Mary Poppins Returns



Mary Poppins Returns is a 2018 American musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, with a screenplay written by David Magee and a story by Magee, Marshall, and John DeLuca. Based on the book series Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, the film is a sequel to the 1964 film Mary Poppins, and stars Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins, with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Whishaw, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Dick Van Dyke, Angela Lansbury, Colin Firth, and Meryl Streep in supporting roles. Set in 1930s London, twenty-five years after the events of the original film, the film sees Mary Poppins, the former nanny of Jane and Michael Banks, returning one year after a family tragedy.

Walt Disney Pictures announced the film in September 2015. Marshall was hired later that month, and Blunt and Miranda were cast in February 2016. Principal photography lasted from February to July 2017, and took place at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England. Mary Poppins Returns held its world premiere at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on November 29, 2018, and was released in the United States on December 19, 2018, making it one of the longest intervals between film sequels in cinematic history, at 54 years.

The film has grossed over $349 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its acting (particularly Blunt), direction, musical score, musical numbers, costume design, production values, visuals, and sense of nostalgia, although some critics found it derivative of its predecessor. It was chosen by both the National Board of Review and American Film Institute as one of the top ten films of 2018 and received numerous award nominations, including four at the 76th Golden Globe Awards (including for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy), nine at the 24th Critics' Choice Awards, three at the 72nd British Academy Film Awards, and a SAG Award nomination for Blunt at the 25th Screen Actors Guild Awards. It also received four Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score, Best Original Song ("The Place Where Lost Things Go"), Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design at the 91st Academy Awards.

Plot
In 1930s London, Michael Banks lives in his childhood home with his three children, Annabel, John, Georgie, and with his sister Jane, after the death of his wife a year earlier. Michael has taken a loan from his employer, the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, and Wilkins, the bank's corrupt new chairman, sends associates to warn him that his house will be repossessed if the loan is not repaid in full by Friday. Michael and Jane recall that their father had left them shares in the bank that should cover the loan, and they search the house for the share certificate. During the search Michael finds his childhood kite and decides to dispose of it.

While out in the park with Annabel and John, Georgie finds the kite and flies it. Mary Poppins descends from the sky with the kite in her hand. She takes the children home and announces that she will take charge of them as their nanny. She draws a bath for the three children which leads to adventures under the sea.

Michael visits the bank seeking proof of his shares, but Wilkins denies there are any records before covertly destroying the page from the official ledger. Annabel and John decide to sell their mother's 'priceless' bowl to pay off the debt. Georgie tries to stop them, and the bowl becomes damaged while the three fight over it. Jack, a lamplighter, greets Mary Poppins and joins her and the children on a trip into the painting on the side of the bowl. During their visit, Georgie is kidnapped by a talking wolf, weasel, and badger who are repossessing their belongings, and Annabel and John set out to rescue him. They do so successfully then fall off the edge of the bowl and wake in their beds, initially thinking their experience was a dream but later realizing it was real.

The next day, Mary Poppins and the children visit her cousin Topsy to get the bowl mended, and find out it has little monetary value. They go on to the bank to take Michael his briefcase, but when the children visit Wilkins' office to ask for help they overhear him planning to repossess their house. Believing that Wilkins and his associates are the same animal gang who kidnapped him, Georgie interrupts the meeting. Michael becomes angry with the children for putting the house and his job at risk. Mary Poppins takes the children home, guided by Jack and his fellow lamplighters who teach the children their rhyming lingo.

As midnight on Friday approaches, the Banks family prepare to move out of their house; but, while examining his old kite, Michael discovers that Georgie used the missing share certificate to mend it. Michael and Jane head to the bank while Mary Poppins and the children go with Jack and the lamplighters to Big Ben to 'turn back time'. After scaling the clock tower, Jack and Mary Poppins turn the clock back five minutes, giving Michael and Jane just enough time to reach the bank. Wilkins, however, will not accept the certificate as part of it is still missing. Wilkins' elderly uncle, the bank's previous chairman, Mr. Dawes Jr., arrives and sacks Wilkins on the spot for his corrupt business practices. He reveals that Michael has plenty of assets to cover the loan, namely the judiciously-invested tuppence that his father had deposited with them many years earlier.

The next day, the family visit the park where a fair is in full swing. They purchase balloons that carry them into the air, where they are joined by Jack and numerous others. On their return home, Mary Poppins realises it is time for her to leave. Michael and Jane thank her as her umbrella carries her back up into the sky and away.

Cast
• Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins.

• Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack: a cockney lamplighter and former apprentice of Bert from the original film.

• Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks: Jane's younger brother and Annabel's, John's, and Georgie's father, who is now working as a part-time teller at Fidelity Fiduciary Bank and is a struggling widowed artist. Matthew Garber portrayed the character in the original film.

• Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks: Michael's older sister and Annabel's, John's, and Georgie's aunt, who is now working as a union organizer. Karen Dotrice, who portrayed the character in the original film, makes a cameo appearance as an elegant woman who asks Jane for directions.

• Julie Walters as Ellen: Michael's and Jane's long-time housekeeper. The character was previously portrayed by Hermione Baddeley in the original film.

• Pixie Davies as Annabel Banks: Michael's daughter and Jane's niece.

• Nathanael Saleh as John Banks: Michael's eldest son and Jane's nephew.

• Joel Dawson as Georgie Banks: Michael's younger son and Jane's nephew.

• Colin Firth as William "Weatherall" Wilkins: a corrupt president of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, Mr. Dawes Jr.'s nephew and Michael's boss.

• * Firth also voices a wolf representing Wilkins in the animated Royal Doulton Bowl sequence.

• Meryl Streep as Topsy: Mary Poppins's eccentric Eastern European cousin called Tatiana Antanasia Cositori Topotrepolovsky (“Topsy” for short) who runs a fix-it workshop within London.

• David Warner as Admiral Boom: A  retired naval officer who is now confined to a wheelchair. Reginald Owen portrayed the character in the first movie.

• Jim Norton as Mr. Binnacle: Boom's first mate. Don Barclay portrayed the character, while David Tomlinson provided his voice in the original film.

• Jeremy Swift as Hamilton Gooding: A lawyer who is one of Wilkins' associates.

• * Swift also voices a badger representing Gooding in the animated Royal Doulton Bowl sequence.

• Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Templeton Frye: A lawyer who is one of Wilkins' associates.

• * Holdbrook-Smith also voices a weasel representing Frye in the animated Royal Doulton Bowl sequence.

• Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady: A saucy balloon-seller who sells balloons at the park.

• Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Dawes Jr.: the chairman of Fidelity Fiduciary Bank and Wilkins’ uncle. Just as in the original film, Van Dyke is credited as "Navckid Keyd" which unscrambles during the credits. The character was portrayed by Arthur Malet in the original film, while Van Dyke previously portrayed both Bert and Mr. Dawes Sr. (Mr. Dawes Jr.'s late father).

• Noma Dumezweni as Miss Penny Farthing: Wilkins' secretary.

• Sudha Bhuchar as Miss Lark: The Banks' neighbor who owns a dog. Marjorie Bennett played the role in the first movie.

• Steve Nicolson as the Park Keeper.

• Tarik Frimpong as Angus: Jack's fellow lamplighter.

Voices

 * Edward Hibbert as Mary Poppins' parrot umbrella.
 * Chris O'Dowd as Séamus the Coachman Dog, who is an Irish Setter in the animated Royal Doulton Bowl sequence.
 * Mark Addy as Clyde the Horse in the animated Royal Doulton Bowl sequence.

Development
A sequel to Mary Poppins had been gestating in development hell since the first film's release in 1964. Walt Disney attempted to produce a sequel a year later, but was rejected by the author P. L. Travers, who dismissed Disney's first adaptation. In the late 1980s, then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios Jeffrey Katzenberg and vice-president of live-action production Martin Kaplan approached Travers with the idea of a sequel set years after the first film, with the Banks children now as adults and Julie Andrews reprising her role as an older Mary Poppins. Travers again rejected the concept, except for Andrews' return, suggesting a sequel set one year after the original film with Andrews reprising the role. This idea was also shot down, however, because Travers proved impossible to deal with, since she imposed her own rules, including barring Poppins' clothing from being red.

Travers' attempt to get a sequel from the first film with her involvement was not deterred. In the 1980s, she and Brian Sibley, a good friend of hers whom she met in the 1970s, wrote a screenplay for a sequel entitled Mary Poppins Comes Back, based on the parts from Travers' second Mary Poppins book unused in the 1964 film. Sibley then wrote a letter to Roy E. Disney about making the film, to which Disney contracted them to supply a film treatment. According to Sibley, Travers wrote notes on his script ideas and though she rejected some of them, she liked some of them too, including replacing Bert with his brother, an ice cream man in a park in Edwardian London who similarly served as Mary's friend and potential admirer. Four months later, however, casting issues emerged, as Andrews temporarily retired from making films and wasn't interested in reprising her role as Mary Poppins and it was tricky to find an actor to play Bert's brother, though an executive suggested that singer Michael Jackson was right for the part. The planned sequel eventually was cancelled upon the casting problems and the fact that new executives were now running the company.

On the 2004 release of the 40th Anniversary DVD of the original film, the trivia track stated in regards to a possible sequel "One day the wind may change again ...". On 14 September 2015, Walt Disney Pictures president Sean Bailey pitched a new Mary Poppins film to Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, and Marc Platt, as the team had produced Into the Woods for the studio the year prior. With approval from Travers' estate, Disney greenlit the project with the film taking place 25 years after the first featuring a standalone narrative, based on the remaining seven books in the series. Marshall was hired to direct, while DeLuca and Platt would serve as producers along with Marshall. David Magee was hired to write the script.

