With the newest trailer for the upcoming Mary Poppins Returns we get an actual look at what the hopeful blockbuster will be instead of hints and teases and… I’m still 50/50. Maybe it’s just my nostalgia and passionate love for the near-perfect first film, but I’m not feeling the charm yet. It could be there, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not coming through fully.
I think it’s a general feeling of falseness to the proceedings. It’s no one’s fault except my own jaded mind, which looks at this and see a money grab instead of fun. Of course, it can be both, but Emily Blunt as a Jule Andrews stand-in doesn’t do it for me — be sure that by making this a sequel, Blunt is an Andrews stand-in. Plus, the CGI effects just seem a bit off for some reason. It just doesn’t feel as magical, I suppose.
Still, that’s the old curmudgeon in me, which is exactly what the film appears to be about dispelling. It’s got an insanely good cast, a talented enough director, and a songbook that should keep us smiling so maybe I’ll sit down in the theater, have my pants charmed off me, and walk out in my underwear humming a catchy song that’ll be stuck in my head for the duration of the prison stay I will incur for removing my clothes in a public place.
