I confess this is being written far later than I intended. I was able to watch Mary Poppins Returns over the holiday. I enjoyed the experience. It was a nice to sit numbly for the 2 hours that I was in the theatre. But alas, it does not come close to replacing the original Mary Poppins with Julie Andrews.

First, I think it is important to point out some of the good things about the film. The animation was very pretty. The choreography was well done to my untrained eye. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Emily Blunt were fun to watch. The guest appearances by Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury were cute. (I was not so sold on Meryl Streep’s character.) There were also several catchy songs – most notably the bathtub song: “Can you imagine that?”.

Now onto a few of my disappointments. This was not a proper sequel. Yes, it had the Banks children grown up, but it was trying to follow the same plot line as the original movie only less well done. It was so like the original in pacing, design, layout, song type … that it felt more like a remake than a sequel.

In fact, Mary Poppins Returns spent so much time referencing the original film, I am surprised anyone of a younger generation who didn’t grow up with Julie Andrews likes the movie at all. Nearly every scene, song, and design choice was a direct “hey-do-you-remember-this-from-Mary-Poppins”. It was very paint by numbers and because of that, it felt shallow, disconnected and ultimately unsatisfying.

If the writers were set on doing a sequel with the Banks children then they really needed to come up with a more original issue. Having Michael Banks, a creative artist with his head in the clouds, try to pull off being too serious like his father was utterly unconvincing. In fact, Michael Banks was the least successful character in the film.

The easiest fix, would have been to follow a different family. This way, the paint-by-numbers format, where every song and scene in MP Returns mirrored the original MP would have felt less creatively flat. As it stands I wonder at all the work that went into producing a film that was a paler reflection of the original source material.

However, a different family, even if they still lived on the same street would have added just enough variation that the thin plot would have worked. To improve the movie and really appeal to the audience, I would have loved to see the writers go beyond a regurgitation of old material.

It would have been wonderful to have a fully realized and relatable problem facing this new family. MP Returns didn’t have a strong problem to solve, so all the characters, both the good and the bad felt weak and washed out. They could have then themed all the songs and scenes around this new and original issue. In stead have having a collection of disjointed musical numbers. Also, the writer should explore an issue other than the idea we should all have a little more fun in our lives and be more like children. It is an overdone concept and this film did not pull it off successfully. But they could have worked with kindness, honesty, truth, perspective, oh, any number of different themes.  

Rather than trying to constrain Mary Poppins to a few familiar lines from the original movie, I would love to have seen greater development of her character. At least better dialogue. There were too many instances when what she said didn’t really make sense. I suppose she needed to be less focused on sounding like and enigma and more time sounding like a wise nanny – which in theory she is supposed to be.

In the end I would give the movie 2.5 stars, because Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda tried so very hard to do something special.