The first proper look at Paddington movie – Paddington in Peru – has landed and with it a reassuring glimpse of what to expect now that franchise creator Paul King has passed the marmalade-coated baton to a new filmmaker.
By the looks of things, the little bear is in safe hands with debut director Dougal Wilson behind the camera. There’s all the usual hijinks, this time involving pesky photobooths, and a new spirit of adventure as Paddington (voiced again by Ben Whishaw) heads back to his homeland of Darkest Peru in pursuit of his missing Aunt Lucy, with the whole Brown family along for the ride.
Will it be a Herzogian odyssey into the dark heart of the jungle, full of crazed ambition and despair? Or just another delightful caper to join Paddington and Paddington 2 in the pantheon of family movies? Here are some of the clues from that first trailer.
1. It’s Paddington’s Indiana Jones movie
The first Paddington was a migrant coming-of-age story. Paddington 2 gave us a pink-hued prison flick. Judging by the trailer, a big-scale affair full of jungle vistas, biplanes and crashing river rapids, Paddington In Peru will be a furrier-than-normal Indiana Jones adventure – only with marmalade sandwiches, floppy hats and hard stares replacing whips, fedoras and, well, hard stares. Since we left her in London at the end of Paddington 2, Aunt Lucy (voiced by Imelda Staunton) has disappeared into the Amazon.
2. There’s a new Mrs Brown in town
If Mary Brown is looking different, it’s not because her steady-eddy husband Mr Brown (Hugh Bonneville) has divorced and remarried since Paddington 2. The erstwhile Mrs Brown, Sally Hawkins, decided to step away from the role after the second movie. Instead Mary Poppins Returns’ Emily Mortimer is joining the family for the third film.
3. Antonio Banderas will steal the show
Put the charismatic Spanish star anywhere near water and the chances are he’ll be making a splash (see The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). The trailer introduces his Peruvian skipper, Hunter Cabot, a flamboyant river man who will be guiding Paddington and the Browns up the Amazon in search of Aunt Lucy, and from his larger-than-life entrance, this one will be no different. That gramophone and white attire is a powerful Klaus Kinski-in-Fitzcarraldo callback. Will he lose his mind and force Mr Brown to lug his boat over a hillside?
4. Expect more affectionate movie homages
Paul King has always likened Paddington to Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid and the warm-glow humanism of Frank Capra, and the first two Paddington movies have had plenty of movie references baked in. Paddington 3 looks to be wearing its influences on its sleeve too, with plenty of Indiana Jones/Fitzcarraldo spirit coursing through the trailer, and an entertaining The Sound of Music riff with Olivia Colman’s nun going full Maria von Trapp on a mountainside.
5. Aunt Lucy isn’t the only missing character
Simon Farnaby’s Barry the Security Guard became a cult hero in the first two movies, but there’s no sign of the clueless custodian here. Farnaby, of course, co-wrote Paddington 2 with his old The Mighty Boosh mucker King, and he gets a story by’ credit on this one too. Is it too much to hope that he found a small but pivotal role for Barry?
Paddington in Peru is in UK and Irish cinemas Nov 8, and Jan 17, 2025, in US theaters.