Now available on Blu-ray and DVD is the Academy Award nominated film Mary Poppins Returns. The film is also available on digital. This is a sequel of sorts to Disney’s original Mary Poppins that stared Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
Mary Poppins Returns stars Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins. It’s cast also includes Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Julie Walters, Mark Addy, and Chris O’Dowd, to name a few.
The film starts many years after the original film. In the original film one of the children was Michael Banks. Fast forward to this film – Michael Banks now lives in his childhood home. He is a widower with three children – Annabel, John and Georgie. He also resides with his sister Jane, who was also a child in the original film.
Michael works for Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. He also has a loan with them that he hasn’t paid back in full yet. Unfortunately the banks’s corrupt new chairman plans on repossessing Michael’s childhood home that he resides in if the loan is not paid in full by the end of the week.
Michael can pay off the loan if he can locate missing share certificate that his father had left for him and his sister. The only problem is, he has no clue where it can be.
While searching for the missing certificate, Michael comes across a kite from his childhood. It doesn’t seem to have any sentimental value to him, so he simply tosses it out.
Meanwhile, Micheal’s children are playing in a local park when they happen upon the kite. They decide to fly the kite. While flying the kite a mysterious woman descends from the sky with the kite in her hands. It’s Mary Poppins. She has returned. She also insists on being the nanny for the Banks children (in the same vein as the original film).
As you can imagine, Mary Poppins takes the Banks children on several magical adventures, including one where little Georgie is kidnapped and his siblings have to rescue him.
Are they just a dream, or is Mary Poppins really taking the children into other dimensions?
Joining them on their adventures with Mary Poppins is a “lamp lighter” named Jack (similar to the chimney sweeper Bert in the original film).
Meanwhile, Michael and Jane are desperate to find the missing share certificate, as well as trying to find a way to pay off the loan before Friday. They even go so far as to try and sell personal possessions.
Will the Banks family be able to pay off the loan, or find the missing share certificate, before it’s too late and they lose their childhood home? This time, does Mary Poppins stay with the Banks family, or does she disappear into the sky again? To find out you need to pick up a copy of Mary Poppins Returns, or rent it from your favorite rental service.
There are several bonus features available with this film (of course!), which include deleted scenes, a deleted song, a behind the scenes look at the making of the film, and much more. Admittedly I haven’t finished watching all of the bonus features (I only picked out a few to watch after we finished watching the film).
I am a huge fan of the Mary Poppins, so I found myself comparing this film to the original. DON’T DO THAT! Nothing will ever match the original. You need to look at this film with “fresh eyes.” Pretend you never saw the original film or you’ll spend more time comparing the two films, then actually appreciating Mary Poppins Returns on it’s own merit. Hopefully people know what I mean by that.
There are a lot of songs in this film, as one would expect. There must be about two dozen songs in this film. Some are brief (maybe a minute or two at best), and a few others are several minutes long. While I did enjoy many of the song and dance numbers, I felt like there were too many songs in the film. Don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate musicals, but sometimes there are just too many songs. It’s like there was about the same amount of singing and dancing than actual acting.
I think the film makers did a good job casting Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins. She has some huge shoes to fill (Julie Andrews will always be Mary Poppins). Blunt always managed to look composed and proper, while giving off a hint of playfulness at the same time.
I was surprised to see so many well known actors in this film, like Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Julie Waters. I was also thrilled to see the appearance of Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. It would have been nice to see Julie Andrews, but I guess that would have been “easier said than done,” because she is Mary Poppins, and there would be no feasible way to explain why there are two of the iconic characters in the same film.
The animated sequences were nice. They payed homage to the original film. I think those were some of my favorite scenes from the film.
I think if you never saw the original Mary Poppins, that this film could easily stand on it’s own. Another words, you don’t need to know the backstory to appreciate this film. Although it made me want to watch the original Mary Poppins after viewing this film. You simply can’t beat the classic songs like “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Chim, Chim, Cheree,” and “Super‐cali‐fragil‐istic‐expi‐ali‐docious.”
Overall we enjoyed the film (my husband and I). It’s certainly a fun, family film. I think it’s a great way to introduce classic Disney films to a whole new generation.
Below is the film’s theatrical trailer. The film is no longer in theaters.
Kimberly
*I received a free screener copy to review. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own and not influenced in any way.
Ej says
I’m so looking forward to finally seeing this movie!