As they say in the business, I have some notes:
The original Mary Poppins was a fairly light hearted affair, but this new Mary Poppins is hard and edgy in all the wrong places. I don’t like the casting of Emily Blunt as Poppins, she feels too cold and aloof. The main story is about the mental break down of one of the children from the original movie after his wife died leaving him two children to raise alone, then through his own sheer incompetence, the family home is being foreclosed on. He’s only saved because one of kids decided to use the paperwork he lost as patchwork on a kite thta was a big deal at the end of the original movie.
I have complaints about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s absolutely insane accent and acting in the film, but they pale in comparison to my feelings on the new animated scenes with a borderline pornographic burlesque scene. I’m cool with it in the appropriate context, but a Mary Poppins film isn’t where I would expect to see it.
There’s some other sad moments in the film, but ultimately the film fell below what I was expecting, the one bright light in the entire film was the final scene with the song “Only Way Is Up”.
Mary Poppins Returns originally appeared on Adam Selvidge’s Website on April 27, 2019.
