SNAPSHOT
In Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns, an all new sequel with a fresh sensibility that celebrates the spirit of the original, Mary Poppins is back to help the next generation of the Banks family find the joy and wonder missing in their lives. Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train, Into the Woods) stars as the practically-perfect nanny with unique magical skills who can turn any task into an unforgettable, fantastic adventure and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, Moana) plays her friend Jack, an optimistic street lamplighter who helps bring light — and life — to the streets of London. (synopsis via Coming Soon)
Like just about every human being with any exposure at all to Disney, there is a great deal of fondness and love for 1964’s Mary Poppins film.
It might not have necessarily been to the taste of P. L. Travers, the irascibly idiosyncratic Australian author who wrote all eight Mary Poppins books but audiences adored the whimsically tough character of the umbrella-travelling magical nanny who fixed things with tough love, musical brio and excursions into a cartoon world full of dancing penguins and the like.
So the idea of a sequel is a delightful idea; at the back of your mind though is will it do the original justice?
While no one, save for Disney’s marketing department who are understandably quite gung-ho for the film, can know for sure if it’s going to be a winner, you only have to look at the talent involved to see how much of a shot it has of being magically, wonderfully spectacular.
Emily Blunt looks and sounds superb as the eponymous nanny, the great Lin-Manuel Miranda not only stars in but has written songs for the sequel – one of which features in the latest trailer (above) – Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Julie Walters star as characters that will no doubt leap off the screen, and there is colourful and vibrancy, passion and musicality aplenty.
It looks like all our sequel dreams have come true – bring on yet another magical journey!
Mary Poppins Returns releases 19 December USA, 21 December UK and 1 January 2019 Australia.
