Mary Poppins Returns

This is an odd film – a 50-something years later sequel to the Disney hit that plays so close to the model of the original that it feels like it’s as much a remake as it is a follow-up, with scenes constantly playing towards being reminiscent-of-but-not-quite-the-same-as scenes-in-the-original. The main acknowledgement towards the half-century that’s passed is a slightly more ethnically diverse American-playing-Cockney-in-a-bodgy-accent. It’s almost like watching a replacement cast in a long-running musical, where you can see the tracks that new cast members are stepping into that have been mapped out before them, with only a certain amount of leeway to make the role their own. Emily Blunt comes as close as can be reasonably considered possible in inheriting the role of Mary Poppins – both selling the prim-and-proper exterior and the secretly wild fantasy creature that bursts forth to make adventures happen. Lin-Manuel Miranda works his charm bone like crazy in sliding into the Dick Van Dyke model of “role that is kinda unnecessary in plot terms but is absolutely vital for production numbers” (and, to be fair, he does come in useful near the end of the plot). Ben Whishaw’s casting brings in tones of Paddington (helped by Julie Waters playing a fairly familiar maid), Emily Mortimer is kinda under-used, Colin Firth is dastardly and … while the film is difficult to defend in intellectual terms as the familiarity should feel oppressive, somehow it never quite does, and the charm still works, dammit. This is a pervasively likeable film while still feeling vaguely unnecessary.