Mary Poppins Returns (Dir. Rob Marshall, 2h10m)

 

How does one follow up a film as beloved and as much of a cultural touchstone as Mary Poppins, even in a year when Disney have conducted what seems like a whimsical ramraid on their backcatalogue? Like this, it would seem. For someone who only saw the 1964 original yesterday at time of writing (I really do have a habit of this, having previously watched Blade Runner so I could see 2049 fully equpped), Mary Poppins Returns weaves a perfect spell with all the familiar elements, and some new ones, to create a Christmas treat that's "practically perfect in every way".

With a grown-up and recently widowed Michael (Ben Whitshaw), and his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) trying to save the family home, together with his three children John, Annabel and Georgie, from the bank in a Depression-Era London, so their lives are turned upside down by the sudden and unexpected return of Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt), to Cherry Tree Lane. Blunt is, unsurprisingly, the best thing about the film, in a film that has a lot of very talented actors, stunning effects, and pitch-perfect songs-it, as some had feared, would have been easy for Blunt to run the role as a slavish impersonation of Andrews.

Instead we get something, percularlly enough, closer to PL Travers' original vision of the novel starting with Mary herself, from the elements of the cockney that Travers peppered through her speech, best seen in the spectacularly recreated, and surprisingly raunchy(!) music-hall song "A Cover is not the Book",  to the slightly more mysterious, and indeed magical elements to her character. Throughout another of the film's songs, "The Place Where Lost Things Go", where Poppins consoles the three Banks children that their deceased mother has never truly left them (later reprised by the three Banks children, to perfect effect), there is even a more caring and emotional side to her beneath the stern nanny. Nevertheless, when she needs to slip back and forth between the magic adventuresss, and the guise of the stern no-nonsense nanny, complete with cut glass accent, it's with every inch the ability of Andrews.

Against her is Lin Manuel Miranda, as Jack, who is arguably one of the two things the film (whisper it) does better than the original. This is not to slight the great Dick Van Dyke, (I, at least from my first ever watch of Mary Poppins, have no idea what the problem with his accent is) whose final-act cameo comes at the film's emotional high point, Miranda is just...better. There is a warmth, dynamism, both in dancing, and singing, and a neater narrative connection to the story in general, in Jack that just lifts his perfomance a little more than Van Dyke's, and his appearance in every single one of the film's songs but one, gives a neat vocal partner for Blunt to share scenes. Again, though, when the film draws parallels with the first film, Miranda is more than capable of inbuing these scenes with the gravitas that Van Dyke did.

As for the rest of the cast, they are pitch-perfect, from the Banks children, who, even in an age when child actors are, arguably, far more competent than they were in the 60s, to Michael, whose slow transformation from a grieving husband and worrying father to a man who begins to understand the importance of play, imagination and fun. Getting her own jazz-style song is the scatterbrained but enjoyably dotty Topsy Turvy, (Meryl Streep), to the villainous Colin Firth as Wilkins, who, together with his two subordinates, also appear in animated form during an excellent sequence containing Disney's first hand-drawn animation in seven years, and the aformentioned Dick Van Dyke cameo, of course, needs no introduction. This film is visually stunning, from the opening shot that parks the Disney castle on the edge of London, to the multiple handdrawn sequences that more than prove the studio should go back to the medium in more than just short films, to the simple way that 1930s London is shot to give it more than a little magic of its own, culminating in the excellent extended setpiece atop Big Ben. In every sequence, the film's visual sensibility are superb, from an upside down shop run by Topsy-Turvy, to the balloon-powered finale, and has every inch the sumptuousness of the original film.

The true stars of the film, however, are the songs, and the setpieces that go with them. Not since the original, arguably, has Disney produced choreography and songs that mesh together so well, with the songs jumping across genres and styles just as much as the first film, culminating in, what may well be one of the longest Disney songs ever, the near seven and a bit minute "Trip A Little Flight Fantastic", which not only sees main and supporting cast at their vocal best, but Marc Shaiman & Scott Wittman come closest, lyrically and musically, to the nigh impossible feat of surpassing the Shermans in an otherwise superb score and songs which surviving Sherman brother, Richard oversees. The choreography is equally superb, and may be the other place where Returns pips the first film, the camera dynamic whilst showing off every second of the film, and the choreography bold, and at points experimental, with everything from BMX biking to breakdancing included. It feels like a perfect update of the original's style for the 21st century.

The true magic of Mary Poppins Returns is that the film feels, 54 years, like a continuation of the film, the join seamless, the feel and sound and look of the film familiar and warm and comforting, the twists and new ideas smartly incorporated. In 2018, of all years, we needed Mary Poppins to return.

Rating: Highly Recommended