"Mary Poppins Returns"

It took until the 364th day of the year, but I believe that I saw today what was, for me, the best movie of 2018, "Mary Poppins Returns".  As I indicated in my most recent Grandstander post, I had just seen the 1964 original a few days ago for the very first time, and I loved it, and it was great to have it fresh in my mind when seeing this one today.

As some might think, this is not a remake of the 1964 original that starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.  It is rather a sequel to that one.  It takes place a few decades after the original one.  Michael and Jane Banks are now adults, and the recently widowed Michael is still living at 17 Cherrytree Lane with his three young children, and he is faced with a multitude of problems, the foremost being that the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank is about to foreclose on a loan and repossess his house.

As his sister Jane tries to help him in his efforts to keep their family home, who comes into their lives once again but the mystical and marvelous nanny of their youth, Mary Poppins.

I won't say anymore about the storyline or the plot, so you need - I mean you really need - to go see this one yourself.

The movie was directed and choreographed by Oscar winner Rob Marshall and it gives you great music and dance numbers, beautiful and colorful costumes, amazing animation and special effects, and a simply wonderful performance by Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins.  It would be unfair to compare her to Julie Andrews, so I won't, but if you judge her on her own merits, she is just terrific.  She can speak volumes with the look on her face and the raising of her eyebrows, and man oh man, can she sing.

Blunt and Miranda

"Mary Poppins and Jack"

Instead of Bert the chimney sweep, this one gives us Jack, the lamplighter, or "leery", as played by Lin-Manuel Miranda.  This is Miranda's first big show biz splash post-Hamilton, and perhaps the expectations were too high for him, thus some critics have been lukewarm to his performance, but I thought he delivered very well in the role.  One of the musical numbers did feature him doing a rapidly rhyming semi-hip-hop number, so that was kind of cool, but this certainly was NOT "Hamilton meets Mary Poppins" if that's what you were expecting.

Another criticism I have heard of this movie is that, well, it's okay, but the songs can't hold up to the songs of the original movie.  Maybe, maybe not.  Perhaps, those critics should allow for the test of time to see if some of these numbers will grab hold of the public and become the next "Spoonful of Sugar" or Chim Chim Cher-ee".

Let's face it, in 2018, there was a lot of stuff going on out in the world that was unpleasant and discomforting.  "Mary Poppins Returns" is a movie that gives you something that is fun to watch and to listen to, that is beautiful to look at, and, more importantly, sends a quite positive message, and ain't it nice to see and hear something positive?

To me, at least, "Mary Poppins Returns" is the best movie that I have seen in 2018, and it gets the full Four Star rating from The Grandstander.

"Mary Poppins"

One of the movies on our "must see" holiday list is the new "Mary Poppins Returns" from Disney.  The realization then hit me that I had never - as in NEVER - seen to original 1964 film version that starred Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke, and that earned Andrews an Academy Award for Best Actress that year.  Marilyn had seen it, but her memory tells her that she probably saw it with her mother when it was first released all those years ago.

So, we obtained a Blue-ray edition of the movie and watched it last night, and were perfectly delighted with it.   The mix of live action and animation was so perfectly done, and you have to think that such an accomplishment had to be mind boggling back in 1964.   Andrews was perfectly delightful in the title role, and she surely deserved that Oscar.  (The nominated actresses she beat out that year were Anne Bancroft, Sophia Loren, Debbie Reynolds, and Kim Stanley.  Not bad company.)

I was also somewhat surprised to see that the movie was just as much a showcase for Van Dyke as it was for Andrews.  He is of course remembered for his singing of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" (which won the Oscar for Best Original Song), but "Step in Time", the dance number that he led with the other chimney sweeps on the London roof tops, was spectacular.

A word about that Oscar for Julie Andrews.  The Best Picture winner, beating out "Mary Poppins", "Becket", "Dr. Strangelove", and "Zorba the Greek", was "My Fair Lady".  Andrews, of course, created the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway, but was famously bypassed for the movie part in favor of Audrey Hepburn.   Many were outraged at this bit of casting, presumably even Miss Andrews herself, but while "My Fair Lady" won the Best Picture Oscar, she, Andrews, had the ultimate revenge, winning the Best Actress Award, an award for which Miss Hepburn was not even nominated. Some claim that Andrews' Oscar win was some kind of sympathy/backlash for her not being cast as Eliza.  Who knows?

I have also been asked, how is it possible that I have never seen this movie, and I have put some thought into that question, and here is how I figure it.  When it was released in 1964, I turned thirteen years old, and "Mary Poppins" was not in the sweet spot for a thirteen year old boy, at least not this one.  I was also too young, or, more likely, too socially awkward to have had a girlfriend, so seeing this as a date movie was not in the cards for me.  Time marched, I grew up, got older, and never had children with whom I would no doubt have enjoyed watching "Mary Poppins".  So, it took the release of a sequel fifty-four years later to prompt me to watch this thoroughly delightful classic.  I figure not to make the same mistake twice, and I plan on seeing "Mary Poppins Returns" before the calendar turns to 2019.

On the down side, I have been singing "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" to myself ever since I woke up this morning.