PADDINGTON IN PERU
A joyful jungle adventure that proves family beats gold every time.
Should You Watch It?
Take the family. This is Paddington at his best — funny, tender, and unapologetically good-hearted. The Browns' love for a small bear who isn't theirs by blood is exactly the kind of family Scripture asks us to be, and the film says so plainly: family, not gold, is the real treasure.
It also does something rare for a studio adventure — it treats faith seriously. Nuns pray, praise the Lord, and hand out St. Christopher medals without a hint of mockery. A mother prays for a miracle, and gets one.
The cost is mild but real. There's a lot of peril in this jungle — falls, chases, a capsizing boat — and a villain haunted by the ghosts of greedy ancestors urging him toward violence. None of it is graphic, but it may rattle the littlest viewers.
For nearly every family, this is an easy yes.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESWhen Paddington learns his beloved Aunt Lucy has gone missing from her Home for Retired Bears in Peru, the whole Brown family sets off to find her. A map leads them into the Amazon and into the hands of riverboat Captain Cabot, who's really steering them toward the legendary lost gold of El Dorado — and hiding a family curse of his own.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this one delivers, start to finish. The film is engaging and beautifully shot, with real cinematography chops in its Amazon rainforest sequences, and it's cast with strong character actors who clearly enjoy the material. It balances laugh-out-loud comedy with a few genuinely moving moments, never tipping too far in either direction.
There's little to fault here on craft: the pacing keeps a family adventure moving without losing its emotional center, and the humor lands for kids and parents alike. This is a sequel that earns its place alongside the earlier films rather than coasting on the character's charm.
The Worldview
This film exalts exactly what a Christian family would hope it would: sacrificial love, honesty, good manners, and the conviction that people matter more than treasure. Paddington's courage flows straight from love for his family, and the movie is unembarrassed about saying so out loud.
More striking is how comfortably it wears its Christian content. Nuns bless themselves in the name of the Trinity, praise God, and encourage lighting "one candle of faith in the darkness." A mother's prayer for a miracle is answered onscreen. This isn't background scenery — it's a film willing to say faith works.
The shadow side belongs to the villain: a man haunted by the ghosts of ancestors who died chasing the same gold, and a flashback in which a greedy priest leads other clergy to their deaths in quicksand. These aren't celebrated — the greedy are rebuked, the liars exposed — but they're vivid enough that younger children may need a conversation afterward.
At its heart, this is a film about a lost creature finding his way home to the people who love him — and discovering that the treasure was the belonging all along. Scripture names that same ache: "But seek first the kingdom of God... and where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matthew 6:33, 21).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">(BBB, CCC, Ab, O, L, V, A, M):<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Very strong moral worldview, about a bear searching for his missing aunt and getting mixed up with a greedy villain searching for gold, reveals that family is the real treasure, more precious than gold, and promotes family, discovering one’s roots, kindness, compassion, love, bravery, and good manners, supported by very strong overt Christian content and values, which include nuns run a home for retried bears and another home for retired polar bears, nuns wear crucifixes and bless themselves in the name of the Holy Trinity, a nun says alleluia several times and “Lord be praised,” a character tells title character to “light one candle of faith in the darkness,” woman prays for a miracle, and a miracle occurs, and nun gives woman a St. Christopher medal to protect her on a journey, but there’s a flashback to a priest who gets greedy for the hidden gold and leads other clergy to their death in quicksand, and one nun has a secret, plus greedy villain sees the ghosts of his ancestors who died searching for the legendary gold of El Dorado and they urge him to do bad things; <b>
Foul Language
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No obscenities but there are two light profanities such as “What in God’s name?” and one is rebuked, plus some insults such as stupid, failure and “mangy fur bags”; <b>
Violence
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Many moments of peril throughout, main characters are chased, greedy ancestral ghosts tell man to do bad things such as “kill the bear,” a flashback shows how ghosts died but mostly non-graphic, some hitting, young bear falls off a tree and plummets into a river, young bear plummets down a small waterfall but is saved from plummeting off a larger waterfall, a giant spider lands on man’s face in a comical scene, boat capsizes throwing passengers over, a character is tied up, characters run from a rolling boulder, a musket is drawn, a machete is drawn, man is hit in lower belly with a book, bear sits on a spiky plant, bear falls off another cliff but his trusty London umbrella opens and becomes like a parachute, people do scary stunts to stop a plane from totally crashing, and a plane crash lands, but no one is hurt; <b>
Sex
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No sex scenes, but an anteater licks a man’s face to get ants crawling on him, and he thinks it’s his wife kissing him, and he says, “Not with the kids around”; <b>
Nudity
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No nudity; <b>
Alcohol Use
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A liquor cart tips over and sprays, a character gives a brief comment about a “drunken night,” and a woman proposes a toast; <b>
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>No smoking or drugs; <b>
Miscellaneous Immorality
</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Greedy characters but they are eventually rebuked, a villain pretends to be someone else but is eventually exposed, another villain lies to a family, but his lies are exposed, and duplicitous greedy father lies to daughter and kicks her off a boat to get treasure but says he’ll be back for her later after he gets the gold.</span></p>
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Paddington's love for his family gives him courage to face real danger. How does love push out fear in your own life?
1 John 4:18The movie says family is treasure more valuable than gold. How does that compare to what Jesus says about treasure and the heart?
Matthew 6:19–21A nun tells Paddington to "light one candle of faith in the darkness." What does that look like practically when your family is going through a hard season?
Matthew 5:14–16 · Psalm 119:105Ancestral ghosts and a greedy priest are both consumed by the hunt for gold. What does Scripture warn happens when love of money takes over a heart?
1 Timothy 6:9–10The Final Word
This is a Paddington film worth every minute — funny, warm, and quietly bold about faith in a way few studio films dare to be. It asks a little patience from parents of very young children during its scarier stretches, but the payoff is a story that gets family right. Worth the trip.
