By Che Zuro
Emily Blunt in "Mary Poppins Returns"
As soon as I saw the previews of "Mary Poppins," I thought, "NO......!" Then I noticed "Returns" and thought, "Maybe......!" Being a non-fan of mostly everything that is a remake of something fabulous, I was leery to see this film. ("Punderful," n'est pas?)
And then the opening scene got me.
This film takes "we folks who are stuck in the original Mary Poppins realm" to a very new and special place. With Emily Blunt as Mary and Lin‑Manuel Miranda as Jack the leery/lamplighter, the dancing and singing and fantasy of "everything impossible is possible," gives the viewer a break from present day woes. Even when decades older Michael and Jane have their own normal story line of being in a terrible fix and having to get out of it, the scenery and magic of Mary Poppins and her cohorts, along with beautiful songs and clever dance numbers makes this film rank just as high, if not higher, than the original film starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
Dance scenes with cartoon characters were my favorite and although the music was fantastic, I could not sing you any of the tunes immediately after watching, like I could with the original. That may have been my only disappointment with the film as a whole.
But let's not compare.
This is the rest of the story, including them letting us all know where Michael and Jane have been, with multiple wonderful surprises near the end of the film. One of my favorite scenes has to do with a precious bowl broken by Michael's children and Mary Poppins making the impossible possible by traveling into the bowl to fix it. This was so incredibly creative, with the addition of the cartoon characters and a whole new world to the story. I found myself yelling at the screen for the children to "Watch out" or "Don't trust him!" Falling in love with the characters, an important factor for me in film, was so easy while watching Mary Poppins Returns.
Cleverly put together, colorful, fun and hopeful, this film is a must see for everyone! (I can't wait to watch it again! And again!)