Mary Poppins Returns

Initially, even though I loved Mary Poppins, I wasn`t intrested in this rumoured reboot.

But then we saw the first trailer, and learned it was a sequel indeed... so me and Noshi sat down for some good Disney time.

The film is set in 1930s London. After the death of his wife a year earlier, Michael Banks lives in his childhood home with his three children, Annabel, John, and Georgie, and with his sister Jane. Michael has taken a loan from his employer, the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank, and Wilkins, the bank's corrupt new chairman, sends associates to warn him that his house will be repossessed if the loan is not repaid in full by Friday. Michael and Jane recall that their father had left them shares in the bank that should cover the loan, and they search the house for the share certificate. During the search Michael finds his childhood kite and decides to dispose of it.

While out in the park with Annabel and John, Georgie finds the kite and flies it. Mary Poppins descends from the sky with the kite in her hand. She takes the children home and announces that she will take charge of them as their nanny. She draws a bath for the three children which leads to adventures under the sea.
Michael visits the bank seeking proof of his shares, but Wilkins denies there are any records before covertly destroying the page from the official ledger. Annabel and John decide to sell their mother's 'priceless' bowl to pay off the debt. Georgie tries to stop them, and the bowl becomes damaged while the three fight over it. Jack, a lamplighter, greets Mary Poppins and joins her and the children on a trip into the painting on the side of the bowl. Georgie is kidnapped by a talking wolf, weasel, and badger, and Annabel and John set out to rescue him. They do so successfully then wake in their beds, thinking their experience was a dream but realizing it was shared.

The next day, Mary Poppins and the children visit her cousin Topsy to get the bowl mended, and find out it has little monetary value. They go on to the bank to take Michael his briefcase, but when the children visit Wilkins' office to ask for help they overhear him planning to repossess their house. Believing that Wilkins and his associates are the same animal gang who kidnapped him, Georgie interrupts the meeting. Michael becomes angry with the children for putting the house and his job at risk. Mary Poppins takes the children home, guided by Jack and his fellow lamplighters who teach the children their lingo.

As midnight on Friday approaches, the Banks family prepare to move out of their house; but while examining his old kite Michael realizes that Georgie has used the missing share certificate to mend it. Michael and Jane head to the bank while Mary Poppins and the children go with Jack and the lamplighters to Big Ben to 'turn back time'. After scaling the clock tower, Jack and Mary turn the clock back five minutes, giving Michael and Jane just enough time to reach the bank. Wilkins, however, will not accept the certificate as part of it is still missing. Wilkins' elderly uncle, the bank's previous chairman Mr Dawes Jr, arrives and sacks Wilkins on the spot for his corrupt business practices. He reveals that Michael has plenty of assets to cover the loan, namely the judiciously-invested tuppence that his father had deposited with them many years earlier (in the original Mary Poppins film).

The next day, the family visit the park where a fair is in full swing. They purchase balloons that carry them into the air, where they are joined by Jack and numerous others. On their return home, Mary Poppins realizes it is time for her to leave. Michael and Jane thank her as her umbrella carries her back up into the sky and away.

It was a great movie indeed, and a worthy follow-up movie of the original.  One of the great things they did was bring back a lot of the old cast in cameo's, including of course Dick Van Dyke and the great namescramble during the credits.

It really captures the feel of the original film in both "filming style" as well in the sorts of songs (though no supercalifragilisticexpialidocious kind of hangers ons) and definitly worth a watch.