Walt Disney Pictures
It is a dodgy proposition to produce a sequel to a film that have become a beloved classic, especially after 54 years. Not to mention after producing a ‘biopic’ of the trials and tribulations that went into the making of said classic which the author abhorred and swore said studio would never make another film based on the author’s popular book series.
But here we are with Walt Disney Pictures launching what one would assume is a sequel that will spawn more adventures featuring everyone’s favorite magical nanny. It’s a miracle that Disney was able to finally iron out its differences with the estate of author P.L. Travers, but they did and now we have Mary Poppins Returns bursting onto movie screens around the world. Was the long wait worth it?
Mary Poppins Returns takes place a few decades after the original film with the Banks children, Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane (Emily Mortimer), now grown but dealing with life in London during ‘The Great Slump’ (Great Britain’s version of the Great Depression that occurred between 1929 and 1932). Jane is an activist, following in her grandmother’s footsteps, trying to bring the plight of London’s laborers into the public eye. Michael is struggling to get by, still living in the family home with his three children who have had to help him pick up the pieces after the death of their mother a year earlier. Michael took out a loan on the house and he’s now three months behind and the bank for which he works — the same that his father worked for — is about to foreclose. And with the same impeccable timing that she’s always had, Mary Poppins arrives in the nick of time to take care of the Banks children … and the children of Michael Banks as well. The key to the story is a document proving Mr. Banks left his children shares in the bank which would cover the loan and save their home, but the new head of the bank, Mr. Wilkins (Colin Firth), is a wolf in sheep’s clothing who wants nothing more than to seize every home in foreclosure despite appearances to the contrary. Of course, the children know better (thanks to a little assistance from Mary) but it’s convincing their father that will take some doing.
As soon as the movie started, I was just enveloped with a lovely sense of nostalgia as the look of the movie retains all the charm of the original. A lot of modern technology went into the production of the movie, but it still feels as if it is part of the original, from the Banks’ neighborhood to the hand-drawn animation. The movie truly is a technical marvel, particularly with the melding of the live action with the animated portions, notably when Mary (Emily Blunt), Jack the lamplighter (Lin-Manuel Miranda) and the children leap into a porcelain bowl, or when Mary and the kids have a very special bath time that takes them under the sea. The section in the porcelain bowl was particularly eye-popping as the costumes look like paintings rather than material. Disney poured a lot of crafting into this movie.
It’s nearly impossible to replace Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke as Mary and Burt the chimneysweep (Burt is said to be traveling the world now), but Blunt and Miranda do a pretty decent job of carrying on the tradition. Blunt has all of Andrews’ characterization of the character down pat, especially as she skillfully deflects any questions about the magic she’s worked on the children to help move them forward towards helping their father, just as she did when Michael and Jane were children. And she has a lovely voice that matches Andrews’ as well. Just a lovely performance all around.
It was wise not to make Miranda’s character the same as Dick Van Dyke’s. But, Jack is basically Burt, just with a new vocation of lighting the gas lamps around London in the evening and then turning them off in the morning. Jack was a chimneysweep when he was younger, so he knows who Mary Poppins is when she returns and is ready to help her out at a moment’s notice. At one point Jack even rallies all of the lamplighters in London for a big musical number similar to the one the chimneysweeps gave in the original. At times the movie does follow many of the same beats as the original which verges on making it a carbon copy but it still stands on its own.
As for the rest of the cast, Whishaw is outstanding and who knew he could sing? He has one of the movies most heartfelt songs as Michael laments about his wife, but then his voice is filled with such joy in the movie’s big final number that goes one step beyond the original’s ‘Let’s Go Fly a Kite’ finale. Mortimer is also fine as Jane but she really doesn’t get to sing until the finale. It’s fun watching her develop a relationship with Jack. Colin Firth also does a nice job as the two-faced Mr. Wilkins, also voicing the wolf character in the porcelain world (and the youngest Banks child puts two-and-two together when he encounters Wilkins in person). And of course the film’s worst kept secret is the cameo by Dick Van Dyke, reprising his role as former bank president Mr. Dawes Jr. who returns to give Wilkins a what for … and also does a short song and dance — on a desk! — to boot. Seeing Van Dyke had me smiling from ear to ear and crying at the same time. It was also nice to see David Warner as the Banks’ neighbor Admiral Boom, and Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady in the film’s finale (a part I believe was meant for Julie Andrews, who turned down the offer). And if you look real closely, you’ll even spot original Jane, Karen Dotrice, as a woman asking the Banks’ about an address on their street.
Probably one of the biggest concerns of any Mary Poppins fan is, aside from the cast, the music. It’s probably going to be nearly impossible to come close to conjuring up anything as catchy as what the Sherman Brothers produced for the original, those songs that have become such unforgettable classics, and that is the case. Disney has an ace up their sleeve with Marc Shaiman, who knows his way around a Disney musical, and his songs are perfectly fine and help move the story along. The orchestrations are lovely and have the feel of the original tunes, but I can’t say I came out humming anything but the finale song (Miranda even gets a song called ‘The Cover is Not the Book’ that gives him a chance to throw down some Hamilton-esque phrasing). Yes, the music is absolutely lovely and toe-tapping as it plays out, but it’s hard to imagine any of the songs becoming standards like ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’, ‘Chim Chim Cheree’, ‘Feed the Birds’ or ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidotious’.
My only other ‘complaint’ about the movie is that it feels just a tad too long. I really could have done without the scene with Meryl Streep who plays Mary’s cousin Topsy. She gets a silly song about the world ‘turning turtle’ (which means upside-down) that is a technical marvel, but just serves to bring the story to a bit of a halt. Topsy is needed to repair the porcelain bowl the children chipped but, come on, I’m sure Mary could have fixed it with the wave of a hand.
Nonetheless, Mary Poppins Returns filled me with joy and it can stand proudly alongside the original. It’s not absolutely perfect, but it is ‘practically perfect in every way.’
Mary Poppins Returns has a run time of 2 hours 10 minutes and is rated PG for some mild thematic elements and brief action.
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