Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Not quite second star to the right and straight on till morning, but when the winds change and you’re in need, pray the clouds part and Mary Poppins comes gliding your way – carpet bag, talking umbrella and all.

Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) has swooped down from the skies of London once again to aid the Banks’ family.

Her new charges are Annabel, Michael and Georgie – Michael Banks’ children who have had to learn the responsibilities of life too quickly after the death of their mother, and in their spurts have forgotten what it means to be children.

Michael (Ben Whishaw) and Jane (Emily Mortimer) have all grown up and with it – so have their problems. The siblings are racing against time to find the shares to Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, their father left them in order to save their childhood home.

However the Mary Poppins’ way is to add a little joy and laughter no matter what the situation.

Mary Poppins herself was my favourite aspect of this movie. I like that she was a lot more like the book version of herself – incredibly vain, a little rude and hilarious because of it. Emily Blunt with her no nonsense features did a fantastic job of capturing these mannerisms and then some.

Emily Mortimer was an apt casting choice for Jane – it was actually a little eerie when she did her little giggle – however it was a shame she didn’t have more of a foothold within the movie.

I am one of those villains who tend to hate children in movies but I was surprised to find that the Bank’s children didn’t fully annoy me. I enjoyed Annabel’s (Pixie Davies) resilience in taking her mothers place in the family and Georgie (Joel Dawson) was cute AF therefore performing his role well as the baby of the family.

I had no idea the legend himself was going to be in this movie, and so the Dick Van Dyke cameo had my eyes welling up because I’m a massive baby who freaking loves Dick Van Dyke. It was really well done and gave something to the older audiences of this family movie.

The whole movie was like a alternate reality copy of the original movie; from the adventures they went on to the jobs Michael and Jane were doing. I can’t decide if this was a bad thing or a moot point but I thought I would add it as an observation.

I didn’t like Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks. There. I’ve said it. I think it was a terrible casting choice; he looked too young to be anybodies parent and that mustache was just so distracting – I just wanted to rip it off and prove that he was really a child playing dress up.

As far as musicals go, the songs weren’t very catchy or in that case, memorable which was a shame. Plus at 130 minutes it was pretty damn long for a kids movie, there were certain points that the children around me in the cinema were getting restless and I was right along there with them.

The movie was more nostalgic fluff than substance which I can understand, however it definitely dragged because of that running time.

I don’t know what parents make their children watch – if they don’t bother with the Disney classics we grew up with and just head straight to the remakes, but with Mary Poppins I think this second movie – though not as good as the first is a fitting and familiar continuation.

Less of a jolly holiday and more of a supercalifragalisticexpiallitwilldo