Mary Poppins Returns is the sequel to the beloved 1964 classic Mary Poppins. It’s set more than two decades after the
events of the first film, with the Banks siblings now adults. Michael (Ben Wishaw) is working as a teller
in the same bank his father worked for, while his older sister Jane (Emily
Mortimer) is a labour organizer. Financial
difficulties force Michael to take a loan, and this eventually leads to the
family home being put under the threat of getting repossessed by the bank. As the Banks family faces this crisis, Mary
Poppins (Emily Blunt), Jane and Michael’s former nanny, returns and offers to
ease the household hassle by becoming the nanny to Michael’s children (Pixie
Davis, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson), who just lost their mother a year
earlier. With the lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel
Miranda) often in tow, Mary Poppins take the new generation of Banks children
into a series of magical adventures.
The first and most important
thing that needs to be addressed is how Emily Blunt fared as Julie Andrews’
successor. It’s no exaggeration to state
that the quality of the film is largely hinged on this particular aspect. Fortunately, Emily Blunt knocks it out of the
park. Now, Julie Andrews will forever be
Mary Poppins in our hearts, but there’s no denying that Emily Blunt also did a
splendid job herself in portraying the character. From the very beginning, her assumption of
the role was smooth, and it was rather obvious from that point that she was
going to be the best part of the movie (she is).
Just like with the original, the intrinsic
whimsy and humor are adequate to keep the audience smiling continually. However, the sequel in general is not quite
as delightful. Moreover, it doesn’t
really offer something thoroughly new.
Rather, it plays things safe by keeping itself close to the original
film’s formula. This is noticeable. Anybody who saw the original will detect that
its narrative is similarly structured.
There are clear parallels between the two movies with regards to story beats,
scenes, and characters. However, to its
credit, it avoids mimicking to the point of coming off as derivative. On top of that, the execution is quite even
and charming. Thus, any apparent familiarity
only produces a sense of snugness, never staleness.
As for the songs, they’re
fine. But none manage to equal the
effortless memorability of the original’s songs. None got stuck in my head; I can’t really recall
and hum even a single bar.
Lastly, it’s nice that Dick Van
Dyke – Bert in the original film – is still around to do a cameo. Going into this movie, I was aware that he
was going to have a cameo, but not exactly who he would specifically play. Nevertheless, I had my guess, and it turned
out exactly being that. Meanwhile, I also
read that Julie Andrews was also offered to cameo, but she refused so that she
wouldn’t steal the spotlight from Emily Blunt.
Classy.
All in all, Mary Poppins Returns is a genuinely winning, pleasant sequel. I like it a lot. But it is essentially more of the same thing. And it probably won’t ever come near of being adored as much and as long as its predecessor.
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