As a fan of Emily Blunt and a lover of the Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke original, I expected much from ‘Mary Poppins Returns’. I was nervous that it would not match the contribution to my youth and parenting of my two boys provided by its predecessor.
By cleverly referencing the 1964 version through visual echo (conversation with a mirrored reflection), dialogue (“I've come to look after the Banks children”), symbol (a child’s toy again contributing to the story’s climax), and plotline (a campaigner for labourers’ rights), my hopes were high.
Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw are excellent as the grown-up Banks children. Colin Firth takes on the mantle of villain with relish. Nonetheless, the campaigning interests of Mortimer’s Jane Banks feels shoe-horned into the storyline simply to provide a resonance with her mother’s earlier crusading.
Overall, it lacks the magic of Robert Stevenson’s effort. Indeed, for me, it feels like someone in the back office has analysed the original to death and painstakingly constructed a slightly disappointing made-by-numbers re-tread of the original (here’s an equivalent scene to that with Uncle Albert, another 'Feed the birds’, a substitute ‘Step in time’, and so on).
With not-quite-so-good songs. Yes, despite what some who should know better are saying in the media, the songs are not that special! But what about “Trip a Little Light Fantastic?” I hear the audience cry. The song is not memorable (can you sing me the lyrics?), rather it is the dance and bicycle choreography that makes its mark; a seldom genuine highlight of the show.
And my response is coloured by Blunt’s presentation of Mary herself. She has stated in interviews that she deliberately decided not to imitate Andrews’ portrayal of Travers’ nanny. Whereas Andrews managed to convey a warmth underlying Mary’s streak of vanity, the warmth is lacking in Blunt’s rather … er … blunt performance. It feels that there is less screen time given to Mary interacting with the young children this time round (remember there are more Banks children that she has to look after), and so there is less time to empathise with Emily’s incarnannytion. Thus, Poppins’ vanity shines through more strongly and not to her credit, with little to soften this characterisation.
Although Dick Van Dyke claims that no-one ever told him during the filming of the first film that his cockney accent was so terrible, surely Lin-Manuel Miranda cannot claim the same. He is indeed Bert’s apprentice – never quite filling the screen with the same charisma as Dyke. And this comparison is not helped by one of the several cameos that give the eagle-eyed viewer nicely judged nods to the supercalifragilistic precursor.
All that said, the film still has a very simple, ear-to-ear smile-causing moment... when Blunt’s Poppins looks straight into the camera and says “Off we go” and falls back into the bubble bath. This equivalent (oh, there it is again) to jumping into the pavement painting is easily my favourite part of the movie.
It could be the songs about which the Balloon Lady says “Of course, the grown-ups will all forget by tomorrow.” But as she also says, maybe the magic of the original is missing here for me because, as a more cynical adult, I've “forgotten what it's like... to be a child.”