Mary Poppins Returns

It was with some trepidation that my good lady and I ventured to the local cinema recently to watch Mary Poppins Returns. At the risk of sounding all soppy, the original is still one of the best movies of my childhood and has pretty much stood the test of time, ignoring the seemingly ever present need for some people to find offence in everything. Nope, taken as what it should be, the original Mary Poppins is a classic and the belated sequel was something we both wanted to see. As it turned out, we had nothing to worry about.

Set many years after the original, MPR sees the Banks children all grown up, with Michael recently widowed with three children of his own. A short preamble to set up the conflict of the story (they will lose their house, 17 Cherry Tree Lane, in a few days due to a failure to keep up loan repayments), we’re quickly into the film proper.

MPR is reverent almost to a fault towards the original and matches it beat for beat. The situation may be different, but each event in MPR mirrors MP. This is no bad thing as it helps reinforce the theme that people repeat the same mistakes, just as Michael Banks has effectively turned into his father.

The animated sequence in the first half of the film is an equal to the country stroll and fair ground of MP, and it’s very pleasing that Disney kept the original animation style with nary a CGI creation in sight. The visit to Mary’s cousin, a hilariously over the top Meryl Streep, is as good, if not funnier than the visit to Uncle Albert and it’s only the lamp-lighter bike sequence at the two thirds mark that doesn’t measure up to the originals firework dodging chimney sweeps.

The music takes many cues from Mary Poppins and whilst there are new original songs, they don’t (yet) feel as if they match the classics such as A Spoonful of Suger and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. However, the Big Ben section at the end of the film is something new and adds greatly to the finale.

Acting wise, Emily Blunt is very good as the new and improved Mary Poppins, with the right level of strictness and control to match the knowing glances to her reflection and her uber-controlled manner. If I have one complaint here, it’s maybe that her accent is just a little too plummy, but that’s quickly overlooked. Lin-Manuel Miranda is good as Jack, the lamplighter and Dick Van Dyke replacement. True, his accent does slip a little and it does feel that he’s trying a bit too hard but he’s nowhere near as bad a Dyke famously was. Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer play the older Banks siblings with warmth and familiarity (and boy, can Whishaw sing), and the three child actors playing the younger Banks are very well cast and avoid the stereotypical annoying child syndrome. Colin Firth is scenery chewingly evil and Julie Walters adds a touch of humour as Ellen the Cook. The cameos extend from the aforementioned Streep to David Warner as Admiral Boom and Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady – it’s balloon flying at the end of this film, not kites, though the kite from MP does play a pivotal part in the story. Comment must be made about Dick Van Dyke, who nearly steals the film as Mr Dawes Junior (he played Mr Dawes Senior in MP). Sprightly and energetic, the few short minutes he’s on-screen are near perfect.

If it sounds like I am waxing lyrically about this film, then yes, I am. At a smidge over two hours, it certainly doesn’t feel like it’s that long and I spent most of the film with a smile on my face, the end result combining something new with a lovely call back to nostalgia. Whereas the original could be called a little twee in places, MPR avoids that saccharine overload and is tonally note perfect. This is a bright and breezy family film, devoid of bloat and fluff and neatly captures what made the first film so good. It is also devoid on any cynicism, something that most family films seem to have in buckets these days. Heartfelt and uplifting, MPR is Disney at its best, and I can see this film joining the ranks of classics in future years. And no, this is not me going soft in my old age, just enjoying entertainment as it was meant to be – entertaining.