#Annabel in Mary Poppins Returns is more like book Jane than movie Jane is but she's still far too nice

[partywithponies]

Every time I think about how dirty the disney Mary Poppins films did the character of Jane Banks I want to cry.

[dweemeister]

Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Ever since Mary Poppins (1964) gave the Walt Disney Studios acclaim from audiences and within Hollywood, the House of Mouse had toyed with the idea of a sequel. The correct circumstances never aligned – partly due to author P.L. Travers’ defensiveness to her Mary Poppins books, partly due to the demands of then-Disney chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg when he approached Travers in the 1980s. Nevertheless, Travers allowed the company to produce a stage musical version of Mary Poppins  – with the request that no one (specifically the Sherman Brothers) from the original film version be involved –  in the 1990s. Travers did not live to see the stage musical’s successful 2004 debut, but this renewal of trust between Travers (and her estate) and Disney marked a change in the wind after the belatedly famous acrimony between Travers and Walt Disney behind the 1964 film. With the blessing from the Travers estate, Disney secured the rights two a Mary Poppins sequel in September 2015.

Directed by Rob Marshall, Mary Poppins Returns  – like many recent Disney live-action films – adheres too closely to the original’s storytelling formula and, specifically in this film’s case, functional musical structure set by its predecessor. The film is nevertheless a fantastic portrayal of Mary Poppins the character. It is blessed with craftsmanship and possesses a score that – although inferior to the original (an almost-impossible bar to clear) – is among the best for an original movie musical in years.

It is 1935 in London and the Great Depression is at its height. Twenty-five years after the events of Mary Poppins, a grown-up Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) still lives at 17 Cherry Tree Lane. Now, he lives there with his children – Annabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh), and Georgie (Joel Dawson) – and housekeeper Ellen (Julie Walters). Michael, who works as a teller at his father’s old stomping grounds, the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, is recently widowed, and his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) has moved back in to help him with the children. Compounding these troubles is the fact that Michael has taken out a loan from the bank, but cannot pay the money bank. The bank, now led day-to-day by William “Weatherall” Wilkins (Colin Firth), is threatening to repossess the house. On a stormy day in the park across the street, Michael’s children are playing with a kite when Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) appears. Lamplighter Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda) is there with the children, and introduces Annabel, John, and Georgie to Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins has arrived, in her own words, “to look after the Banks children.”

Also appearing in Mary Poppins Returns are Mary Poppins’ cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep), Admiral Boom (David Warner), and first mate Mr. Binnacle (Jim Norton). Angela Lansbury, Dick Van Dyke, and Karen Dotrice (who played Jane in the original film) all make cameo appearances. Lansbury, at ninety-three years of age when this film was released, is now the oldest credited actor to appear in a Walt Disney Studios movie (Van Dyke is two months younger).

Where the 1964 original eventually revealed itself to be a reminder on how to be a loving parent despite personal flaws and professional pressures, Mary Poppins Returns’ message of loss affects all. That message appears almost the moment we meet Michael Banks. The grown-up Michael Banks is living life paralyzed in grief; his sorrow – even in the least visible moments – is self-evident to the children. For both sets of Banks children (Jane and Michael; Annabel, John, and Georgie) Mary Poppins has arrived to partially fill in what has been lost, as well as allow each set of children to see what the others need. Jane and Michael Banks – tending to the financial matters at 17 Cherry Tree Lane – have been engulfed in finding the money to pay for the loan on the family house. The most disappointing change in Mary Poppins Returns compared to the original is that this film presents an obvious villainous figure in Colin Firth’s character. Firth, in a criminal abuse of his character’s power, destroys the evidence of proof that the Banks family can pay the loan quickly. As a result, Jane and Michael Banks learn little else other than to simply be tenacious and not let their unfortunate circumstances define who they are – worthy messages both, but deeply unsatisfying compared to what could have been without a villain. For Annabel, John, and Georgie, Mary Poppins’ arrival introduces an air of childhood excitement long missing from the household. But in the end, for this new generation of Banks children, they grow to see their father’s situation through his eyes. They learn to take care of him, and let him know that he is not alone in missing a loved one.

Here again is Disney’s adherence to the original, with variations. Mary Poppins Returns will also introduce certain things that retroactively canonize (“retcon”) aspects of the original, including whether Michael and Jane remember fully what happened the first time Mary Poppins arrived (or perhaps they believed they have imagined it). Most of the retconning adds little depth to either the original or this sequel. The introduction of a villain (previously described) and a frantic race-against-time sequence just before the climax are frustrating developments. The decision not to have an antagonist separated Mary Poppins from numerous Disney animated and live-action films; today, a film without any antagonist would feel radical in contemporary mainstream filmmaking. The temptation to include a rush to the climax also befell a similarly-themed movie like Christopher Robin (2018) – a clichéd addition which does nothing except to provide composer Marc Shaiman the opportunity to craft a dexterous, technically complicated cue for the score. More on Shaiman and the music soon.

The child performers and much of the supporting cast do fine in their roles (Meryl Streep’s character should have been taken out of the film entirely). Lin-Manuel Miranda even graces the audiences with a gloriously terrible British accent just like Dick Van Dyke did as Bert in Mary Poppins. The film obviously belongs to Emily Blunt, who decided not to rewatch Julie Andrews’ performance so that she could make this portrayal of the character her own. In Mary Poppins Returns, Blunt does exactly that – embodying her version of Mary with dryness, a more pronounced vanity (never to an infuriating extent), and charm. As a character, Mary Poppins is ultimately unknowable to all. That mystique is complemented here with Blunt’s (an alto to Andrews’ soprano; Andrews is unquestionably the better singer, but it is best to go into Mary Poppins Returns without burdening Andrews-esque expectations on Blunt) excellent performance.

