There’s something utterly delightful about films that not only take to wonderful fantastical places but which remember that, sooner or later, we will have to return to the far more ordinary surrounds of everyday life.
It’s that beguiling way of the day-to-day and the whimsically magical that has made Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, and Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne, and their respective films such an escapist delight – yes, we’re taken on an otherworldly redemptive journey but lessons learned there make sense back where we first started.
It’s a potent, soul-salving combination that will be warmly welcomed once again when both Mary Poppins and Winnie the Pooh, or more correctly Christopher Robin make an appearance on the big screen once again.
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
SNAPSHOT
Set in 1930s London, Jane and Michael Banks are now grown-up, with Michael still living in the house on Cherry Tree Lane. He lives there with his three children, Annabel, John, and George, and the housekeeper named Ellen. After Michael suffers a personal loss, Mary Poppins comes back to the Banks family with street lamplighter Jack, and eccentric cousin Topsy. (official synopsis via Laughing Squid)
54 years after the first Mary Poppins film was released to near-universal acclaim – the author of the idiosyncratically life-changing protagonist was reportedly not thrilled by the fun and animation of the film – everyone’s favourite English nanny, played by Emily Blunt, is back, descending from the stormy skies once again to fix the lives of the Banks family once again.
Granted, we only have a teaser trailer to go on, but it does convey a sense of loss and sadness, but also hopeful wonder, all in a very short space of time which augurs well for the Rob Marshall-directed sequel.
Mary Poppins Returns releases 25 December in USA and 1 January 2019 in Australia.
CHRISTOPER ROBIN
SNAPSHOT
In the heartwarming live action adventure “Disney’s Christopher Robin,” the young boy who loved embarking on adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood with a band of spirited and lovable stuffed animals, has grown up and lost his way. Now it is up to his childhood friends to venture into our world and help Christopher Robin remember the loving and playful boy who is still inside. (official synopsis courtesy Disney via Spoiler TV)
If you can’t imagine Christopher Robin, who spent many a magical day in the Hundred Acre Wood with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and co., ever feeling washed-out and disillusioned as an adult, then it might be worth thinking back to your own (hopefully) idyllic childhood.
Remember how lovely that felt? How wonderful, limitless and free, and how adulthood, no matter its great charms, often doesn’t?
Even the most happy of us will admit things were simpler and lovelier then in some ways – Christopher Robin, Disney’s new live action Winnie the Pooh article asks whether it’s possible to recapture that.
It’s appealing to think you can but we have to wait a good few months yet to see what that kind of childhood bliss recaptured looks like.
Christopher Robin premieres 3 August in USA, 17 August in UK and 20 September in Australia.