We’re going on a bear hunt. After two fine London-based Paddington movies, this sweet but increasingly generic furry series has succumbed to the predictable allure of some exotic locale, and since we can’t get around it, we have to go through it. Paddington, now a proud holder of a blue British passport (Chalinesque photo booth chaos, the film’s only memorable joke), is summoned to Peru with the Browns to comfort his Aunt Lucy at the House of the Old Bears.

Their bear hunt, steeped in Peruvian stereotypes, begins when Olivia Colman’s grimly smiling High Priestess sends them into the Amazon; here Aunt Lucy got lost in a forest search. But what’s also overlooked abroad is the film series’ distinctive, very English-language take on what a migrant bear can teach the British. It feels less original to see the Browns as British fish emerging from (or in) water when submerged in the Amazon, or overcoming tarantula terror to land a plane. Incorporating riverboat captain Hunter Cabot (a playful Antonio Banderas) as an El Dorado prospector who secretly uses Paddington’s bear skills to find treasure brings the story to the well-worn Jungle Cruise (2021) and Dora and the Lost City of Gold (2019). It scrolls to ). ) area. There’s too much walking and not enough fun as Paddington inevitably loses the Browns on their bright, seemingly long march. CGI– candy forest.

Despite abandoning its unique selling point, Paddington in Peru blindly reproduces the look of its successful predecessors. First-time feature director Dougal Wilson (master of the heart-warming John Lewis Christmas adverts) sticks closely to King’s visual template. So the film retains its cute, slightly retro style, but the predictable Steamboat Bill Jr homage and Indiana Jones-style giant rock ball chase lack King’s visual acumen. Emily Mortimer, who almost imperceptibly replaces Sally Hawkins as the warm, family-obsessed Mary Brown, isn’t allowed any new tricks either.

What’s missing, tonally, is the surge of dread (psycho rivals, mortal danger) that gave previous Paddingtons an exciting jolt of danger that these long comedic chases and cute encounters lack. The two hilarious enemies operating here are more snickering-inducing than shivers-inducing. Reverend Mother has a bug-eyed, sly sincerity, while Cabot is torn between his hunger for gold and his desire to keep his promise to his neglected daughter, Gina. Bullied by his greedy ghostly Conquistador ancestor (played winkingly by Banderas), Cabot’s toxic family expectations form part of the ethics lesson that is as integral to Paddington films as Hard Stare.

Paddington’s own learning curve nods respectfully to the immigrant experience of reconciling two homelands, but it fails to give this third outing the emotional heft it needs to sit alongside its heart-warming ancestors.

► Paddington in Peru arrives England in cinemas November 8.