Awww welcome back! Being the person I am who literally hasn't written anything in over a year, this is my first review of a movie seen using AMC Stubs A List. This blog is in no way sponsored by Stubs A List, Stubs Premiere, or MoviePass, but if you were curious, those are the mechanisms I've used to save money on my movie going for a very long time.
(Fair warning-there's some mild spoilers. Either things that happen early in the movie or cameos that were well publicized and not surprising in their execution)
So. Mary Poppins Returns (2018, Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda). I was kind of disappointed. I went into it thinking it was going to be amazing. I had really high hopes. And in general, it was good. I liked the plot and the children. Lin-Manuel Miranda was decent although to be completely honest I've always preferred his writing and composing to his performances (although his rapping in this one was the perfect follow up to Dick Van Dyke's recitatives in the original). The big let down for me was Emily Blunt.
At first blush, she was cast brilliantly. She looks enough like Julie Andrews did in the '60s and she speaks fine. My issue is zero percent her fault. They just should have dubbed her singing. She sings great, she is one of the few lead actresses I've heard singing in a movie musical in the last few years where I didn't cringe every time she opened her mouth (don't get me started on La La Land. It's called a diaphragm. Can you please find it? Great. Thanks. Now use it), the thing is, she's an alto. They wrote the part for an alto. I appreciate that they didn't write a soprano part and then make her struggle through it, but when you're recreating a role that sang things like Feed the Birds and you suddenly drop down a vocal part, it's like Mary Poppins is the Dread Pirate Roberts (which btw totally believable and is there fanfic with that theory connecting these two movies?).
Next up on Wendy's List of Complaints: the soundtrack. It was perfectly enjoyable but imminently forgettable. I do mean imminently. There were a few songs whose melodies I forgot while still listening to them. This says a lot, given that I sang along with Moana (a soundtrack I did not hear before seeing the movie) while watching the movie the first time. I learn music FAST like nobody's business. If I can't remember your tunes while they're still being sung into my ear, it says something. Also, even the good songs I did not leave humming. In fact, I left singing Something Good from The Sound of Music (see here and here for my long ago thoughts on that one). There was a reprise about 2/3 through MPR and it started out A WHOLE LOT like one line from Something Good (specifically "nothing comes from nothing") and it just went right into my head. Given that it was another Julie Andrews flick in my head (and also the worst song from said flick. You can fight me on that, but I'll win), it was immensely distracting.
Final complaint: I've done some googling and it sounds like there's a bunch of reasons Julie Andrews didn't have a cameo. I think they shouldn't have had Angela Lansbury's cameo. Her cameo felt like it was written for an aging Mary and instead we have an aging Miss Price and you're sitting there thinking "wait which David Tomlinson movie are we watching" and also you're just sad because they've got her singing and you know if Dame Julie had done it she couldn't be singing.
Things that were great: Julie Walters. Can the woman do no wrong? I adore her. Meryl Streep. Her turtle panic attack was hilarious and I thoroughly enjoyed her scene. Colin Firth. Dude was this a Mamma Mia reunion? Wasn't that last summer? But also, he was great. He felt both very real in a very fantastical world where you don't quite know what is imagination and what is the world and very comically villainous. He was well written. And funny. Dick Van Dyke: they managed to give him a cameo that fit canonically into the casting from the original (remember Old Man Dawes?.....) but with a flair of Bert. 100% love it.
Great things about more than casting: the bits of the original soundtrack thrown in were great. The bank scene in the original STILL haunts my nightmares (ditto with the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and when Michael Banks approaches the Dawes Tomes Mousely Grubbs Fidelity Fiduciary Bank (they never call it anything except the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank which honestly was a disappointment to me) the background music played The Song and I actually got shivers. A+ music haunting, movie composer people. A+.
I also really liked that this movie had an actual bad thing they were fighting against. The original is basically fighting against the patriarchy (and please note that at the end Mom attaches her votes for women sash to the kite. The patriarchy definitely wins) and toxic masculinity (Dad does fly a kite at the end. I don't know if I'd say they win but maybe it's a draw? That's a discussion for another day) which while being very real and scary (and still very very relevant) they're very abstract. The movie also takes place in 1910. Their world is pretty stable (Admiral Boom notwithstanding). Now we're in the midst of the Depression (or the Great Slump as the title card tells us). They're fighting against losing their house (and in the end there is an AMAZING throwback to the tuppence from the original movie) and it's very real and we see the realness echoed in the magical Mary Poppins times. There's villains all over the place for the children and it's really well done.
Last truly great thing: the penguin cameo. Truly marvelous. It's the little things that show you this is still the same world.
I definitely recommend seeing this movie. I am completely prepared to accept this as canonical. It's a wonderful follow up. I'd just like a little more toe popping music and maybe dubbing Emily Blunt with a soprano.