Casting
On 18 February 2016, Emily Blunt was cast in the film to play the title role in the sequel. On 24 February 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda was cast in the film to play Jack, a lamplighter. In April 2016, Disney confirmed that the film was in development and that Blunt and Miranda had been cast in the lead roles. In May, Disney announced the film's title as Mary Poppins Returns. By July 2016, Meryl Streep had entered negotiations to join the cast to play cousin Topsy, and in the following month, Ben Whishaw in negotiations to play the grownup Michael Banks. In September, Streep formally joined the cast. The following month, Emily Mortimer was cast as the grownup Jane Banks, and Colin Firth joined the film as William Weatherall Wilkins, president of the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank. In February 2017, Angela Lansbury was cast to play the Balloon Lady. Julie Andrews, who portrayed Poppins in the 1964 film, was approached to do a cameo in the sequel, but turned down the offer as she wanted it to be "Emily's show". Dick Van Dyke, who portrayed Bert and Mr. Dawes Sr. in the original film, returns in the sequel as the latter's son, Mr. Dawes Jr., replacing Arthur Malet, who died in 2013. Karen Dotrice, who played the young Jane Banks in the original, has a cameo appearance in the film.

Filming
Principal photography on the film began on 10 February 2017, at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England. Eight soundstages were used to build practical sets for the film, including Cherry Tree Lane, Topsy’s Fix-It Shop, Big Ben, the interiors of the Banks home, and the enormous abandoned park, where a big part of the musical number, "Trip a Little Light Fantastic", was set. Scenes requiring green and blue screens for visual effects were first filmed on J and K Stages with physical set pieces for the cast to interact with, which were then replaced with animation in post-production. Unlike the first film, which was wholly shot within soundstages in Hollywood, filming also took place on location, including outside the Bank of England in March 2017, and outside Buckingham Palace in April 2017. Principal photography was wrapped by July 2017.

Visual effects and animation
The visual effects were provided by Cinesite, Framestore, Luma Pictures, and TPO VFX and supervised by Christian Irles, Christian Kaestner, Brendan Seals, Matthew Tinsley and Matt Johnson. Like the original film, this film includes a sequence combining live-action and traditional hand-drawn animation. According to Marshall, he asked for an animated/live-action sequence rather than employing modern CGI animation, feeling that it was vital to hold on the classic hand-drawn animation to protect the spirit of the original film. The animation sequence was developed and overall supervision was handled by ex-Pixar veteran Jim Capobianco. Ex-Disney animator, Ken Duncan, supervised physical animation production at his studio in Pasadena. Over 70 animation artists specializing in hand-drawn 2D animation from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and other animation studios were recruited for the sequence. The animated drawings were created using pencil and paper and scanned onto the computer to be digitally inked and painted. Character designer James Woods and animator James Baxter also helped redesign the penguins from the first film. All of the hand-drawn animation was created by Duncan's animation studio, Duncan Studio, in Pasadena, California. Concept art by James Baker reveals that the scrapped "Chimpanzoo" idea from the original film, where humans are kept in cages for the entertainment of animals, was originally going to be recycled for this film. However, it was scrapped once again.

Music
The music and score for the film was composed by Marc Shaiman, with song lyrics written by Scott Wittman and Shaiman. The complete soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on 7 December 2018.

Release
The film was originally scheduled to be released on December 25, 2018. However, in July 2018, it was moved up to December 19, 2018.

Marketing
On March 4, 2018, Disney released a teaser trailer for the film, with the release date of December 25. On September 17, 2018, Disney released an official trailer which revealed new footage, a snippet of an original song from the film, "The Place where Lost Things Go", and announced December 19 as the new release date for the film. On October 22, 2018, Disney released a special look on Dancing with the Stars' "Disney Night" which teased an original song from the film, "Can You Imagine That". On November 15, 2018, Disney released a sneak peek which teased another original song from the film, "Trip a Little Light Fantastic". On November 22, 2018, Disney released a special episode of 20/20 on ABC called "Mary Poppins Returns: Behind the Magic" which included an extended look of the film. On November 26, 2018, advance tickets for Mary Poppins Returns went on sale along with the digital pre-order of the soundtrack and the release of two tracks off the soundtrack, "The Place Where Lost Things Go" and "Trip a Little Light Fantastic."

Home media
Mary Poppins Returns was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Ultra HD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD on March 19, 2019.

