Mary Poppins Returns with some old dogs and new tricks
We’re only a few months away from reuniting with the titular nanny of our childhoods, but can the new Mary Poppins cast live up to the old legacy?
It’s the same ol’ pirate ship house on Cherry Tree Lane, the same tattered green kite and blustery day. It’s the same floral handbag, parrot umbrella, and double reflection. Mary Poppins has returned to once again take care of the Banks children.
“Us?” asks Michael’s youngest son. “Oh. Yes, you too,” replies Ms. Poppins.
The official trailer for Disney’s remake of the 1964 classic released just two weeks ago, making long-time Poppins fans feel “as lucky as lucky can be.” But, of course, with that gleeful excitement comes a small spoonful of speculation. After all, how can a remake, over 50 years later, live up to the legacy that acting icons Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke left imprinted on the hearts of children all over the U.S.?
The answer seems to lie with the stellar cast the Into The Woods director Rob Marshall has put together, made up of both new and returning members, coupled with the cartoon magic we all remember and adventures we’ve never seen before.
Mary Poppins Returns, releasing earlier than expected on December 19, takes place in depression-era London, where Mary (Emily Blunt) arrives 20 years after her first visit to aid the now-grown Jane (Emily Mortimer) and Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw). With the assistance of her lamplighter friend Jack, Ms. Poppins helps Michael and his three children recover from loosing a beloved mother as they rediscover the joy and wonder missing from their lives.
“I feel a little more trepidation with this [character] because she’s so emblematic of people’s nostalgia,” said Blunt in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. “It’s such an important character in people’s childhood.”
Back in 2016, Blunt had not yet spoken to Andrews, about being asked to reprise the role, but when Marshall crossed paths with the Academy Award-winning actress at the Hamptons, he told told her Blunt would be his leading nanny in the film, to which Andrews replied, “Oh, wonderful!”
“I felt like I wanted to cry,” said Blunt to EW. “It was lovely to get her stamp of approval. That took the edge off it, for sure.”
Despite the remake drawing in criticisms from some fans of the original, Andrews’ blessing gave Blunt some ease regarding her creative freedoms with Poppin’s character. While Andrews’ version of Mary was sweet but firm, Blunt says her Mary Poppins will be more closely related to P.L. Travers’ original series, admitting to EW, “She’s a little meaner, yeah.”
But Blunt is not the only cast member with a predecessor’s shadow to overcome. Lin-Manuel Miranda, star and creator of the Broadway hit musical Hamilton, plays the new maintenance man on the block, Jack, a tip-of-the-hat to Dick Van Dyke’s exuberant and lovable Bert, the chimney sweep. There’s even a lamplighters musical number, written by composer Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, that’s in “practically perfect” parallel to Step In Time.
Unlike Andrews, Van Dyke, does appear in the new Disney film but in a different role, as the son of the penny-pinching banker Mr. Dawes, who used to employ Michael and Jane’s father. In the trailer, a white-bearded Van Dyke can be seen breaking out into a tap-dance number on the bank’s mahogany table.
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While some might view Van Dyke’s appearance in Mary Poppins Returns as a chance for the actor to atone for his something-quite-atrocious accent in the original, Miranda has promised to deliver an accent even less accurate than the one Van Dyke offered.
“I intend to represent a corner of London with my accent that has not yet been invented,” said Miranda in an interview with USA Today. “I’m going to have the worst accent in the history of English accents — I’m going to sound like I’m from another planet.”
Mary Poppins might have embodied the essence of prim and proper, but perfection was never a concern in Disney’s original film. In fact, the movie thrived off of the colorful, the ridiculous and the absurd. The rediscovering of childhood wonder was a theme in the original Mary Poppins and from what can be seen in the trailer, Marshall has done well in keeping the story’s spirit alive in 2018, from Mary’s vibrant wardrobe, to cartoon animal carriage rides.
But the wild adventures don’t just stop at accents and outfits. More cast members join in the antics with Meryl Streep playing Poppins’s spunky, red-headed cousin, Topsy, and acting legend Angela Lansbury makes an appearance as the big-hatted rainbow balloon lady.
“I am truly humbled and honored to be asked by Disney to bring P.L. Travers’ further adventures to the screen,” said Marshall in a statement. “The iconic original film means so much to me personally, and I look forward to creating an original movie musical that can bring Mary Poppins, and her message that childlike wonder can be found in even the most challenging of times, to a whole new generation.”
Regardless of fans acting slightly overprotective of the story they grew up with, Blunt still believes that the return of Mary Poppins could not be better timed. And perhaps the goal of this film is less about reaching the previously set bar, and more about recreating a specific feeling.
“The world is fragile right now, and people need a film like this,” said Blunt in an interview with The Sunday Times. “It’s incredibly hopeful. I didn’t watch the original while shooting, but it’s seared into my memory — this idea of her as this incredibly unsentimental character who swept into their lives and made it all right. I found a great comfort in that as a child.”
Do you think the Mary Poppins Returns cast and crew show promise? What other Disney remakes are you getting excited for? Share your thoughts in the comments below.