Psycho's Movie Reviews #393: Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Mary Poppins Returns is a 2018 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, with a screenplay written by David Magee and a story by Magee, Marshall, and John DeLuca. Loosely based on the book series Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, the film is a sequel to the 1964 film Mary Poppins, and stars Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth, and Meryl Streep in supporting roles. Set in London during the Great Depression, the film sees Mary Poppins, the former nanny of Jane and Michael Banks, return to them in the wake of the death of Michael's wife.

Walt Disney Pictures announced the film in September 2015. Marshall was hired later that month, and Blunt and Miranda were cast in February 2016. Principal photography lasted from February to July 2017, and took place at Shepperton Studios in England. Mary Poppins Returns had its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on November 29, 2018, and was theatrically released in the United States on December 19, 2018, making it the longest interval between film sequels in cinematic history, at 54 years.

The film grossed $349 million worldwide and received positive reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast (particularly that of Blunt and Miranda), direction, visuals, musical score, musical numbers, costume design, production values, visual effects (especially the animated segments), and sense of nostalgia, although some critics found it derivative of its predecessor. It was chosen by both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2018 and received numerous award nominations, including four at the 76th Golden Globe Awards (including for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy), nine at the 24th Critics' Choice Awards, three at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards, and a SAG Award nomination for Blunt at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards. It also received four Oscar nominations for Best Original Score, Best Original Song ("The Place Where Lost Things Go"), Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design at the 91st Academy Awards.

Plot

The scene is set in London, during the Great Depression. Michael Banks lives in his childhood home with his three children, John, Annabel and Georgie, after the death of his wife, Kate, a year earlier. Michael has taken a loan from his employer, the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, and is three months behind on payments. Wilkins, the bank's corrupt new chairman, sends associates to warn him that his house will be repossessed if the loan is not repaid in full by Friday. Michael and his sister Jane recall that their father left them shares in the bank that should cover the loan, and they search the house for the share certificate. During the search, Michael finds his childhood kite and disposes of it.

The children visit a local park and Georgie, who has found the kite, flies it. Mary Poppins descends from the sky with the kite in her hand. She takes the children home and announces that she will take charge of them as their nanny. She draws a bath for the three children, leading to underwater adventures ("Can You Imagine That?").

Michael visits the bank seeking proof of his shares, but Wilkins denies that there are any records before covertly destroying the page from the official ledger. Annabel and John decide to sell their mother's 'priceless' bowl to pay off the debt. Georgie tries to stop them, and the bowl becomes damaged while the three fight over it. Jack, a lamplighter, greets Mary Poppins and joins her and the children on a trip into the scene decorating the bowl. During their visit to the Royal Doulton Music Hall, Georgie is kidnapped by a talking wolf, weasel, and badger that are repossessing their belongings, and Annabel and John set out to rescue him. They do so successfully, fall off the edge of the bowl, and wake in their beds. Realizing they are hurting after the loss of their mother, Mary sings them a lullaby ("The Place Where Lost Things Go").

The children visit Mary Poppins's cousin Topsy, hoping to get the bowl mended ("Turning Turtle") and learn that it has little monetary value. They take Michael's briefcase to him at the bank, where they overhear Wilkins discussing the planned repossession of their house. Believing that he and his associates are the same animal gang who kidnapped him, Georgie interrupts the meeting. Michael is angry with the children for putting the house and his job at risk. Mary Poppins takes the children home, guided by Jack and his fellow lamplighters who teach the children their rhyming slang ("Trip A Little Light Fantastic"). The children comfort a despairing Michael, and the four reconcile.

As midnight on Friday approaches, the Bankses prepare to move out of their house. While examining his old kite, Michael discovers that Georgie had used the missing share certificate (which had a picture of the family on its back, obscuring the certificate's real nature) to mend it. Jane and Michael rush to the bank while Mary Poppins and the children go with Jack and the lamplighters to Big Ben to 'turn back time'. After scaling the clock tower, they turn the clock back five minutes, giving Jane and Michael just enough time to reach the bank. Wilkins, however, will not accept the certificate as part of it is still missing. Wilkins's elderly uncle and the bank's previous chairman, Mr. Dawes Jr., arrives and sacks Wilkins on the spot for his corrupt business practices. He reveals that Michael has plenty of assets to cover the loan, namely the judiciously invested tuppence he had deposited with the bank many years earlier.

The next day, the Bankses visit the park, where a fair is in full swing. They purchase balloons that carry them into the air, where they are joined by Jack and many others ("Nowhere to Go but Up"). On their return home, Mary Poppins announces that it is time for her to leave. Jane and Michael thank her as her umbrella carries her back up into the sky and away.