Box office
Mary Poppins Returns grossed $172 million in the United States and Canada, and $177.5 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $349.5 million, against a production budget of $130 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $49-51 million from 4,090 theatres over its first five days (including around $35 million in its first weekend) and a total of $75 million over its first week of release. The film made $4.8 million on its first day of release and $4.1 million on its second. It went on to gross $23.5 million its opening weekend (a total of $32.3 million over its first five days), finishing below expectations but second at the box office behind fellow newcomer Aquaman. It then made $6.1 million on Monday and $11.5 million on Christmas Day for total week opening of $49.9 million. In its second weekend the film increased by 20.5% to $28.4 million, remaining in second, and in its third weekend made $15.9 million, finishing third behind Aquaman and newcomer Escape Room.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 344 reviews, with an average rating of 7.25/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Mary Poppins Returns relies on the magic of its classic forebear to cast a familiar – but still solidly effective – family-friendly spell." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score and a 62% "definite recommend".

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing "Emily Blunt is the magical nanny in this scarily accomplished clone-pastiche sequel, which starts terrifically and ends cloyingly – just like the original." Geoffrey MacNab of The Independent wrote "The nostalgia here could easily have been very cloying. Instead, it adds to the richness and mystery. In an era of superhero franchises where sequels to successful movies turn up almost instantly, Mary Poppins’s return shows that sometimes it pays to wait. Half a century on, her allure hasn’t faded at all." Owen Gleiberman of Variety deemed the film as a "rapturous piece of nostalgia", lauded Blunt's take on Mary Poppins and described her casting as "practically perfect", and gave his praise on Marshall's direction as well as the production design, musical score, songs, and the supporting performances (particularly Miranda, Whishaw, Firth, and Streep). He also drew comparisons of the film's quality and tone to the 1960s musicals as well the nostalgia to Star Wars: The Force Awakens. David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Its old-fashioned, honest sentimentality plasters a smile across your face and plants a tear in your eye, often simultaneously." Rooney lauded Blunt's leading performance (whose performance he labelled as "preening vanity with unmistakable warmth") along with the supporting performances of Miranda, Whishaw, Mortimer, Walters, Van Dyke, Lansbury, Firth, and Streep as well as the costumes, sets, musical score, and songs (which he referred the latter two as the best since Hairspray and described it as "full of personality and humor, and reverential" without being slavish in their adherence to the musical patterns of the first film).

Brian Truitt of USA Today described the film as a "comforting nostalgia-fest" and "satisfaction in spit-spot fashion" as well as commended the performances of Blunt and Miranda (whom he referred to as "endlessly charming") as well Marshall's knack on musical numbers and Shaiman's "swinging delight" original score. The Atlantic's Christopher Orr remarked that: "Mary Poppins Returns serves as a reminder that, for all its global scope and hegemonic ambition, Disney still has a little magic left up its sleeve." Orr called it a "highly likable diversion" and similarly praised the film for balancing the familiar and the new. He also found Blunt's version of Mary Poppins as "excellent" and described it as "a little chillier and more austere" while referring it as "truer to the spirit of the heroine of P. L. Travers’s books". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film with three out of five stars, praising Blunt's unique portrayal of the title character while referring the film as an "industrial-strength sugarplum" and felt that the sequel didn't live up to the 1964 original, but nevertheless praised the film in which he remarked: "Mary Poppins Returns shows it has the power to leave you deliriously happy". Time magazine's Stephanie Zacharek wrote that "Mary Poppins Returns honors the spirit of its predecessor". She also highlighted Blunt's interpretation of the title character (in which she described the performance as close to "Travers’s original vision"), as well as the costumes, production values, and 2D animation sequences, but found fault with Shaiman's and Wittman's songs as one of the film's "weaker points".

Will Gompertz of the BBC gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, stating, "It looks fantastic, the special effects are special, and a great deal of money has clearly been spent in the hope of making it supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. All of which is great. Except the movie – unlike the eponymous super nanny – never quite takes off." Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that "Mary Poppins Returns looks, feels and sounds like a sales pitch" and "ratchets up more than the family’s existential stakes", but praised the "emotional rawness" of Whishaw's performance; she called Shaiman's and Wittman's songs "the gravest disappointment", stressing that "there’s nothing here with comparable melodic or lyrical staying power" to the Sherman Brothers' original 1964 songs. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle regarded the sequel as inferior to its 1964 original, feeling that the story did not deliver and gave a mixed review on the songs, which he described as "forgettable", "indifferent", and "dreadful", but singled out the other songs such as Underneath the Lovely London Sky and The Place Where Lost Things Go as some of the best, stating "Mary Poppins Returns might have had a chance had the movie not tried to compete with the original in terms of scale. With 20 minutes of song and dance numbers cut, the movie really could have been better – not great, but better."

Future
In January 2019, Marshall stated that a third film could possibly be in early development. Blunt has expressed great interest in returning to the character. However, in February 2019, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn denied any active development on a sequel.