'Mary Poppins Returns' Review

Nominated For: Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song "The Place Where Lost Things Go" (written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman), and Best Original Score.

Decades after her original visit and tenure at the Banks household, the magical nanny Mary Poppins returns to 17 Cherry Tree Lane, London to help the Banks siblings and Michael's children through a difficult time in their lives. 

Based on P.L. Travers' children's books, Mary Poppins Returns is directed by the renowned Rob Marshall and features a screenplay by David Magee and screen story by John DeLuca, Magee, and Marshall. Following up a beloved Disney classic fifty-four years later is not an enviable task, but Rob Marshall's taken the challenge to heart and delivered a long-awaited sequel which recaptures the spellbinding magic and musical whimsy of the original without completely recycling the first film. I foresee grossly over-exaggerated complaints that Mary Poppins Returns merely rehashes the original with the incorporation of somewhat similar story beats akin to fan complaints regarding Star Wars: The Force Awakens' love affair with A New Hope. There's admittedly an equivalent scene for all of the original's iconic moments, but much like The Force Awakens, the context surrounding each is drastically different (though some still aren't willing to concede that). It's surely the safe route, but Marshall traverses that beaten path in the most delightful way!

Mary Poppins Returns is the kind of old-fashioned musical which reminds you Hollywood doesn't make them like they used to. The vibrant, imaginative, and exuberant song and dance numbers pulled from Poppins' bottomless bag are show-stopping, to say the least! While the songs may not catch on as quickly as "A Spoonful of Sugar," "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," "Chim Chim Cheree," or "Step In Time," the new array of tunes are no doubt charming! I haven't listened to any long enough to pick a favorite, but I quite like the renditions of "(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky," "Can You Imagine That?," "A Cover Is Not The Book," "Trip a Little Light Fantastic," "The Place Where Lost Things Go," and "Nowhere to Go But Up." The songs by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman are all enchanting while Shaiman's score is sensational. It's been a while since I've been swept away by a string of stellar show tunes, but John DeLuca, Joey Pizzi, and Marshall have staged an extraordinary set of musical numbers!

Meanwhile, The blend of live-action and hand-drawn animation is seamless and, of course, evocative of the original. The animation was so well done in fact that I would love to see another feature-length, hand-drawn animation from Disney soon! It's, of course, time-consuming and Disney had to ask animators to come out of retirement to accomplish it here, but I'm hoping the inevitable success of Mary Poppins Returns will inspire studio executives to give two-dimensional animation another go! Other technical elements deserving of praise are the colorful costuming and thorough production design. In particular, there were some porcelain costumes (which can be glimpsed above), that really impressed me. I would not be surprised if Mary Poppins Returns swooped in to take many technical awards at the upcoming Oscars given the Academy's love affair with the original and the awards buzz surrounding this sequel.

As Mary Poppins, Emily Blunt is practically perfect in every way! Much like Alden Ehrenreich had to do in Solo: A Star Wars Story earlier this year, Blunt faced a Herculean task of stepping into an iconic role made famous by another actress. I'm referencing the magnificent Julie Andrews of course, and I'll say Blunt successfully put her own stamp on the role rather than offering a pale imitation of what had come before. I'd describe Blunt's Poppins as wittier and more sarcastic where Andrews often felt more serious I suppose. Otherwise, Blunt's singing and dancing were tremendous!

Stepping in for Dick Van Dyke's Cockney chimney sweeper Bert, Lin-Manuel Miranda's street lamplighter Jack was a suitable replacement. Many best know Miranda for his theatrical productions In The Heights or Hamilton, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he knows this role out of the park! Miranda's singing, dancing, and fast-spoken vocal delivery (rapping?) were all spectacular, not to mention he's quite convincing in the active role. The three Banks children, Anabel, John, and Georgie, played by Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh, and Joel Dawson are pleasant inclusions as well, helping to maintain the sense of fun, awe, and whimsey amidst the imaginative, animated insanity. 

Meanwhile, Ben Whishaw and Emily Mortimer are splendid as an older Michael and Jane Banks, imbuing their characters with sentiment and a touch of gleeful, childlike innocence at times. Regarding the film's flaws, I wish there had been more to Colin Firth's character and Meryl Streep's scene was honestly expendable, though she's excellent in it. There are also some cameos which I won't specify since some may consider them spoilers, but just know the actors I'm referring to are billed on the posters and their characters have been featured in the promotional material.

As many hoped, Mary Poppins' return to the cinema screen amounts to an utterly delightful sequel which matches the quality of the original. It is with great pleasure I say Mary Poppins Returns is as sweet as a spoonful of sugar!

Film Assessment: A

Throwback Thursday Review: 'Cars 2'

Sorry for the slight delay on this review but this week I'm racing through the remainder of the Cars trilogy with a Throwback Thursday Review over Cars 2 and a review for Cars 3 coming soon. However, I do feel it's worth noting that I'm going out of town this Saturday and am not quite sure I will get the Cars 3 review completed before I leave (I'll see what I can do about publishing while I'm gone). Therefore, I apologize in advance for what I suspect will be late reviews over Cars 3, Transformers: Age of Extinction, and Transformers: The Last Knight. But in the next week and a half I plan to publish all of those and wrap up my thoughts on both the Cars and Transformers franchises for the time being. Reviews that remain to be seen for the month of June include a Throwback Thursday Review over Despicable Me 2 and reviews of new releases Baby Driver and Despicable Me 3.