Production

Development

A sequel to Mary Poppins had been gestating in development hell since the first film's release in 1964. Walt Disney attempted to produce a sequel a year later but was rejected by the author P. L. Travers, who dismissed Disney's first adaptation. In the late 1980s, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the vice-president of live-action production, Martin Kaplan, approached Travers with the idea of a sequel set years after the first film, with the Banks children now as adults and Julie Andrews reprising her role as an older Mary Poppins. Travers again rejected the concept except for Andrews' return, suggesting a sequel set one year after the original film with Andrews reprising the role. That idea also did not come to fruition, however, because Travers would not go ahead without certain caveats that the company would not concede, including barring Poppins' clothing from being red.

Travers' attempt to get a sequel from the first film with her involvement was not deterred. In the 1980s, she and Brian Sibley, a good friend whom she met in the 1970s, wrote a screenplay for a sequel titled Mary Poppins Comes Back, based on the parts from Travers' second Mary Poppins book unused in the 1964 film. Sibley then wrote a letter to Roy E. Disney about making the film, to which Disney contracted them to supply a film treatment. According to Sibley, Travers wrote notes on his script ideas and though she rejected some of them, she liked some of them, including replacing Bert with his brother, an ice cream man in a park in Edwardian London who similarly served as Mary's friend and potential admirer. Four months later, however, casting issues emerged, as Andrews temporarily retired from making films and was not interested in reprising her role as Mary Poppins. It was tricky to find an actor to play Bert's brother, though an executive suggested that singer Michael Jackson was right for the part. The planned sequel was eventually cancelled because of a combination of issues: the casting problems and the fact that new executives took over the company.

The 2004 release of the 40th Anniversary DVD of the original film contained a trivia track that stated, in regards to a possible sequel, "One day the wind may change again". On 14 September 2015, Walt Disney Pictures president Sean Bailey pitched a new Mary Poppins film to Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, and Marc Platt, as the team had produced Into the Woods for the studio the year prior. With approval from Travers' estate, Disney greenlit the project with the film taking place 25 years after the first featuring a standalone narrative, based on the remaining seven books in the series. Marshall was hired to direct, while DeLuca and Platt would serve as producers along with Marshall. David Magee was hired to write the script.

Casting

On 18 February 2016, Emily Blunt entered negotiations to play the title role in the sequel. On 24 February 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda was cast in the film to play Jack, a lamplighter. In April 2016, Disney confirmed that the film was in development and Blunt and Miranda's castings. In May, Disney announced the film's title as Mary Poppins Returns. By July 2016, Meryl Streep had entered negotiations to join the cast to play cousin Topsy, and would be officially cast in September. Ben Whishaw was in negotiations to play the adult Michael Banks in August, with Emily Mortimer cast as the adult Jane Banks, and Colin Firth joined the film as William Weatherall Wilkins, president of the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in October.

In February 2017, Angela Lansbury was cast to play the Balloon Lady. Julie Andrews, who portrayed Poppins in the 1964 film, was approached to do a cameo (possibly as the Balloon Lady before the part was offered to Angela Lansbury) in the sequel but turned down the offer as she wanted it to be "Emily's show." Dick Van Dyke, who portrayed Bert and Mr. Dawes Sr. in the original film, returns in the sequel as the latter's son, Mr. Dawes Jr., replacing Arthur Malet, who died in 2013. Karen Dotrice, who played the young Jane Banks in the original, has a cameo appearance in the film.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on 10 February 2017, at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England. Eight soundstages were used to build practical sets for the film, including Cherry Tree Lane, and the enormous abandoned park, where a big part of the musical number, "Trip a Little Light Fantastic," was set.

Scenes requiring green and blue screens for visual effects were first filmed on J and K Stages with physical set pieces for the cast to interact with, which were then swapped out in post-production with animation. Unlike the first film, which was wholly shot within soundstages in Hollywood, filming also took place on location, including outside the Bank of England in March 2017, and outside Buckingham Palace in April 2017. Principal photography was wrapped by July 2017.

Visual Effects and Animation

The visual effects were provided by Cinesite, Framestore, Luma Pictures, Pixomondo, the Government of Victoria with the assistance of Film Victoria (both in Australia), and TPO VFX and supervised by Christian Irles, Christian Kaestner, Brendan Seals, Matthew Tinsley and Matt Johnson. Like the original film, this film includes a sequence combining live-action and traditional hand-drawn animation. According to Marshall, he asked for an animated/live-action sequence rather than employing modern CGI animation, feeling that it was vital to hold on the classic hand-drawn animation to protect the spirit of the original film.

The animation sequence was developed and overall supervision was handled by Jim Capobianco, with Ken Duncan supervising physical animation production at his studio in Pasadena, California. Over 70 animation artists specializing in hand-drawn 2D animation from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and other animation studios were recruited for the sequence. The animated drawings were created using pencil and paper and scanned onto the computer to be digitally inked and painted. Character designer James Woods and animator James Baxter also helped redesign the penguins from the first film. All of the hand-drawn animation was created by Duncan's animation studio, Duncan Studio, in Pasadena.

