Supercaljfragilisticexpialidocious!
Our first event and movie for 2019 is such a fun one. We were invited to watch the special advanced screening of Mary Poppins Returns at SM Aura Premiere last night . The movie will be shown in Philippine cinemas starting January 8.
Read on to know how we feel about the movie :
What Marcus Thinks of It?
A spoon full of organic, all natural, glutton free, cage free, artificial sweetener from the stevia plant, makes the medicine go down. Times have changed since the first Mary Poppins movie in 1964 and I was curious if they were going to try to capture the original feel or modernize the movie for Mary Poppins Returns. My personal preference is that they would try to capture the same magic, but I could understand those who would argue they wanted to have it updated to match today’s feel and technology. I was happy to see that the filmmakers agreed with me and did their best to keep things the same as the first movie. Right down to the long opening credits, just like the old days. I actually found this quite boring to see all the names appear before the movie started. I can see why that standard has changed.
Right away in the story, the problems started. We didn’t need much time to learn the characters because there are so many that are the same. The children are different, but they were pretty easy to figure out, and were very cute. Poppins shows up and the magic begins. It is now a bit less exciting to see large objects coming out of a little bag and talking mirrors after you’ve seen cars turn into robots and destroy city streets, but the fun nature of the magic will entertain children. The true fun is how they repeated the mixing of 2D animation with live action actors. Once again, we got to sing and dance around with cartoons. The singing was great, but I felt the dancing skills were not what they were in the first movie. The focus seemed to be more on how well the live actors could be integrated with the animation, to cover up for the lack of dancing ability the actors had. The songs aren’t stuck in my head after the movie, but then, I have not seen it 8 times like I did the first movie. So, it is hard to tell if these songs will become classics sung by children until we see if these songs will be sung by children. There were some fun songs, I thought, but none quite as catchy as spoon full of sugar or supercalifragil-well, you know. We’ll have to see if kids start using the term “turtle” to mean upside-down.
I felt the film makers did a great job capturing the original magic of Mary Poppins. They were good to steer clear of touchy topics in the 1930s, like racism, but did well with sets and props to capture the timeframe. The only thing I saw that I did not like because it felt out of place for the time was the bicycle stunts. They were obviously modern and were very distracting to me. But other than that, this is a fun movie that I think children will love. The ending was happy, though a bit deus ex machina (god from the machine, meaning the problem is solved by a sudden, seemingly unlikely occurrence). But it did all make sense and had many ties back to the original Mary Poppins movie. Overall a fun movie that everyone who has seen the first movie should see.
What Earth Thinks of It?
I hardly remember the Marry Poppins story except for a couple of famous songs from the original one like Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious , A Spoon Full of Sugar and Chinchimeney. One thing I know about her is she’s a nanny and that she has this red gloves,umbrella and a huge carpet bag. She’s the perfect nanny every household with kids would want and need in their life. Aside from that, I barely remember a thing. In fact how would I ever know the story if the first one was shown in 1964 with Julie Andrews as the Marry Poppins! I didn’t even realize that until after watching this Marry Poppins Returns we had to watch the first one just for reference.
Yes, I think most of those who want to watch Marry Poppins Returns needs to watch the original one. While it’s a stand alone movie based on the second book of Marry Poppins it’s still nice to see the comparison and get those AHA! moments.
I love Marry Poppins Returns because it’s magical, colorful and fun musical . I feel like watching a Broadway show and a cartoon at the same time. Production was amazing. Set was elaborate. Songs were engaging and upbeat . I love the costumes! Inspite of being a period film they were able to make the looks more modern and less gloom.
I am very much impressed with Emily Blunt, I didn’t know she can sing that well!
P.S. I didn’t know there were Cherry Blossom in London in the 1930s. Is there Cherry Blossoms there until now? If so , then this adds to the reasons I want to visit Europe esp London some more!
Movie Info
In Disney’s “Mary Poppins Returns,” an all new original musical, Mary Poppins is back to help the next generation of the Banks family find the joy and wonder missing in their lives following a personal loss. Directed by Rob Marshall from a screenplay by David Magee and a screen story by Magee & Marshall & John DeLuca based upon the Mary Poppins Stories by PL Travers, the film stars: Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins; Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack; Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks; Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks; Julie Walters as Ellen; Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and Joel Dawson as the Banks children; with Colin Firth as William Weatherall Wilkins; and Meryl Streep as Cousin Topsy.
“Mary Poppins Returns” is produced by John DeLuca, p.g.a., Rob Marshall, p.g.a., and Marc Platt, p.g.a., with Callum McDougall serving as executive producer. The film features all-new original songs with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman, as well as an original film score by Shaiman.
