Paddington in Peru (2024)

I like Paddington; I've liked it ever since I got to see the first film. I got the entire book series for Christmas. Personally, out of the trilogy so far, my favourite would be Paddington 2, I felt that the original Paddington focused a bit much on introducing things, like Paddington Brown himself, which dragged it a little down. Without worrying about introducing the main characters, the sequel could explore them more.

This film was different; while not the best, it was still good. It did what a lot of meh action films do. I don't know quite how to describe it. I think my problem is that the plots are flat, meaning there is not much worth beyond light amounts of spectacle. Not to say that Paddington: Lost in Peru suffers from this, but it's a thing I've noticed.

In this film, Mr. Brown goes through a character arc of learning, as he puts it, that "Some risks are worth embracing, so far as that it is for the greater good, and the people you love." He then proceeded to jump out of a window for charity. Safely, I should add. This is a pretty good idea to take his character, though seeing that they are planning a 4th film, I can't help but realise that this sudden burst of clarity was rushed.

In this film, they use the mythical lost city of El Darado, the lost city of gold. I found it interesting how they did the twist, though I felt that it wasn't set up well. Though wasn't bad, it fit with the themes of greed being a bad thing, it's just unexpected. Many people suppose that for a twist has to be unexpected in order to work, that's what a twist is, it Twists the story in a new direction. However a twist has to feel natural dispite it's unexpected nature, you can have unexpected twists in early drafts as long as you plant hints early on in the next draft.

The audience has to go "What? Ohh!" instead of "Ohh, what?"

Now, it is a good idea, El Derado is fundementally nonsensical, and was crafted in the minds of greedy people looking to take over the land that they wanted to conquer. It essentially translates to The Gold or The Golden, so it is fun to poke fun at that fact. So in realising this, I could easily see how Paddintong: Lost in Peru could easily do a fable about the folly of greed. And not alot of stories are set in places in Peru, so that's a bonus