Mary Poppins Returns (2019) - Movie Review

With 2019 already set as the year for Disney to go full-force in reviving its most beloved stories, today’s film is going to ultimately serve as the bar for what follows. No, this isn’t a straight-up remake of the 1964 original, but with how it’s presented, it might as well be: It’s got pretty much everything I remember from before. The colourful soundtrack full of whimsy-tinged jazz and swing, the respectably subtle lyricism in front of it that helps build the story’s bigger points, an emphasis on reconnecting with the inner child and finding joy in stuff and nonsense, an American doing an obvious Mockney accent; it all fits.

Not to say that this film has nothing of its own going for it; far bloody from it, and it all starts with the casting. While no one could ever replace Julie Andrews, even today, Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins is so damn close that it becomes a non-issue in record time. From there, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack, former apprentice of Dick Van Dyke’s Bert from the original, opens the film on a high note and keeps the musical side of things up to a healthy pedigree.

To say nothing of them both together, like their tandem performance of A Cover Is Not The Book, where it feels like everything is inconsequential because giving us that moment on its own warrants this film’s existence. The music, the choreography, the integration of 2D animation, the theatrical staging courtesy of Rob Marshall’s direction, all combined to create an enthralling musical experience.

What really makes this film worthy is that, more than just keeping the spirit of the original, this feels like a natural continuation of the story. Sure, seeing the grown-up Michael Banks wearing Ned Flanders’ discarded sweaters can be distracting, but as another iteration of the idea that childish whimsy is a vital thing to hold onto, it checks out. Hell, it even managed to turn the “all the children talk like adults” thing into something worthwhile, using it to show how the domestic situation basically required them to become little adults just to keep things afloat. Mary is still teaching everyone to essentially have fun again, but between Michael and his kids, there are two very relevant reasons why that needs to be taught. And indeed, with the over 50-year interim between films, it’s something worth revisiting.

However, there is a major catch with all of this, and it goes back to what I was saying with how this film is how I remember the original being. On the surface, that is very much true, but it’s all the high-end, fluffy and brightly-coloured material that is carried over. What a lot of people, myself included, tend to forget about the original is that it was the quieter, almost sombre, moments that made up the best parts of that production.

Mr. Banks solemnly walking back to the bank with that holy choir singing in the background, Mary singing the deliciously-ironic Stay Awake to the kids, even the pinnacle moment involving the bird lady; nothing of this tone is in this follow-up. In fact, the ending seems to fly directly in the face of the original’s greatest moment, and as cool as it is to see Dick Van Dyke in joyous form again, it’s not enough to distract from how his role here is basically shafting the original.

Basically, this film still has that spoonful of sugar, and the rush from that spoonful is still as potent as ever. But that quiet, that grounding, that medicine underneath it that made Mary Poppins more than just whimsy for its own sake? That’s not here, and the few points that come close lack that resonating grandeur to make it stick. As much as I still really like this film, it lacks a down-to-earth quality to make it truly efficacious.