Mary Poppins Returns
Richard Auty

Review by Richard Auty

Mary Poppins Returns 2018

★★★½

Watched 09 Feb 2019

I firmly believe Mary Poppins is one of the greatest films ever made. Mary Poppins Returns is not.

I’m not saying Mary Poppins Returns is basically two hours of shamelessly aping the original film, but:

Mary Poppins
Visit to a relative played by a famous person with a room-related geographical problem. Do a song. (Ed Wynne, floating on the ceiling, I Love to Laugh)

Mary Poppins Returns
Visit to a relative played by a famous person with a room-related geographical problem. Do a song. (Meryl Streep, upside down room, Turning Turtle)

Mary Poppins
Salt-of-the-earth working class types do a spectacular song-and-dance routine towards the end led by a man with a terrible cockney accent (chimney sweeps, Dick Van Dyke, Step in Time)

Mary Poppins Returns
Salt-of-the-earth working class types do a spectacular song-and-dance routine towards the end led by a man with a terrible cockney accent (lamp lighters, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Trip a Little Light Fantastic)

Mary Poppins
Nanny, kids and male companion with terrible cockney accent disappear into a painted item and have an animation-enhanced adventure including a tongue-tying musical number and horses (street painting, Dick Van Dyke, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, carousel horse race)

Mary Poppins Returns
Nanny, kids and male companion with terrible cockney accent disappear into a painted item and have an animation-enhanced adventure including a tongue-tying musical number and horses (Royal Doulton bowl, Lin-Manuel Miranda, A Cover is not the Book, horseback chase)

Mary Poppins
Dick Van Dyke is a young man made up as an old man who owns a bank

Mary Poppins Returns
Dick Van Dyke is an old man made up as an old man who owns a bank

Mary Poppins
Mary sorts out a family in strife and then buggers off

Mary Poppins Returns
Mary sorts out a family in strife and then buggers off

I could go on, but you get the idea.

The songs are not as good, and every attempt to recreate the original just comes off as a pale imitation (except perhaps the Royal Doulton sequence which is actually pretty great and the best section of the film).

Yet despite these shortcomings, I couldn’t help but really enjoy Mary Poppins Returns. Emily Blunt's Mary Poppins is even more of a hard ass than Julie Andrews (and closer to the spirit of the original character, kinda like the Daniel Craig James Bond but with fewer guns and fights). The core cast, particularly Lin-Manuel Miranda, are all excellent, it certainly captures the look and feel of the original and while I left the cinema unable to sing much in the way of the numerous musical numbers, it did overall leave a very positive impression. If I could give it 3.75 stars I would.

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