Fifty-four years after the original film was released, this belated sequel recaptures all of the wonder, heart and feel-good magic of the original, striking a perfect balance between being faithful to the first film without simply being a pointless re-tread.

Premise: In 1930s London, the now grown up Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) faces losing his family’s house to the bank following the death of his wife, and despite help from his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer), he’s struggling to look after his three young children. But in the Banks family’s hour of need, Michael and Jane’s former nanny, the magical Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt), returns to show them the way.

Review:

Watching Mary Poppins Returns is the closest I’ve come in a long time to feeling like I’m being transported by a film back to my childhood. Perhaps its most interesting decision was not to try to modernise or update anything about the world of Mary Poppins. There aren’t any attempts to inject modern comedy sensibilities, or knowing winks to the audience, or sly meta-comedy subtext into the film, nor are there any attempts to make the new generation of Banks children more relatable for twenty-first century kids watching this for the first time. And unlike 2017’s The Greatest Showman, the musical numbers don’t include any modernised, contemporary songs likely to appear in the singles chart any time soon.

Instead, other than some special effects and the clarity of the sound and visuals, this genuinely feels like it could have been a film from the 1960s. The early moments feel like a Disney family musical from that era, with the credits appearing over static painted images while the orchestra plays its opening suite. From there, we’re straight into the first musical number, which feels (to my admittedly musically untrained ears) like a song pulled straight from one of the classic Disney family musicals of the 60s. And there’s even a scene where Mary Poppins takes the children into an animated world, which looks like traditional 2D cel animation rather than modern CGI.

“…the new songs match the rousing spirit & catchy choruses of the originals…”

In terms of the music, Mary Poppins Returns obviously had very large shoes to fill, given how many classic songs appeared in the first film. It may be too soon to tell whether any of the new songs will be remembered in the same light as “A Spoonful of Sugar”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and the rest, but they certainly have the same rousing spirit and catchy choruses, and can hold their heads up high alongside the original soundtrack.

It doesn’t hurt that the second-billed character in the film (even before the Banks family) is Jack the lamp lighter, played by award-winning playwright, composer, actor and singer Lin-Manuel Miranda. The soundtrack unquestionably benefits from having a musical theatre performer of his calibre involved, but surprisingly (I haven’t seen Into The Woods), I thought that Emily Blunt’s musical talents as Mary Poppins were a highlight too, and she certainly holds her own alongside Miranda.

“…Emily Blunt rises to the occasion as the almost omniscient nanny…”

In fact, it was arguably a thankless task trying to fill Julie Andrews’ legendary shoes in the title role – but Emily Blunt rises to the occasion, bringing the stern-but-caring nanny to life in a performance that channels Julie Andrews without ever becoming simply a copy or parody of her. Whether she’s remonstrating the children in order to teach them a life lesson, singing and dancing in a magical cartoon world, or subtly manipulating the adults into being where they need to be, Blunt excels as the almost omniscient nanny.

The rest of the cast outside of Blunt and Miranda are also great, whether it’s Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer as the grown-up Banks children from the first film, or Meryl Streep and Julie Walters showing up in minor comic roles, or Colin Firth as Michael Banks’ new boss. Even the next generation of Banks children are perfectly tolerable (I’m generally not a fan of child actors, so this is meant as a compliment!). I think the fact that they have not tried to “modernise” the portrayal of the Banks children means that the more stylised characterisations fit well with young actors’ abilities, avoiding some of the more cringeworthy moments that you can get in films like this. There are also a couple of great cameos too, which I won’t spoil.

“…the film doesn’t have a cynical bone in its body…”

They may be some critics who dislike this film precisely because it doesn’t try to update or modernise the material, but for me, that was its biggest triumph. It managed to keep the tone and feel (and magic) of the original, but it wasn’t (as I feared it might be) a pointless remake/reboot that added nothing new and which just made me want to re-watch the original (as so many remakes/reboots do). Yes, it keeps a lot of the main plot beats from the first film, but it adds enough new charm and catchy songs to ensure you never begrudge the ride, and it manages to work both as a direct sequel if you’ve seen the first film, and a standalone story if you haven’t. And given everything that’s going on in the real world these days, losing yourself in a film that doesn’t have a cynical bone in its body is perhaps just what you need to find your sense of childlike wonder again.