Mary Poppins Returns (???!!!!)

I guess being retired has its perks.

 

Even if I didn't work, I'd still spend my time with discs. There's so much content I've not reviewed that I can always find something new to write up!

Streaming simply doesn't interest me...

 

Even programming only available on streaming platforms?
Many in 4K?

 

Nope. I like discs! Never gonna do a streaming review site...

 

I love streaming via Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and Apple TV, and the quality is fantastic. It's a great experience, particularly in 4K HDR.

Getting back to Mary Poppins Returns, noted Hollywood writer Mark Evanier just posted some nice thoughts about it:

I read a number of reviews of Mary Poppins Returns and couldn't find any real valid points in the negative ones. Those reviewers all struck me as being too stodgy to surrender themselves to the proceedings. If Lin-Manuel Miranda's performance doesn't enchant you, you may just be incapable of enchantment. Yes, this sequel does constantly echo the original. Sequels do and those who carp at this one for that would be savaging the film if it didn't. The reviews for Emily Blunt seem to be pretty good except for one of two who fault her for not being the exact same actress as in the 1964 film. I guess they figure that for what Disney must have paid her, she could at least have managed that. Ignore these people.

https://www.newsfromme.com/2018/12/13/thursday-morning-34/

 

I guess I'll never be enchanted again.

 

So no screen captures from Blake Edwards' S.O.B. either?

 

Take that up with Mark Evanier. I'm just quoting his thoughts -- though I think his explanation is very sound.

 

Mary Poppins is sacrosanct. Don't f this up Disney.

 

Hollywood is in my rear view mirror.
It's just where my head is now...

 

I see too many wonderful films every year to ever abandon them. They are as vital to me as live music - at a fraction of the cost. The only cheaper of my pleasures is streaming music.

 

P.L Travers is rolling raging in her grave...

 

And then there are critics who are upset about the casting...

‘Mary Poppins Returns’ slammed
for failing to include Yondu



https://newsthump.com/2018/12/13/mary-poppins-returns-slammed-for-failing-to-include-yondu

 

I just watched a "behind the scenes" during an interview with the director. Eh.... I don't know. Of course, seeing actors in the raw with no music or cinematic niceties, always looks "flat." But I think Emily Blunt is capturing that same upturned nose, ice queen prim and proper aura that had me so un-loving with Julie Andrews. Maybe I just don't like the Poppin's character.

 

Part of the charm of Mary Poppins' character is that by every indication, she's cynical, self-centered, obnoxious, and often hostile. But on occasion, she also reveals she actually cares very deeply about the children in her care. and she's also devoted to having a good time and entertaining them once in awhile. And (as Mary's parrot umbrella has sometimes reminded her), "I know exactly how you feel about these children, and if you think I'm going to keep my mouth shut any longer..." but she quickly shuts the umbrella's parrot mouth up.

As in the best fantasy stories, we never quite know where Mary Poppins came from, what she really is, why she has certain powers, what she does on her days off, and where she goes once her mission with the kids is done. A lot you have to just buy into. As I've often said, "once you accept magic as being part of the story, then you can get away with quite a bit -- to a point."

 

Blunt is a savvy actor one minute she's in Sicario next she's playing Mary Poppin.

 

Makes sense. The British love their discipline, that's for sure.

 

Stiff upper lip.

 

It's admirable. But I'll take a Swedish nanny, thanks.

 

She's got a good manager, for sure. I wonder who her manager is? Blunt vs Foy. Who will make more movies in the shortest time?

 

Ya know, after I saw Enchanted in 2007, starring Amy Adams as the lost cartoon princess in our live-action world, I thought, "MAN! She could play Mary Poppins if they ever do another sequel!" She has the vocal chops, the acting talent, can do a dead-on British accent, and I think at 44 would not be too old for the part. Poppins was kind of in some weird area between 40 and 60+ in the books -- it was always vague and unspecific.

Check out this scene from Enchanted, which I thought was one of the most remarkable musical numbers Disney has ever shot (at least until Mary Poppins Returns):



I know, it's pretty ugly video, but when you see the real thing, it's dazzling. I was knocked out the first time I saw this -- apparently the sequence took 17 days to shoot even though it's only about 5 minutes on screen, and cost well over $10 million... just for this one song. And it looks it. What a huge number!

Mary Poppins Returns has got some moments close to this, but they held to the look of the original and shot 95% of it on studio sets, almost nothing outdoors.

 

I love that film! My only problem with this song is some clunky, ungraceful rhymes in the lyrics.

 

Eh... the visuals just knock me out, and I was blown away to find out how difficult it was to shoot the thing. More than 2 weeks a 5 minute musical number in Central Park? Yikes...