Respond to these rapid questions in our Mary Poppins Returns quiz and we will tell you which Mary Poppins Returns character you are. Play it now.
I have no sympathy for the filmmaker who is remaking or creating a sequel to a well-known classic children’s tale. Despite this, a slew of directors and celebrities are lining up to be part of the latest craze, including the folks over at Disney. The studio has been raiding its vaults since “Alice in Wonderland,” tapping into its audience’s deep-seated nostalgia by reviving familiar characters and storylines in a spate of live-action remakes (“Cinderella” and “Beauty and the Beast”), sequels (“Christopher Robin”), and spin-offs (“Maleficent”) that have been met with a mixed reception.
“Mary Poppins Returns,” the Rob Marshall-directed sequel to one of the most well-known musicals in the Disney canon, is the most recent film to be re-released in theaters. For this project, the stakes are extremely high, as it must both entice newcomers and win over ardent fans by showing a devotion to the Sherman Brothers’ catchy songs, featuring memorable performances from Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, as well as telling a heartwarming story about how one strict nanny helps to bring a family back together.
In spite of its efforts, “Mary Poppins Returns” falls short of being practically flawless in every way. The cast puts on a good show, but there is little that can be done to save the forgettable numbers by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, as well as the dated dance routines that are already in their second season. A handful of brightly colored and endearing scenes liven up the film’s otherwise dull events, but its copycat story arc isn’t strong enough to stand on its own as a stand-alone film.
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Things are bleak in Mary Poppins’ magical world of 1930s England, where she has returned. The Banks’ family home is in danger of being forfeited unless they can locate the MacGuffin—I mean, proof that the dearly departed old man Banks left behind enough shares in company stock to cover the cost of the mortgage and keep their home from being foreclosed on. After searching through the attic, desks, and shelves, the now-grown Banks children Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane (Emily Mortimer) discover old childhood mementos such as a broken kite with their mother’s “Votes for Women” sash, but no form that will save their home from being demolished. Michael’s oily boss (Colin Firth) at his father’s old bank gives the family an extension on the deadline to produce the receipt, or else they will lose their home for good. The film follows Michael’s three children, Anabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh), and Georgie (Joel Dawson), as they attempt to assist or cheer him up as the family is still reeling from the death of their mother in the previous year. Unfortunately, there is only so much that children can do to influence the decisions of adults.
Mary Poppins Returns Quiz
Who better to arrive at the Banks family’s doorstep than the sharp and resourceful Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt), just as things are starting to fall apart? Like she did in the original, she enters the house and brightens the children’s day while also keeping their adventures hidden from their beleaguered father. Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), her Bert-like friend, is a member of an army of lamplighters known as leeries, who have taken the place of chimney sweeps in this economy, according to the film’s premise. This time, however, the charismatic city worker isn’t particularly fond of Mary (at least, not in the traditional sense), but rather of Jane, the family’s outspoken activist. Jack occasionally joins Mary and the three Banks children on a few tangential adventures just before the family’s deadline for moving out of their home approaches and bad news is on the horizon.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Mary Poppins Returns quiz.
With a wide-eyed Miranda singing a song that isn’t quite in his range and an accent that isn’t entirely convincing, the movie is a mixed bag from the get-go. He does, however, have enough energy to push through numbers that are more suited to his abilities. Michael and Jane are always missing Mary Poppins’ extra pep, fresher wardrobe, and sly smile, which Blunt gives to her in this riff on the classic film. This version of Poppins is delightful to watch, and she appears to take pleasure in putting the children into magical situations.
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The highlight of “Mary Poppins Returns” is a series of animated musical numbers with talking animals that are reminiscent of the “Jolly Holliday” sequence from the original, as well as “The Royal Doulton Music Hall” and “A Cover is Not a Book.” Blunt and Miranda are both in the film. The group, which includes the three Banks children, travels into an animated world that is set on the side of a ceramic vase that the children accidentally chipped while playing. Costumes are more like drawings than they are in real life, and the film is bathed in bright, bold colors that are absent from the live-action London. At the same time, the sequence feels unique while also clearly paying homage to the original, and it’s enchanting to watch it come together—at least, until it doesn’t.
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Sticking too closely to the original’s footsteps has its own set of problems, as demonstrated by the song “Trip a Little Light Fantastic.” Mary and her three children become disoriented while returning home from a disappointing trip to the bank, and they seek assistance from Jack and his streetlighting friends. In what is supposed to be a rousing number in the spirit of “Step in Time,” they come together, but the performance ultimately falls flat. Joey Pizzi, John DeLuca, Tara Nicole Hughes and Marlon Pelayo all performed in the routines, which Marshall choreographed with them. Marshall adds too many layers for spectacle, and the result is a Baz Luhrmann-sized jumble of contemporary dance, parkour, and BMX bike tricks that feels like it was choreographed in the last decade. Despite the fact that the steps in the scene are inspired by everything from “An American in Paris” to “Silk Stockings” to the “Step Up” movies, the scene is shot in such a haphazard manner that our characters get lost in the mix.
For someone who grew up listening to old Disney sing-along tapes and memorized every word to “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” any sequel to Mary Poppins may never be able to compete with the original. If anything, watching “Mary Poppins Returns” is most effective if the original 1964 film is a distant memory or something you simply never got around to seeing in the first place. Every scene from the original film has almost a parallel counterpart in the new film, which makes me wonder why they didn’t just stick with the original. To give you an example, in the original, there was a character named Uncle Albert (Ed Wynn) who appeared in the one-off number “I Love to Laugh.” The new film includes a character named Cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep) for a lukewarm number among many props called “Turning Turtle,” which is one of the many props in the film. It’s not the most catchy title, but then again, none of the songs are particularly catchy on their own. Despite the fact that “Mary Poppins Returns” plays on a fan’s nostalgia with a few Easter eggs and cameos from Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury, there’s a sense that something is missing beyond Andrews’ appearance. In reality, “Returns” is neither new nor familiar; rather, it is an odd knockoff that will appeal to some audiences while leaving others yearning for a rewatch of an old favorite.
For more personality quizzes check this: Angel Has Fallen Quiz.
