyllic one.
04:55It's like we'd like to imagine it to be and want it to be.
05:00The London of Paddington is colourful, eccentric and filled with adventure,
05:04and it's one that is not only gladly multicultural,
05:07but accepting, a vibrant melting pot of opportunity.
05:11To an extent, that is also true of the reality of London as well,
05:15but the way it's shown in the Paddington films is a wonderful fantasy
05:19that is as much the heart of these films as the bear himself is.
05:23Paddington and London define each other.
05:26But on the other hand, that the action moves to Peru
05:29offers new situations for Paddington to find himself in,
05:32but more importantly, allow him to reconnect with the world that he left behind.
05:37And the crux of Paddington's story is that of identity,
05:41and very much reinforces that this is an immigrant story,
05:45where his home, family and life are in London,
05:48but nevertheless, he still has that yearning,
05:51that connection to Peru nevertheless,
05:54that he finds himself drawn towards it.
05:57Paddington in this film has to decide where he feels he truly belongs.
06:01But because Paddington left Peru a very long time ago,
06:04he's almost as much out of his element, at least initially, as the Browns are.
06:09So the film is taking that fish-out-of-water comedy of a bear adapting to life in London,
06:14and making it so that pretty much everyone is a fish out of water.
06:17And that comedy is a big part of the appeal of the character.
06:21One of the things that the previous films did
06:24was making Paddington an embodiment of silent movie legends
06:27like Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton,
06:30constantly getting into accidents, but also charmingly lovable.
06:34And that's not to detract from the voice work of Ben Whishaw,
06:37which has exactly the right sense of gentleness and understated humour
06:40as he politely upholds his manners.
06:43Whishaw might have initially seemed like a bit of an odd pick for voicing the character,
06:47given that he's normally associated with adult dramas,
06:50especially Art House fare, but his voice has become synonymous with the role.
06:54And he even voiced Paddington in the animated show.
06:57It's pretty clear that Whishaw loves voicing Paddington.
07:01But the CG character and the animators behind him rely a lot on physical comedy.
07:06Paddington's slapstick clumsiness not only connects with kids
07:09who sometimes get into trouble as they learn to play in the adult world,
07:12but also internationally as well,
07:15which I think is very deliberate given the character.
07:18Visual comedy is a universal language that needs no translation,
07:22and as such Paddington is a proud British export in the tradition of Mr Bean.
07:26And that silent film connection continues in the third movie,
07:29where they even replicate the iconic Buster Keaton falling house shot.
07:33But now we've also got homages to classic adventure movies as well,
07:38from the likes of The African Queen, which, yeah, if I think about it,
07:41does make the film also a little bit reminiscent of that Jungle Cruise movie
07:45from a few years ago, but also another hero with an iconic hat, Indiana Jones.
07:51Does that mean that Paddington has to outrun a boulder? You bet it does.
07:55There are times where that slapstick feels a little bit strained,
07:58like the opening passport photo sequence.
08:01And sometimes Paddington can be a little bit too accident prone,
08:04or at least I felt that way in the writing.
08:06But there are other moments where it's pretty fun,
08:08like how through a convoluted series of circumstances,
08:11Paddington ends up in charge of a boat in rocky waters,
08:14although for me, personally, my favourite visual is national symbol Paddington
08:19riding Peru's national animal, a llama,
08:22which is bizarrely hilarious and delightful all at the same time.
08:27However, it's hard not to deny the feeling of sequelitis setting in somewhat,
08:31because a lot of the gags in Paddington in Peru are callbacks to ones in the earlier films,
08:36or just restaging them.
08:38But I think it's most obvious with The Brown Family,
08:41because there, you've got five major characters that you've got to give something to do,
08:46and that repetition is starting to get a little obvious.
08:49That's particularly the case with Hugh Bonneville's overly cautious insurance man, Henry,
08:54who for the third film in a row has to overcome his fears and insecurities,
08:58and embrace his wild and dangerous side,
09:01like having to face a very large, potentially deadly spider.
09:06But it just feels like he's repeating the same character arc over and over again with each passing sequel.
09:13Hayley Atwell also pops up in this subplot as Henry's new boss,
09:17and is squandered a pretty peripheral role.
09:20I don't know why they cast a named performer in what could have been played by pretty much anyone.
09:26You've also got the fact that Emily Mortimer has the slightly unenviable task
09:30of stepping into the shoes of Sally Hawkins,
09:32whose performance as Mrs. Brown added a real maternal warmth to the first two films.
09:37I think that Hawkins is actually one of the secret ingredients of the first two movies.
