“We’re on the brink of an adventure, children. Don’t spoil it with too many questions.”
It started when a friend of mine attended an early screening. He dislikes Rob Marshall about as much as I do and has no opinion of Mary Poppins at all, but when I asked if it was okay he got a big smile on his face. Said I had nothing to fear. I watched the film three times in the theater. After one viewing a complete stranger turned to me and said “That was really good, wasn’t it?” It’s been easily and casually dismissed, like many of Disney’s recent remakes and sequels, and it’s a flawed film, though it shares the same flaws as the original. (Meryl Streep is this film’s Uncle Albert.) Mary Poppins Returns works because they unapologetically re-capture the tone of the first film, which is incredible considering the first film was lightning in a bottle helped by the two people not involved in this project, Walt Disney’s guiding hand and Julie Andrews’ performance.
“Everything is possible, even the impossible.”
So what is it about Mary Poppins? I’ve been thinking about this a lot because it has nothing to do with nannies and little to do with Disney. It was actually Mark Kermode who set me on the right path. He frequently mentions the first film, which is in my Top 100, and talks about magical moments and how they were created, like having animators paint the sets to create a better blending of the two styles. In this film, Costume Designer Sandy Powell uses crayons on a set of outfits including giving Poppins ruffles in her dress that aren’t really there. The Mary Poppins films are about using movie magic to show you something new.
Specifically, scenes will have a major trick to them that’s fairly easy to figure out, but then there are the details that make my brain pop. During the expected live action/animation blend, little Georgie trades hats with the coachman. Now the animated coachman is wearing a real hat and real Georgie is wearing a cartoon. Cousin Topsy’s workshop turns upside down, so it’s an upside down set, but what about the fireplace that burns and now hangs upside down? During “A Cover is Not the Book” Jack makes a staircase of books and when he runs out, the animated penguins form a bridge to get him the other side. I get that the books are digital, but it wasn’t until I saw behind the scenes that I learned how he stepped on soft, animated penguins convincingly.
“When the world turns upside down, the best thing to do is turn right along with it.”
I’ve always been aware of the flaws. There’s a decision with every sequence that keeps the film from ever achieving perfection. Some scenes are just treading water, like the trip to the bank that comes before “Trip a Little Light Fantastic”. That scene… THAT… is just the greatest goddamn musical scene of the decade. When the lamplighters join in I leave my body behind. And then Marshall throws in damn BMX bike tricks. This is the way, but what’s good remains so, so, so good.
Take for example Meryl Streep’s scene as Topsy. Completely removable, but she’s the one person not afraid to cut down Mary and the two engage in a prickly exchange of looks that cracks me up. There’s an actor in the beginning, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, who plays banker Mr. Frye, who doesn’t realize he’s one of the bad guys. Every line is sympathetic to the Banks family’s financial problems until his partner blurts out, “You really have chosen the wrong profession.”
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