Musical Score and Soundtrack Album

The music and score for the film was composed by Marc Shaiman, with song lyrics written by Scott Wittman and Shaiman. The complete soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on 7 December 2018. Shaiman had heard about the film in 2014 and begged director Marshall to be allowed to write the songs for the film. Shaiman, in regards to working on the film, stated “Our love for the original movie overrode our fears, we re-embraced the thing we loved as children. There’s no need for irony or snark. This is our love letter to the original”.

{The one element that was on parr with the original was the soundtrack; the songs and the sequences were great. (Well what do you expect from Lin Manuel Miranda). I guess like the last review I can do a Top 3 for these}

{3- Can You Imagine That?}

https://youtu.be/apMwmeYq2NM?list=TLPQMDQwNDIwMjKZoUOZIXXadg

{2- Nowhere To Go But Up}

https://youtu.be/oM-A38vXmvI?list=TLPQMDQwNDIwMjKZoUOZIXXadg

{1- A Cover Is Not The Book}

Release/Reception/Box Office

Mary Poppins Returns was originally scheduled to be released on December 25, 2018. However, in July 2018, it was moved up from its original release date to December 19, 2018.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 80% based on 377 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Mary Poppins Returns relies on the magic of its classic forebear to cast a familiar – but still solidly effective – family-friendly spell." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score and a 62% "definite recommend".

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing "Emily Blunt is the magical nanny in this scarily accomplished clone-pastiche sequel, which starts terrifically and ends cloyingly – just like the original." Geoffrey MacNab of The Independent wrote "The nostalgia here could easily have been very cloying. Instead, it adds to the richness and mystery. In an era of superhero franchises where sequels to successful movies turn up almost instantly, Mary Poppins's return shows that sometimes it pays to wait. Half a century on, her allure hasn't faded at all." Owen Gleiberman of Variety deemed the film a "rapturous piece of nostalgia"; lauded Blunt's take on Mary Poppins and described her casting as "practically perfect"; and gave his praise on Marshall's direction as well as the production design, musical score, songs, and the supporting cast (particularly Miranda, Whishaw, Firth, and Streep). He compared the film's quality and tone to that of 1960s musicals, and its nostalgia to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Its old-fashioned, honest sentimentality plasters a smile across your face and plants a tear in your eye, often simultaneously." Rooney lauded Blunt's work (whom he labelled as "preening vanity with unmistakable warmth") along with the supporting cast as well as the costumes, sets, musical score, and songs. He referred to the last two as the best since Hairspray and described these as "full of personality and humour, and reverential without being slavish in their adherence to the musical patterns of the first film".

Brian Truitt of USA Today described the film as a "comforting nostalgia-fest" and "satisfaction in spit-spot fashion" as well as commended the performances of Blunt and Miranda, Marshall's knack on musical numbers and Shaiman's "swinging delight" original score. The Atlantic's Christopher Orr remarked that: "Mary Poppins Returns serves as a reminder that, for all its global scope and hegemonic ambition, Disney still has a little magic left up its sleeve." Orr called it a "highly likable diversion" and similarly praised the film for balancing the familiar and the new. Orr praised Blunt's version of Mary Poppins to be "excellent", finding it "a little chillier and more austere" while referring to it as "truer to the spirit of the heroine of P. L. Travers’s books". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film with three out of five stars and praised Blunt's portrayal of the title character. Despite finding the film not living up to the original film, Travers nevertheless praised the film, remarking, "Mary Poppins Returns shows it has the power to leave you deliriously happy". Time magazine's Stephanie Zacharek wrote that "Mary Poppins Returns honours the spirit of its predecessor". She also highlighted Blunt's interpretation of the title character (in which she described the performance as close to "Travers’s original vision"), as well as the costumes, production values, and 2D animation sequences, but found fault with Shaiman's and Wittman's songs as one of the film's "weaker points".

Will Gompertz of the BBC gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, stating, "It looks fantastic, the special effects are special, and a great deal of money has clearly been spent in the hope of making it supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. All of which is great. Except the movie – unlike the eponymous super nanny – never quite takes off." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that "Mary Poppins Returns looks, feels and sounds like a sales pitch" and "ratchets up more than the family’s existential stakes", but praised the "emotional rawness" of Whishaw's acting; she called Shaiman's and Wittman's songs "the gravest disappointment", stressing that "there’s nothing here with comparable melodic or lyrical staying power" to the Sherman Brothers' original 1964 songs. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle regarded the sequel as inferior to its 1964 original, feeling that the story did not deliver, and gave a mixed review on the songs. He described some of the songs as "forgettable", "indifferent", and "dreadful", but singled out others, such as Underneath the Lovely London Sky and The Place Where Lost Things Go, as some of the best; he stated "Mary Poppins Returns might have had a chance had the movie not tried to compete with the original in terms of scale. With 20 minutes of song and dance numbers cut, the movie really could have been better – not great, but better".

