Mary Poppins Returns

By: Arlene Allen

In 1964, children of all ages were treated to the magical, musical world of Mary Poppins. Not to sound cliche, but it was a different world then,and exuberant song and dance extravaganzas were quite common on the big and small screens. There’s been a dry spell, until the last few years, but one hopes Mary Poppins Returns will completely turn things around. It’s bright, colorful, hopeful and joyful with just as many memorable songs and dance routines as the original.

The story is a sequel of sorts. Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane Banks (Emily Mortimer) are all grown up, and Mr. and Mrs. Banks have gone on to their heavenly reward.  Also gone is Michael’s wife, who’s passed away a year ago, leaving a broken-hearted husband and three grieving children (Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and Joel Dawson). Now, it looks like the Banks may lose their family home unless Michael can find proof that his father owned shares in the bank.

It is, of course, the perfect time for Mary Poppins (a truly lovely and engaging Emily Blunt – she sang and danced her way into our hearts in 2014’s Into the Woods; could she be this generation’s Julie Andrews?) to return.  The audience has already been told to “watch the London skies” by Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda) so it’s not surprise that Mary rescues Georgie (Dawson) when he is separated from his siblings.

Michael informs Mary he has no money to pay her, to which she responds, “Pish Posh.” Jane, of course, not being lost in grief and worry, remembers the good times they had with Mary and thinks it’s just the thing.  Jane is following in her mother’s social justice footsteps, taking on workers rights (with a little help from Jack). There are lots of tiny Easter eggs to watch for throughout and many homages to the original.

The villain in the story is bank manager Mr. Wilkins (Colin Firth), who’s running the bank for his elderly uncle Mr. Dawes Junior (Dick Van Dyke, who played Burt in the original film). If you recall, he was the one who initially helped Father Banks get his bank shares. Mr. Wilkins is scamming everyone behind their backs.  But while Michael looks for the shares, Mary takes the children on wondrous adventures. Instead of jumping into a painting, they jump into a vase and the sequence’s animation is so vibrant and detailed it’s obvious how far the artistry has come in the last fifty-four years. The story parallels the original in many ways; there’s a runaway bank sequence, a gas lamplighter’s song and dance that is this film’s “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and instead of a weird uncle who has tea parties on the ceiling we have Cousin Topsy played by Meryl Streep as if she’s having the time of her life. That’s a constant throughout the film – all of the actors look filled with joy. If Lin-Manuel has any hearts he hasn’t stolen yet, he’s going to catch them all now.

The music was composed by Marc Shaiman with lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman and their most memorable numbers will be “The Lovely London Sky,” “Can You Imagine That,” “The Place Where Lost Things Go,” “Turning Turtle” and “Trip a Little Light Fantastic.” And for those of us old enough to remember the original film, snippets of the original’s songs are used as background music.

There are also cameos from some of the stars of the 1964 original, besides Van Dyke. I’m not naming names, but it made this older viewer very happy. And that’s the thing about Mary Poppins Returns – it truly is a film for all ages; for children of today, for millenials and Gen Xers who missed out the first time and for us baby boomers (and our parents) who loved the original one so dearly. So, pack up the SUV with ages 1 to 100 and go see Mary Poppins Returns, a true family film.  It’s practically perfect in every way, and we need more films like this.