Mary Poppins Return: A Sequel That is Practically Perfect in Every Way. (Good/Good)

Mary Poppins Returns is a sequel to of course Walt Disney’s classic hit, Mary Poppins (1964). Directed by Rob Marshall and starring Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins. This movie is set in 1935 London where Michael Banks, one of the children from the original movie, is now grown up and living in his childhood home with his 3 kids. Following the recent death of his wife, Jane Banks, his sister, and Ellen, their housekeeper from the original movie are helping Michael raise his children. Unfortunately, Michael has taken a loan from the bank to cover his expenses and they will repossess the Banks’ house if not paid within 5 days. Mary Poppins arrives back to help out the Banks family to save their house and to remind them what it was like to have a huge imagination, and how to be a child again. This movie didn’t try to use the original songs, instead, they created new memorable songs that are as catchy as the classic hits.

In my opinion, this was a sequel that is practically perfect in every way. It follows a similar sequel formula that the Disney-owned Star Wars used when they relaunched the franchise with The Force Awakens (episode 7). They both took many inspirations from the original film and some of the scenes, themes, and plot sequences are extremely similar to the previous installment, but with enough new and original content to make the new movie installment more interesting. There are similar songs covering illness and death (A Spoonful of Sugar in the original and Where The Lost Things Go in the sequel), a fantasy sequence featuring a vaudeville performance and penguins (Supercalafragalistic and A Cover Is Not The Book), a mass choreographed dance of working-class Londoners (Step In Time and Trip A Little Light Fantastic) and an outdoor happy-ending kite or balloon song  (Let’s Go Fly A Kite, and Nowhere to Go But Up). Trying to make a sequel from a movie that is 50 years old without it being a just cash grab was a huge challenge to do, especially doing a timeless classic like Mary Poppins, and the musical symmetry allows original content songs to emotionally mirror original classics.

These songs were extremely well done and very memorable. The acting was consistently excellent especially from Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda, an American Playing London Cockney, Jack just as Dick Van Dyke did playing Bert. Lin-Manuel did a phenomenal job with a really believable working-class London accent. The costumes and clothing look like it’s from the 1930s London. The lighting was spot on especially during the musical numbers. I would probably say my favorite part of the film was the 2D animated section which actually looks like it’s from the original movie, while still being impressive.

Mary Poppins Returns is probably one of the best sequels I have seen in any film and a great film for everyone, from Kids to the fans of the original film.  I’m giving it a Good/Good.