Mary Poppins Returns with spoonfuls of whatever you want

It is understandable for movie goers to be skeptical of Mary Poppins Returns. Mary Poppins is irrelevant. It’s a character better known fora classic movie that blazed technological trails 50 years ago and is one of the bright lights in Mickey’s castle. It’s not the kind of movie or character that one associates with having ‘continued adventures’. Our son wanted to see Mary Poppins Returns, even though he’s never seen the first one. On the way into the theater I told him that the first movie was made over 50 years ago and was a technical masterpiece then.

From the first frames of Mary Poppins returns it’s obvious that there’s something different about this film. For starters, audiences will watch the credits at the beginning of the film. That’s a subtle nod to the original and the way that films used to be shown. “When does the film start”,our 9-year old asked after the movie started, while we were watching the credits.

The film takes its direction from that point and continues down the path without hitting any lamplighters or bicycles. Mary Poppins returns to the Banks family, this time to take care of the adult Banks children. It’s hard not to think of Doc Brown from Back to the Future at the end of the first movie. You know, the offhand remark about “I’m not here about you…it’s your children”, he said after visiting the future.  While our son certainly didn’t catch this it raised my warning antennae on the film.

If I ever saw Mary Poppins I do not remember any of it. I recall seeing the images and scenes from our trips to Walt Disney World, but the rest is chim, chiminey forgotten. Here the Banks children; specifically Michael, is on the verge of losing his home. His wife passed away a couple of months ago and he’s never really gotten over it, despite obtaining a job at bank, that conveniently has the loan that is now being called due.

Overall Mary Poppins Returns is utterly charming. The dance and song numbers, for the most part, are uplifting and will bring in even those in the audience who have never seen a musical. Our son, who has never seen, actually he’s actively avoided musicals, really enjoyed the film, especially the more up-tempo numbers.  

Mary Poppins Returns is a little too long and very diverse. It’s obviously diverse, so much so that it’s distracting and that’s something that filmmakers,especially Disney need to be wary of. Disney became very Princess heavy a couple of years ago, which if great; they needed to balance the scales of their characters, both in regards to their sex and their background. However, by making the heroes or villains the same cookie cutter format movie after movie they’re falling into the same trap that made The Last Jedi so bad.

Granted, the fan base between The Last Jedi and Mary Poppins will not be the same, nor will they have the same criticisms. Mary Poppins Returns is an entertaining film, it just feels hollow. It’s obvious that the filmmakers loved the original and did as much possible to stay true to its spirit.The result is a lovingly created vehicle that has a (very) slightly different story from the original and shows up at your doorstep 50 some odd years later asking you to love it just as much. You’ll like it, maybe buy a box of cookies,but it won’t stick too long in your memory.

The other view: when my nine-year old son and I were leaving the theater he said: “I can’t wait to see the next one in 50 years”. If that’s the reaction that the film makers were going for then they’ve hit a home run.If they’re looking for film that will return its investment and a little bit more then they’ll probably accomplish that.