***Obligatory special shout out to Dame Angela Lansbury because I feel like I was very down on her in this piece when I swear I love her. She's amazing. Also to Emily Blunt. I feel bad that I finally heard an actress sing and was not incredibly annoyed but still had complaints. Her voice suited the melodies but neither her voice nor the melodies suited the character***
(Fair warning-there's some mild spoilers. Either things that happen early in the movie or cameos that were well publicized and not surprising in their execution)
So. Mary Poppins Returns (2018, Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda). I was kind of disappointed. I went into it thinking it was going to be amazing. I had really high hopes. And in general, it was good. I liked the plot and the children. Lin-Manuel Miranda was decent although to be completely honest I've always preferred his writing and composing to his performances (although his rapping in this one was the perfect follow up to Dick Van Dyke's recitatives in the original). The big let down for me was Emily Blunt.
At first blush, she was cast brilliantly. She looks enough like Julie Andrews did in the '60s and she speaks fine. My issue is zero percent her fault. They just should have dubbed her singing. She sings great, she is one of the few lead actresses I've heard singing in a movie musical in the last few years where I didn't cringe every time she opened her mouth (don't get me started on La La Land. It's called a diaphragm. Can you please find it? Great. Thanks. Now use it), the thing is, she's an alto. They wrote the part for an alto. I appreciate that they didn't write a soprano part and then make her struggle through it, but when you're recreating a role that sang things like Feed the Birds and you suddenly drop down a vocal part, it's like Mary Poppins is the Dread Pirate Roberts (which btw totally believable and is there fanfic with that theory connecting these two movies?).
Next up on Wendy's List of Complaints: the soundtrack. It was perfectly enjoyable but imminently forgettable. I do mean imminently. There were a few songs whose melodies I forgot while still listening to them. This says a lot, given that I sang along with Moana (a soundtrack I did not hear before seeing the movie) while watching the movie the first time. I learn music FAST like nobody's business. If I can't remember your tunes while they're still being sung into my ear, it says something. Also, even the good songs I did not leave humming. In fact, I left singing Something Good from The Sound of Music (see here and here for my long ago thoughts on that one). There was a reprise about 2/3 through MPR and it started out A WHOLE LOT like one line from Something Good (specifically "nothing comes from nothing") and it just went right into my head. Given that it was another Julie Andrews flick in my head (and also the worst song from said flick. You can fight me on that, but I'll win), it was immensely distracting.
Final complaint: I've done some googling and it sounds like there's a bunch of reasons Julie Andrews didn't have a cameo. I think they shouldn't have had Angela Lansbury's cameo. Her cameo felt like it was written for an aging Mary and instead we have an aging Miss Price and you're sitting there thinking "wait which David Tomlinson movie are we watching" and also you're just sad because they've got her singing and you know if Dame Julie had done it she couldn't be singing.
Things that were great: Julie Walters. Can the woman do no wrong? I adore her. Meryl Streep. Her turtle panic attack was hilarious and I thoroughly enjoyed her scene. Colin Firth. Dude was this a Mamma Mia reunion? Wasn't that last summer? But also, he was great. He felt both very real in a very fantastical world where you don't quite know what is imagination and what is the world and very comically villainous. He was well written. And funny. Dick Van Dyke: they managed to give him a cameo that fit canonically into the casting from the original (remember Old Man Dawes?.....) but with a flair of Bert. 100% love it.
Great things about more than casting: the bits of the original soundtrack thrown in were great. The bank scene in the original STILL haunts my nightmares (ditto with the child catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) and when Michael Banks approaches the Dawes Tomes Mousely Grubbs Fidelity Fiduciary Bank (they never call it anything except the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank which honestly was a disappointment to me) the background music played The Song and I actually got shivers. A+ music haunting, movie composer people. A+.
I also really liked that this movie had an actual bad thing they were fighting against. The original is basically fighting against the patriarchy (and please note that at the end Mom attaches her votes for women sash to the kite. The patriarchy definitely wins) and toxic masculinity (Dad does fly a kite at the end. I don't know if I'd say they win but maybe it's a draw? That's a discussion for another day) which while being very real and scary (and still very very relevant) they're very abstract. The movie also takes place in 1910. Their world is pretty stable (Admiral Boom notwithstanding). Now we're in the midst of the Depression (or the Great Slump as the title card tells us). They're fighting against losing their house (and in the end there is an AMAZING throwback to the tuppence from the original movie) and it's very real and we see the realness echoed in the magical Mary Poppins times. There's villains all over the place for the children and it's really well done.
Last truly great thing: the penguin cameo. Truly marvelous. It's the little things that show you this is still the same world.
I definitely recommend seeing this movie. I am completely prepared to accept this as canonical. It's a wonderful follow up. I'd just like a little more toe popping music and maybe dubbing Emily Blunt with a soprano.
***Obligatory special shout out to Dame Angela Lansbury because I feel like I was very down on her in this piece when I swear I love her. She's amazing. Also to Emily Blunt. I feel bad that I finally heard an actress sing and was not incredibly annoyed but still had complaints. Her voice suited the melodies but neither her voice nor the melodies suited the character***
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