"Mary Poppins Returns" is a Joyful, Fun, Nostalgic Ride

By: Keaton Marcus

Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) in Mary Poppins Returns

Genre/Kids/Family/Fantasy

Age Rating/6+

Lemonradar/67% sweet/sour

Introduction

Hi, this is Keaton Marcus from Sweet and Sour Movie Reviews and today I will be reviewing Disney’s reboot of a classic tale, Mary Poppins Returns, starring Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Wishshaw, Colin Firth and even Meryl Streep. In the depression-era of London, the Banks family have become dull, unimaginitive people that have forgotten joy in their lives, when the bank threatens to reposses their home unless they find the money on Friday, Mary Poppins (Blunt) returns to help the family cope through the hardship, and realize that even in tough times, you may still find happiness in your life.

How Was The Cast?

In this reboot/sequel of the brilliant classic film, Mary Poppins, we see actress Emily Blunt play the familiar role, and hopes to become the new Julie Andrews of Disney, while Blunt never quite matches up, she adds to the legacy with nostalgic laughs, and a phenomenal singing voice. Supporting roles include actor Ben Wishshaw as Michael Banks, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack, Colin Firth as Wilkin/Wolf and veteran Meryl Streep as Cousin Topsy.

As noted, Emily Blunt known for A Quiet Place, Edge of Tomorrow, The Adjustment Bureau, The Devil Wears Prada etc. portrays the pivotal character of Mary Poppins. Fitting suitably in the role, Blunt uses her natural charisma, plentiful amount of laughs and wisecracking in the film, and her wonderful singing voice (already shown in Into the Woods) to deliver a well-scripted, solid interpretation of the character, even though Julie Andrews still sits on the throne for the best Mary Poppins to date. After earlier this year, Blunt starred in amazing horror pic A Quiet Place, this was a much-needed palate cleanser. Overall, Blunt provides more than enough to break even that she is not as wonderful as Julie Andrews, and adds another suitable role to her collection of brilliant performances, truly, Blunt shines.

Secondly, we saw actor Ben Wishshaw known for the Paddington couplet, the James Bond franchise, The Danish Girl etc. playing Michael Banks. While it is very nice to see Wishshaw bring Michael to grown-up years, and the actor is known for supposedly above-average roles, particularly the voice of Paddington, I miss the cute, little Michael so well-portrayed in the original, the younger version had much more important scenes, and even enough songs to go around, so while Wishshaw fits the adult Michael, director Rob Marshall greatly mis-uses the talented actor, and gives him just one poorly written song.

Thirdly, we have actor Lin-Manuel Miranda known for The Odd Life of Timothy Green, the hit-musical, Hamilton, BoJack Horseman as Jack. While we do not usually see Miranda on-screen, we have seen more than enough talent on stage lending his singing voice to Hamilton, which he supposedly blew the crowds away; While, in Mary Poppins Returns, it might not be his most magical performance, he brings many delightful songs, particularly “Under the London Sky” which is truly brilliant, and his dazzling appearance on-screen coming with more than enough chemistry with the action-packed cast to go around.

The more supporting roles remained Wilkin and Cousin Topsy, played by Colin Firth and Meryl Streep (in that order), Firth delivers a simple, but small and satisfying little performance that resonated with the audience, and Meryl Streep shined in her one song “Turning Turtle”, where she delivered a fun, magical performance that was clearly magnetic. The film has also packed with cameos which included refreshing show-ups from Dick-Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury and even Karen Dotrice (played Jane in the original) who had a cute little scene.

Quality

Directing this new piece of Disney fluff is filmmaker Rob Marshall known for Into the Woods, Chicago, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Nine. Marshall is perfect for the film, mostly credited for musicals that feature talented casts, and dazzling music, and while he does hit some very basic targets in Mary Poppins Returns, Marshall never quite captures what made the original so amazing.

Delivering dazzling special effects, working with most of the cast fairly well and producing some good songs and choreography, but featuring a cluttered story, and stiff directing, Marshall does not quite lift off of the ground, however the talented works from an all-star cast, visuals and music deliver a spoon full of sugar for the audience.

Special effects wise, Mary Poppins Returns stands at a reported 130M production budget, which may be a little excessive, but its visuals out-man that fact, delivering creative, and all-above fun eye-candy which in my opinion, dazzles me. The film has already delivered a 22.235M three-day, and a 31.049M five-day, and is tracking towards a 40M+ seven-day weekend which is most likely enough to break even with international help. This budget is much higher than most of Marshall’s work, topping the 45-50M costs of Chicago and Into the Woods, but surprisingly, it works.

Storyline wise, this surprisingly remained the film’s weakest point, not able to find balance between special effects and intelligence, the film just remained too cluttered, stuffing in every possible character into each little scene, which translates into “loud madness”, and the pic’s running time, standing at 2 hours and 10 minutes is also too bloated and extended, and is mostly caused by the stiff beginning 20 minutes or so that could be easily condensed, and it may not make you want to dance for the whole time.

Aging ‘The Umbrella’

Very similar to other Disney live-action adaptations, Mary Poppins Returns stays true to its reported PG rating, and may, arguably be G-rated, the film does include some very mild violence that may be a little tense for the youngest of viewers, some rude language, and very little sexuality that does not usually take place.

The violence includes a chase scene that takes place through a dark forest, but is animated, there are scenes of argumentation from a mean banker to children, and yelling in a discussion between Michael and his children, and the neighbor to the Banks’ fires a cannon every day.

Language wise, there is rude humor that includes pea brain, fool, buffoon and common British dialect such as bloody, and blasted. Sexuality wise, there is many scenes of flirting between Jane and Jack, and one implies that Jack likes her, and very vague lyrics in a song “she only wore a smile, plus two feathers and a leaf” implying that the person was naked, and there was a hip-thrust dance move by Mary.

Mary Poppins Showdown

Mary Poppins Returns 67% sweet/sour

Violence: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Language: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Age Rating: 6+

Mary Poppins 90% sweet

Violence: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Language: ☆☆☆☆☆

Sex: ⭐☆☆☆☆

Age Rating: 3+

Mary Poppins Returns 67% sweet/sour

Storyline: ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Mary Poppins 90% sweet

Storyline: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Cast: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Role Models: ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

News Related to Mary Poppins Returns

$plurge, $tream, $kip: Although occasionally burdened with a cluttered story, Mary Poppins Returns features a fantastic cast, solid music and creates enough nostalgic magic, even without ever matching up to the original…$TREAM IT

Rated: PG

Run Time: 130 minutes

Director: Rob Marshall