Film: Mary Poppins Returns

GENRE: Family

RATING: PG for mild thematic elements
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 10 minutes

STARRING: Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place, The Devil Wears Prada)

Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton), Ben Whishaw (Skyfall, Paddington)

DIRECTOR: Rob Marshall (Chicago, Into the Woods)

WRITER: David Magee (Finding Neverland, Life of Pi)

PLOT: Mary Poppins returns to help a now grown-up Michael Banks with his children during a difficult time.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Found the original Mary Poppins enchanting.

STORY STUFF: I greatly enjoyed the story. I thought the financial situation and the loss of a mother/wife was a fitting reason to bring Mary Poppins back. The flow of the story and songs are obvious counterparts to the original but it didn’t bother me in the slightest. Being a film aimed at kids and family, I found nothing wrong with the predictability of it all. It was nostalgic and fresh at the same time. I was also a bit moved by the family dynamic but then seeing as it came from the same writer as Finding Neverland, I’m not too surprised.

ACTING STUFF: Blunt is practically perfect in every way as she almost effortlessly fills the enormous shoes of Julie Andrews. Her tone and whimsy matches nicely to the original. Lin-Manuel Miranda has a jolly old time being the Dick Van Dyke-ish compatriot to Poppins. He also has a love story that I wish they had spent a bit more time on. I enjoyed the personalities of the children and found Georgie to be a fun embodiment of the original Michael Banks. Colin Firth and Meryl Street turn in some fun performances but when Dick Van Dyke entered the room, I had a gigantic smile on my face.

ARTISTIC STUFF: The art direction, animation and special effects are top notch. When it comes to the song and dance of the musical, I wished for more. Don’t get me wrong, there are some real winners, the half-animated ‘Cover is Not the Book’, the big dance number ‘Trip a Little Light Fantastic’ and the ‘Fly a Kite’-inspired ‘Nowhere to Go But Up’ to name a few. But there are a number of songs that I didn’t find that memorable. At first, I thought that the original Mary Poppins only seems better because I have heard the songs many times before. But if I think of something like The Greatest Showman, I found that the majority of songs were memorable right from the start. Maybe I’m being too picky.

VERDICT: Four stars out of five

SEE IT IF: You’ve seen Mary Poppins and want to feel nostalgic.

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