'Mary Poppins' Sequel, Years Later, Attempts to Recapture the Magic
'Mary Poppins' Sequel, Years Later, Attempts to Recapture the Magic
Decades after she hoisted her umbrella and ascended into the clouds, a certain magical nanny is gliding onto the big screen again.
“I wanted there to be a very good reason for Mary Poppins to come back after 54 years,” said Rob Marshall, the director of “Mary Poppins Returns,” opening in the U.S. on Wednesday.
Released in 1964, the original “Mary Poppins” stars Julie Andrews as a nanny hired to work for the Banks family. She escorts the young Jane and Michael on a series of enchanting day trips, occasionally accompanied by her Cockney chimney-sweep chum Bert (Dick Van Dyke), and eventually brings the punctilious father, Mr. Banks, closer to his children.
‘Mary Poppins Returns’ stars, from left, Emily Mortimer as Jane, Ben Whishaw as Michael, Nathanael Saleh as John, Joel Dawson as Georgie, and Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins.
Photo:
Disney Enterprises
For the creative team of “Mary Poppins Returns,” which picks up the story at the same street address—17 Cherry Tree Lane, London—the responsibility of telling the next chapter wasn’t taken on lightly.
“It was a balancing act,” said screenwriter David Magee, “finding a way to both encompass the original, and pay it respect, and to make sure we were telling a new story. We didn’t just want to stand on the shoulders of a great movie.”
Rob Marshall and Emily Blunt on the set of ‘Mary Poppins Returns.’
Photo:
Disney Enterprises
“When
Disney
approached me about doing this, of course I was immediately trepidatious,” says Mr. Marshall. “The first film means so much to me. It was in my blood. But then I realized pretty early on that if it’s going to happen, I wanted to be the one to direct it. I wanted to be part of protecting the original film, in a way.”
The filmmakers, still working with P.L. Travers’s source material, looked for ways to echo the most memorable aspects of the original movie. “Hamilton” creator Lin-Manuel Miranda plays the Cockney character (and love interest for the grown-up Jane) this time around, Jane and Michael’s runaway kite makes a reappearance, and a quartet of cartoon penguins nods to the original’s then-high-tech blend of live action and animation.
In the most poignant narrative parallel between old and new, it is now the grown-up Michael (played by Ben Whishaw) in the role of the slightly distant patriarch.
Mary Poppins, Then and Now
Julie Andrews played the title role in the 1964 original.
Photo:
Everett Collection
- Age when movie premiered: 28
- Arrival outfit and accessories: Navy blue, nearly ankle-length coat; charcoal straw hat with flowers; loose-knit mohair muffler; white knitted gloves; carpet bag and umbrella with animatronic talking parrot handle
- Also known for: ‘The Sound of Music’
- Musical credentials: A childhood spent on the British music-hall circuit, ‘My Fair Lady’ on Broadway and West End, ‘Camelot’ on Broadway
- Tear-jerker number: ‘Feed The Birds (Tuppence a Bag)’
- Eccentric relative: Ed Wynn’s buoyant Uncle Albert
Emily Blunt stars in the 2018 sequel.
Photo:
Disney Enterprises
- Age when movie premiered: 35
- Arrival outfit and accessories: Royal blue, mid-calf length coat with short double cape; red straw hat decorated with a robin worn at a saucy angle; red leather gloves; carpet bag and umbrella with animatronic talking parrot handle
- Also known for: ‘The Devil Wears Prada’
- Musical credentials: Disney’s ‘Into the Woods’
- Tear-jerker number: ‘The Place Where Lost Things Go’
- Eccentric relative: Meryl Streep as Mary’s scatterbrained cousin Topsy
The new songs were written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray”). But the orchestral score, by Mr. Shaiman, contains brief quotes of the melodies written by Robert and Richard Sherman for “Mary Poppins,” including “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag).” The surviving Sherman brother, Richard Sherman (Robert Sherman died in 2012) is credited as musical consultant.
“Mostly he was there to give us an OK,” said Mr. Marshall. “Which is what he did. He was so thrilled and so happy. I think he was just happy that Mary Poppins wasn’t singing ‘Let It Go’ or something.”
Several scenes in the sequel parallel those from the 1964 movie. Where Mary paid a visit on her guffawing Uncle Albert, played by Ed Wynn, here she drops in on her frazzled cousin Topsy, played by a scene-chewing Meryl Streep. In “Mary Poppins Returns,” Mr. Miranda’s lamplighter, Jack, leads an athletic dance number, much in the way the chimney sweep Bert led “Step in Time.”
There was never any doubt that there would be a blend of live action and animation. “It’s part of the DNA of the original,” said the animation supervisor Jim Capobianco, referring to the “Jolly Holiday” sequence, when the characters enter a colorful pavement chalk drawing.
The ‘Royal Doulton Bowl’ sequence in ‘Mary Poppins Returns.’
Photo:
Disney Enterprises
As part of their research, the animators studied the line work and movement not only from “Mary Poppins” but “101 Dalmatians” and “The Aristocats.” The talking-animals scenes in “Mary Poppins Returns” took around 120 animators more than two years to realize.
“It was one ancient technology and one modern technology forced together and made to play nice,” says Mr. Capobianco.
Scouring the Disney archives for inspiration, the creative team also discovered “Mary Poppins” concept paintings by the Disney matte artist Peter Ellenshaw, which Mr. Marshall incorporated into the new movie’s opening sequence.
Dick Van Dyke makes an appearance in ‘Mary Poppins Returns.’
Photo:
Disney Enterprises
Emily Blunt presented her own take on the role of Mary Poppins, says Mr. Marshall, but it was important that there was no attempt to reinvent the character. “There are so many layers to her character, you know,” says Mr. Marshall. “She’s very stern and strict but there’s warmth and humor underneath. And the great thing about Emily is she has all those layers as an actor.” Even so, the character still peppers her speech with what Mr. Magee calls her “Poppisms”: “pish-posh,” “spit-spot,” “jiggety-jog.”
Mr. Van Dyke’s reappearance in the new movie will likely resonate with fans who remember him from the original. Ninety-one years old during the shooting of “Mary Poppins Returns,” he hoofed and hammed it up as Dawes Jr., the son of the wobbly old bank director he played all those years ago.
He admits he was skeptical about the sequel—until he arrived on set.
“My God, it was like a trip to the past,” Mr. Van Dyke recalls. “Every detail was just the same. They really are serious about paying some respect to the old movie.”
Corrections & Amplifications
“101 Dalmatians” was misspelled as “101 Dalmations” in an earlier version of this article.
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