09:43Mortimer doesn't quite match Hawkins, but she's a decent enough replacement.
09:48But I think the script doesn't give the character that much to do this time out,
09:52other than having to deal with the looming empty nest of having older teenagers,
09:56and that Paddington may well stay in Peru.
09:59But speaking of the kids, Judy has continued to be a budding journalist
10:03and is about to head off to university,
10:05while Jonathan has entered his gamer era and is squandering his inventive abilities
10:10except to find ways to handily not leave his bedroom.
10:14I did think that the recasting slightly detracted from the emotional way of this subplot,
10:18especially when they go back to scenes from the original film in flashback,
10:22but they've had to re-edit them to remove Hawkins,
10:25so all of Mrs. Brown's lines are delivered off-camera by Mortimer,
10:30which I felt rather called attention to the change,
10:33but unfortunately they didn't really have much choice given the circumstances.
10:38Lastly, you've got Mrs. Bird, with Julie Walters reprising the role again,
10:42and from the way the role has been written, it becomes clear fairly early on
10:46that this is intended to be a farewell for Walters, as she's had health issues in recent years.
10:51It's a nice send-off for her that still gives Walters plenty to do
10:55and score a few laughs as the surprisingly tough housekeeper,
10:58but that is a lot of characters to keep on top of,
11:01and sometimes I think the movie struggles to juggle that,
11:05especially since I think that any future outings for Paddington
11:08are probably going to have major cast changes
11:11given they're either leaving or ageing out of their roles.
11:14And then we've got new characters like Olivia Colman,
11:17another crossover between Wonka and Paddington
11:20as the Reverend Mother for the Home of Retired Bears.
11:23She is absolutely hysterical in this movie.
11:27Colman plays the Reverend Mother like a demented version of Julie Andrews
11:32from The Sound of Music.
11:34There's even an early musical number where she sends out the legendary
11:37The Hills Are Alive sequence while playing a guitar.
11:40Colman just has this brilliant face for comedy
11:44and her bug-eyed, forced chirpiness just had me in absolute hysterics
11:49the whole way through.
11:51Honestly, she stole great chunks of this film for me
11:54and she delivered most of the film's biggest laughs.
11:57It's not a massive role in the movie,
12:00but certainly she made a huge impression.
12:04Filling in as the new antagonist is Antonio Banderas.
12:07Although his Hunter Cabot is less evil and more kind of greedy and mentally ill,
12:12he comes from a long lineage of ill-fated treasure seekers.
12:16Once he starts imagining all that gold at El Dorado,
12:20he starts having imaginary conversations with his ancestors
12:23who are all played by Banderas as he practically raids a costume shop
12:27and seems to be having a great time doing it.
12:30The problem is that it isn't as memorable or against type
12:33as Hugh Grant or Nicole Kidman before him,
12:36especially because Banderas has played a lot of similarly silly villains
12:39in things like the second SpongeBob movie.
12:42And also, the ancestors gag feels like it's very reminiscent, at least to me,
12:47of the fact that Hugh Grant's Phoenix Buchanan
12:49had imagined conversations with his previous characters and roles.
12:53So again, it feels like we're kind of rehashing something from Paddington 2.
12:58And that's not to say that Banderas is bad, because he isn't,
13:02it's just that it's not really as surprising to see him hamming it up in a kids' film.
13:07And that's sort of the thing with Paddington in Peru.
13:09It isn't that it's bad at all, it's a very likeable film in fact,
13:13but because that last one was so good,
13:15it's hard not to notice the drop in quality by comparison.
13:19Or to put it another way, it's trying so hard to be Paddington 2,
13:23it becomes obvious in the ways that it isn't.
13:26That isn't really down to Dougal Wilson's direction,
13:28I felt that he did an excellent job of keeping the feel and continuity
13:32that Paul King had established in his earlier films.
13:35And Paddington in Peru may well be the weakest entry in the series,
13:39but it is still an enjoyable one that has its moments.
13:43It's just maybe a little bit too reliant on its past glories.
13:47But even a weaker Paddington film is still a Paddington film,
13:51with all the values that that embodies.
13:53And in a world that has grown increasingly polarised and angry,
13:57sometimes it's just nice to spend two hours in a place that emphasises
14:00kindness, generosity and positivity as the virtues that they are,
14:05and where cynicism and bad behaviour can be countered by a good hard stare.
14:12But most importantly, somewhere where everyone has a place to call home,
14:16and to be happy and spread joy into the world.
14:20We don't live in Paddington's world,
14:23but that shouldn't stop us from imagining a better one that is.
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14:47Until next time, I'm Matthew Burke, fading out.