Review: Mary Poppins Returns Filled with Pixie Dust

Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns may be the biggest movie to hit theaters this year. It’s already been nominated for four Golden Globes, including Emily Blunt for Best Actress and Lin-Manuel Miranda for Best Actor. Opening in theaters on December 19th, this film has a great story line, nostalgia, amazing new music, and wildly vivid costumes.

Without giving you any spoilers, Mary Poppins Returns is a must-see movie and perfect for a holiday day out. I remember the first time I saw Mary Poppins as a kid with my mom. The magic of the flying nanny had me wanting Mary Poppins herself to show up at my door.

The live-action musical has Mary Poppins returning to the Banks house, this time it’s for Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw), now a grown man who has three children of his own, plus sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) who comes to help. A struggling artist temporarily employed by the same financial institution where his father and grandfather worked before him. Michael lives at 17 Cherry Tree Lane with his children: Annabel, John and Georgie.

Times are tough in Depression-era London. It’s the 1930s, and the city is in the midst of the “Great Slump,” so money is tight, people are anxious and the future is uncertain. The family is struggling to cope with the recent death of Michael’s wife, and the house is rundown and in a constant state of chaos, despite the best efforts of their inefficient yet well-meaning and warmhearted housekeeper, Ellen. With the harsh reality of the times and the burden of their loss weighing heavily on the family, the children find themselves taking on additional responsibilities around the house…and growing up much too fast in the process.

Mary Poppins Returns Lin Manuel Miranda as jack — photo credit- Disney

His sister Jane has inherited her mother’s enthusiasm for good causes, and, while busy herself promoting workers’ rights, finds time to help Michael and his family every chance she gets. Mary Poppins, in a mid-calf-length belted coat with a short double cape, hand-crafted Art Deco buttons and belt buckle, accessorized with a red straw hat decorated with a robin, red leather gloves and shoes, and a carpet bag whose unique magical skills can turn any ordinary task into a fantastic adventure, enters the lives of the Banks family once again, having not aged a single day. Teaming up with an old friend, Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), a charming and eternally optimistic street lamplighter, they take the Banks children on a series of whimsical adventures.

Their adventures take them to magical places with lots of song and dance along the way.

Each adventure has it’s own wow factor from the hand-painted costumes with 2D and 3D elements that have a mix of live action and animation to the fix-it shop with Poppins’ cousin Topsy (Meryl Streep)

There are sure to be songs that stay in your head and you’ll want to sing over and over again, such as, A Cover Is Not the Book and Trip a Little Light Fantastic and then there are the songs that touch your heart like, A Conversation!