'Cars 2' Review

Cars 2 races alongside Lightning McQueen, now a four time Piston Cup champ, and his silly tow truck pal Mater as they traverse the world for McQueen to compete in the World Grand Prix. After an elaborate series of events, 007-esque automotives Finn McMissile and Holly Shiftwell mistake Mater as an American agent and Mater becomes embroiled in a globetrotting spy adventure. 

There's no way to dance around the elephant in the room. Cars 2 is easily the worst received animated feature film from Pixar to date. It didn't make as much as its predecessor did domestically, although it did outgross Cars internationally with a whopping $562.11 M worldwide gross ($370.658 M coming from foreign territories). It even still has some skid marks all over the hood from critics who decided to run it over mercilessly. However, I think Cars 2 gets a bad wrap because it's only the worst Pixar movie by default, on account of the many masterpieces put out by the premiere animation studio. When you take into account that Cars 2 was created to entertain children and it's made for children, you'll find it's actually not as bad as you thought and surprisingly fares better than many other animated films. 

Most of the criticism derives from the fact people don't feel a sequel was justified and adult audiences would have rather seen sequels to Pixar's other works like The Incredibles, Ratatouille, or even maybe Monsters Inc. While it may not seem like it, there's a quick and easy explanation behind franchising Cars. Children LOVE it! The merchandise sold incredibly well because kids simply adore these animated auto-motives. 

Pixar heavyweights John Lasseter and Brad Lewis co-directed the second auto-outing in addition to paving a story Cars 2 to traverse with the help of Dan Fogelman. From the outset, Cars 2 clearly homages anything involving 007, Mission: Impossible, and even Man from U.N.C.L.E. with a wink of the ocular windshield and a blink of the headlights. The creators must have been enormous Bond fans for granting McMissile the guise of 007's trademark Aston Martin and essentially fan casting Micheal Caine as Pixar's James Bond.

Lasseter and Lewis maintain a heightened sense of adventure amidst all the action, delivering a serviceable story to accompany the senseless spectacle. Elsewhere, the animation is on par with Pixar's other accomplished aesthetics so there's no slouching there and Michael Giacchino provides sufficient scoring as per usual.

The areas where Cars 2 starts to shows its rust lie in the script and standard storytelling. Ben Queen penned the screenplay with an unconventional idea to focus around Mater rather than Lightning. The idea of centering around a supporting standout has actually become somewhat evident in Pixar's sequel/prequel model (ie. Monsters Inc. & Monsters University along with Finding Nemo & Finding Dory).

Mater is a charming character in his own right, who works well in small doses, but shifting all attention towards him wears the viewer down. Mater's slapstick charades grow increasingly more tiring with him at the franchise's steering wheel. Cars 2 is notably very scatter-brained with a racing story on the outside lane and a spy adventure fueling the engine. It's not that these elements don't work together, just that the agent antics seem to come out of nowhere. Cars 2's messages about being yourself and sticking by friends are worthwhile notions but they're conveyed haphazardly. 

This subject matter had been traversed time and time again in what seems like an infinite number of animated features over the years. The techniques utilized to express this central theme also put McQueen's character arc in reverse. McQueen started out in Cars as a cocky, surefire rookie that discovered his humility and became a better race car for it. However, Cars 2 puts McQueen in the precarious situation of constantly being embarrassed of being friends with Mater (this is resolved of course but seemed like backward storytelling to me). While this is a natural story element, Cars 2 stretches it a little too far in execution. Thankfully, the vocal performances somewhat elevate the material. 

Larry The Cable Guy expresses an over-the-top absurdity in Mater, that even rivals Mickey's pal Goofy, and finds a more emotionally vulnerable place for Mater to explore towards the film's finale. By Mater's side, Michael Caine's Finn McMissile exhibits all the qualities of a suave gentleman spy while Emily Mortimer projects an innate intelligence and a touch of heart to Holly Shiftwell.

Racing on the outer lanes, Owen Wilson's back as Lightning McQueen with all the vigor and dedication he previously showcased in Cars and John Turturro voices Francesco Bernouli as an arrogant, open wheeled Ferrari that plays as an adequate rival for McQueen. Returning Radiator Springs inhabitants include Bonnie Hunt, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Guido Quaroni, Jenifer Lewis, Paul Dooley, Michael Wallis, George Carlin, and Katherine Helmond as Sally, Ramone, Luigi, Guido, Flo, Sarge, Sheriff, Filmore, and Lizzie respectively.

Despite its fast pace, the creators of Cars 2 went into cruise control for the second lap around Pixar's world of anthropomorphized automobiles and delivered a passable installment opposed to their outstanding original works.

Film Assessment: C