Peru in Paddington: a colonial backdrop for a British adventure

At the end of Michael Bond’s Paddington Marches On (1964), Paddington is preparing for a trip to Peru to visit Aunt Lucy. By the start of the next book, Paddington at Work (1966), he’s already en route back to England. Although Bond’s series hints at Paddington’s Peruvian origins, readers are never actually taken there.

So, it was a major departure when the writers of the recent Paddington films decided to take the bear there in the latest instalment. The recent recipient of a (shiny, blue) British passport, Paddington embarks upon a search for his Aunt Lucy, who appears to have disappeared into the Peruvian jungle.

Long before Paddington’s adopted British family, the Browns, have set foot in Peru, the audience has already seen many images of the country of Paddington’s birth. The film opens with a prologue set in Peru’s vast, misty rainforests, where we see Paddington as a cub being swept along a river.

Later, the Browns’ conversations reinforce stereotypes, painting Peru as a wild and dangerous place. Mr Brown says it’s a “land of altitude sickness and uncharted jungles” with scary animals, while Mrs Bird, the Browns’ live-in housekeeper and distant relative, describes it as home to three of the most dangerous roads in the world.

This perception continues when the Browns arrive in the country, with a Peruvian driver smiling as he says “nice view, uh?” – as they look down nervously at narrow mountain roads.

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The Peruvian setting and characters in Paddington in Peru often feel like background decor. Scenes feature busy towns, daily routines and children in bright, traditional clothing posing with Paddington. Yet, only a few local characters (including the taxi driver) have speaking parts.

Among those with lines are Hunter Cabot (Antonio Banderas), his daughter Gina (Carla Tous), and Mother Superior (Olivia Colman). Although early scenes show Peru’s towns and cities, only these characters have substantial roles, and none are portrayed by Peruvian actors.

Both Banderas and Tous are Spanish, while Colman is British. Aunt Lucy’s retirement home, previously located in Lima, is now in a jungle, isolating her from any modern, urban representation of Peru. This differs from Paddington’s London, where his interactions with locals shape his journey. In Peru, these interactions feel minimised.

The film is structured as a “quest narrative”. Paddington is ostensibly searching for Aunt Lucy, yet soon discovers clues leading him and the Browns toward the mythical city of gold, El Dorado, hinting at a colonial-era fascination with the “exotic” and “unknown”.

This premise aligns with 19th- and early 20th-century European adventure tales, where the protagonist confronts wild, unfamiliar landscapes that serve as obstacles to overcome. As children’s literature professor Evelyn Arizpe notes, in these narratives, the land often functions as a backdrop for European characters to prove themselves, rather than a place with its own agency.

Similarly, in Paddington in Peru, the country becomes a tool for the Browns’ self-growth, helping resolve family issues and personal doubts without conveying whether Peru itself benefits. It’s significant that Paddington and Aunt Lucy, the two Peruvian figures with whom audiences are familiar, lack agency or enthusiasm for the quest to find El Dorado. Instead, they’re drawn in by European explorers’ ambitions.

Nicholas Daly, a professor of English and American literature, has argued that treasure maps in such narratives perpetuate European fantasies of mastery, presenting exotic spaces as mysterious-yet-conquerable puzzles. And this sense of control is reinforced by the visual metaphors employed by the three Paddington films.

While London is depicted in 3D pop-up books and dollhouses in the first two films, Peru appears only as flat aerial maps or an endless jungle canopy, rendering it an undifferentiated wilderness. The quipu, a record of information, is presented as a mystical form of communication, and Incan ruins are shown without any modern cultural continuity, leaving the impression that ancient Peruvian history is detached from the present.

While the film acknowledges colonial violence through the Cabot family, their “curse” of seeking El Dorado only minimally addresses colonial impacts. Hunter Cabot is depicted as the descendant of European colonists including a conquistador, prospector and priest, demonstrating an understanding of the range of methods by which imperial power over South America was exerted.

It is perhaps significant these colonisers are coded as Spanish rather than British. While this does reflect the real colonial history of the continent, it also partially absolves the Browns and the British audience of any connection with these historical crimes.

Hunter’s pursuit of treasure is portrayed as madness, contrasting with the Browns’ supposedly innocent curiosity – though their search for El Dorado follows the same problematic template. The film doesn’t ask if viewers are complicit in such a colonial gaze, hinting instead that only the Cabots’ overt greed is wrong.

As we explore in our forthcoming book about the Paddington series, his roots in “Darkest Peru” are, in any case, a colonial accident. Bond had originally envisioned Paddington coming from Africa, but changed it to Peru after his agent, Harvey Unna, pointed out “there are no bears in Africa, darkest or otherwise”. This shift didn’t erase colonialist connotations, and the “darkest” label retains colonial-era stereotypes.

Peru, in fact, has never mattered much to the series beyond being a vague “elsewhere” in the tradition of exotic and racially coded origins. In this sense, Paddington in Peru isn’t a departure from Bond’s original setup so much as a continuation of it. Peru exists as a backdrop for a British adventure, rather than as a place in its own right.

What can Paddington Bear’s citizenship journey teach our leaders? Join The Conversation UK and migration experts in London on November 16 for a screening of Paddington in Peru and a discussion on migration, citizenship and belonging. Click here for more information and tickets.

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.