The stunning production design from John Myhre (2002′s Chicago, 2005′s Memoirs of a Geisha) and Gordon Sim (Chicago, 2009′s Nine) replicates Depression-era London with exterior griminess, contrasting that with the visual wonder of Topsy’s residence and the noticeably stagebound set where the grand lamplighter number occurs. Sandy Powell’s costume design, likewise, is gorgeous. But the film’s technical mastery is centered around the hybrid hand-drawn animation and live-action scenes that last around twenty minutes. In pre-production, director Rob Marshall knew that he wanted his film – in honor of the original Mary Poppins and the Disney animators who worked on that film – to employ hand-drawn animation. Yet the priorities of the Walt Disney Studios between 1964 and 2018 are day and night. Disney executives wanted Marshall to have computerized animation, to which Marshall voiced his vehement opposition. Under the now-disgraced John Lasseter and current Disney Chairman/CEO Bob Iger, the Walt Disney Animation Studios quietly and gradually released almost all of its hand-drawn animators in the mid-2010s in favor of those specializing in CGI animation – the part of the Walt Disney Company that is the spiritual center of the modern corporate behemoth no longer has the resources to make anything other than the occasional short film. A good portion of the animators who came to work on Mary Poppins Returns were hired on a temporary basis with Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar. But Mary Poppins Returns is now the first theatrical Disney film employing animation that was mostly drawn by outside animation studios. Their combined work is spectacular, but this development signals what has happened, in-house, at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

With Richard M. Sherman serving as musical consultant, it is up to composer Marc Shaiman (1995′s The American President; 1999′s South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut) and lyricist Scott Wittman (the original Broadway production of Hairspray – along with Shaiman) to compose material aligned to the Sherman Brothers’ musical identity to the original while serving this sequel for what it is. Beginning with the oxymoronic (not in the movie’s context, but reality) “(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky”, Shaiman and Wittman establish Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Jack as the seemingly omnipresent, on-again/off-again narrator through whom we enter the story. Orchestral quotations of “The Life I Lead” from Mary Poppins signal that this film will make spare, but noticeable references to the Sherman Brothers’ score. “Can You Imagine That?” – during its first appearance and later references in the score – is the effervescent entry inviting the audience (and the younger set of Banks children) to enjoy themselves during this film. “The Royal Doulton Music Hall” and “A Cover is Not the Book” might not be for everyone, but the songs introduce a certain growl and Cockney attitude to Blunt’s performance previously thought unimaginable in the cinematic Mary Poppins character (yet has some precedent in Travers’ books). Miranda also raps in “A Cover is Not the Book” – the idea of rap in a Sherman Bros. or a Shaiman and Wittman score seems antithetical to their respective styles, but Miranda makes it work.

“Trip a Little Light Fantastic” – if the dudes and dudettes reading this review can forgive the anachronistic BMX stunting – makes me believe that Hollywood’s major studios should employ Miranda in more song-and-dance musicals if they are willing to invest in the genre. “Nowhere to Go But Up” closes the film, quotes more Sherman Brothers songs, and should be listened to in context. Streep’s “Turning Turtle” is a musical dud, despite the interesting Eastern European instrumentation. Mary Poppins Returns’ best song – musically and contextually – is “The Place Where Lost Things Go”. Many of the songs in Mary Poppins Returns are analogous to songs from Mary Poppins, and this lullaby sung by Blunt and later reprised is no exception. “The Place Where Lost Things Go” is this film’s “Feed the Birds” (Walt Disney’s song from any of the films he produced). This song has a perfect marriage of melody and lyrics, but ironically (in terms of my earlier request that viewers separate Julie Andrews’ original performance of Mary when watching Mary Poppins Returns) this is the most visible moment in the film where audiences may notice that Emily Blunt does not have the musical acumen to fully carry this moment. Blunt’s performance in “The Place Where Lost Things Go”, however, is good enough to underline the film’s poignancy. Shaiman’s integration of almost all of the musical numbers into the film’s incidental score is breathtaking in orchestration and construction. Used within and outside the film, Shaiman’s score is a career cinematic accomplishment.

The original Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews, was approached by Marshall to appear in a cameo. She declined, remarking that, “this is Emily’s show,” and that she did not wish to distract from Emily Blunt’s star turn. Coincidentally, a film including Julie Andrews opened against Mary Poppins Returns’ debut in North America. The film was Aquaman (2018), and Andrews voiced the Karathen – a legendary creature of the deep that assists the eponymous superhero.

Mary Poppins Returns does not refute or undermine the legacy of the 1964 original film – lightning in a bottle for Walt Disney Studios upon its release and still the greatest live-action Disney film ever made. The brilliant central performance from Blunt is not hampered by her limited vocal range, and she assisted by incredible technical masters working behind the camera. The storytelling blueprint of the original can be found across the film, however. Though I welcome the artistry Mary Poppins Returns brings, it is yet another example of the current incarnation of Walt Disney Studios cannibalizing its famed catalogue. The studio – which is now a soon-to-be-approved studio acquisition away from being the dominant force in Hollywood – is attempting to redefine cinematic consumption on its own terms. Mary Poppins Returns, for its musical mastery, is a part of those efforts.

My rating: 7/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.