First Take: Mary Poppins Returns- she’s back, and better than ever

Spoiler free as usual. Because that would be telling.

SYNOPSIS: Decades after her original visit, the magical
nanny returns to help the Banks siblings and Michael’s children through a difficult
time in their lives.

Here we go then. A sequel with probably the highest
expectations in the world. Disney know a thing or two about the pressures of
developing their beloved 1960s properties further, you just have to look at
2016’s version of The Jungle Book to understand exactly how vocal fans can be.
But for director Rob Marshall, he has an even greater task: to deliver a sequel
that honours not only the legacy of that 1964 original, but builds upon it
further. And he went and knocked it out of the park.

Marshall is able to helm a 2 hour 10 minute film (a full 10 minutes
shorter than the 1964 classic) incredibly well, balancing the live action
sequences with some truly incredible animated setpieces, that arguably wouldn’t
have been possible back then- but it still feels like a film straight out of
the 60s, and that is a major credit to cinematographer Dion Beebe. David Magee
is tasked with writing the script (based on a story him, Marshall and John
DeLuca devised), and while it feels like a straight rehash of the original,
there is a timeless quality to the story that is able to deliver something to
audiences young and old. And then, the music. Marc Shaiman has nailed it.
That’s all I can say. Yes, none of the classic songs are there, but the new
ones are just as good.

Performance wise, with 96 cast members listed on IMDB, it’s
difficult to summarise all of them, so the important ones are as follows: Emily
Blunt is cast perfectly, capping off an incredible year for her (after the
success of A Quiet Place), Lin-Manuel Miranda brings that extra Broadway flair
to the film, Ben Whishaw once again turns in some fine work, and with a stacked
supporting cast that includes Emily Mortimer, Colin Firth, Meryl Streep, Julie
Walters and some very surprising appearances from Angela Lansbury and Dick Van
Dyke, the film feels incredibly well rounded- but once you add some star-making
performances from Pixie Davies, Nathaniel Saleh and Joel Dawson as the Banks
children, this is where the film comes alive. It’s a hell of a film, don’t get
me wrong, so this could arguably be a very late contender for Film of the Year
based on the technical side of things… whether audiences enjoy it as much is a
question still to be answered.

THE VERDICT

She says it better than I can: practically perfect in every
way. Mary Poppins Returns is a damn strong sequel, and understandably it will
gain a lot of traction this Christmas with cinemagoers- as I write this, the
local cinema have just sold out on multiple shows. See it big, see it loud, and
see it with the family, because this is the strongest film I’ve seen that just
happens to have the U certificate.

RATING: 5/5