'Mary Poppins Returns' Plays It Safe

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.