Mary Poppins Returns grossed $172 million in the United States and Canada, and $177.6 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $349.5 million against a production budget of $130 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $49–51 million from 4,090 theatres over its first five days (including around $35 million in its first weekend) and a total of $75 million over its first week of release. The film made $4.8 million on its first day of release and $4.1 million on its second. It went on to gross $23.5 million its opening weekend (a total of $32.3 million over its first five days), finishing below expectations but second at the box office behind fellow newcomer Aquaman. It then made $6.1 million on Monday and $11.5 million on Christmas Day for total week opening of $49.9 million. In its second weekend the film increased by 20.5% to $28.4 million, remaining in second, and in its third weekend made $15.9 million, finishing third behind Aquaman and newcomer Escape Room.

Budget $130 million

Box office $349.5 million

My Review

Expectations were very high for 'Mary Poppins Returns'. 'Mary Poppins' is still one of my all-time favourite films, the very meaning of a timeless classic. The cast is also a very talented one and have enjoyed some of Disney's previous re-makes/follow-ups. After watching the trailer, 'Mary Poppins Returns' did become one of my most anticipated films of 2018 and was really hoping it would be as good as the trailer was and not be a disappointment, where the trailer was great and the film was not, like another highly anticipated film 'The Nutcracker and the Four Realms'.

Found myself luckily really enjoying this on the most part after seeing it with my sister. It is not in the same league as, or have the same amount of magic as, 'Mary Poppins', which would have been a tall order in the first place with such enormously high quality to love up to. But on its own merits there were for me a lot of merits and a lot to enjoy for all ages, young and old, male and female. 'Mary Poppins Returns' is imperfect and the magic is not quite there all the way through, but for me the film was not devoid of it and there is a great deal of charm, not a cash grab.

There is not an awful lot of originality to the story, really did appreciate that it tried to be respectful, which is obvious in the numerous nods throughout the film. But structurally there was a sense of over-faithfulness and that it could have felt more like its own story. There were a few draggy stretches and scenes that felt like filler, especially the rather strange and not really needed in hindsight scene with Meryl Streep.

Really like Streep but she and her character were just bizarre and she overdoes the acting, with the character feeling like a going nowhere plot-device practically forgotten about quickly. Confess too to guessing early on everything with the shares.

However, 'Mary Poppins Returns' benefits hugely from looking absolutely wonderful, beautifully shot and with gorgeous nostalgic colours in the production and costume designs that fondly recall 'Mary Poppins'. The animation in the animated sequence shows technological advancement and how a lot of effort was made to show respect to 'Mary Poppins'. Another huge plus is Emily Blunt (closer to PL Travers' vision of Mary Poppins), who is superb and the asset that comes closest to being practically perfect in every way. She is well supported by Lin Manuel Miranda, sporting a not so great accent but immense energy, likeability, charm and a great singing voice (they work wonderfully together too, most obvious in "A Cover is Not the Book"). As well as appealing beyond their years performances from the children (evident in the tense climactic moments of the animated scene), movingly stoic Ben Whishaw and charming Emily Mortimer. Colin Firth is fun, and in the animated sequence his voice work was the standout, Julie Walters is even more of a hoot, and really loved the Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury cameos and a hilariously crusty David Warner. Only Streep didn't work for me.

A lot has been said about the inferiority of the songs. Will say that they are nowhere near the same quality of those in 'Mary Poppins' and are unlikely to become songbook standards. In their own way though, to me they were very pleasant and well composed, the best being "Can You Imagine That" and "Nowhere to Go But Up", both actually very hummable, and the one miss being the completely forgettable and pointless "Turning Turtle". They were also very well staged, neither overblown or static, the standouts being "Nowhere to Go But Up" and "A Cover is Not the Book" (didn't actually find the latter long winded). That for "Can You Imagine That" was very colourful and had immense charm. A highlight too was the Doulton bowl/vaudevillian animated sequence, loved the animation itself and it was just very entertaining and charming with a tense end. Most of the film left me completely gripped, the script had drollness and heart (with some funny moments) and there was an investable emotional impact with the Banks' story without it being cloying. It was hard not to squeal and shed a small tear at the affectionate and nostalgic nods to 'Mary Poppins' peppered throughout the film. This was clearly made by people who loved, or at least had great affection for, 'Mary Poppins', not intent on tarnishing it. It's directed with a loving hand by Rob Marshall and the instrumental score is lush and whimsical.

So all in all, as said, not practically perfect in every way but the magic almost returns. 7/10