Mary Poppins Returns

• Edward Hibbert as Mary Poppins' parrot umbrella. This was voiced by David Tomlinson in the original film.
• Chris O'Dowd as Shamus the Coachman Dog, who is an Irish Setter in the animated Royal Doulton Hall sequence.[1]
• Mark Addy as Clyde the Horse in the animated Royal Doulton Music Hall sequence.[1]

Attempts at a sequel were made, with author P. L. Travers, who did not like the 1964 adaptation of her character, tending to reject most of the ideas for the film and imposing rules Disney couldn't work with. She would write a screenplay in the 1980s with Brian Sibley for a potential sequel, however it never came to be.

A sequel to Mary Poppins had been gestating in development hell since the first film's release in 1964. Walt Disney attempted to produce a sequel a year later but was rejected by the author P. L. Travers, who dismissed Disney's first adaptation. In the late 1980s, the chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and the vice-president of live-action production, Martin Kaplan, approached Travers with the idea of a sequel set years after the first film, with the Banks children now as adults and Julie Andrews reprising her role as an older Mary Poppins. Travers again rejected the concept except for Andrews' return, suggesting a sequel set one year after the original film with Andrews reprising the role. That idea also did not come to fruition, however, because Travers would not go ahead without certain caveats that the company would not concede, including barring Poppins' clothing from being red.[3]

Travers' attempt to get a sequel from the first film with her involvement was not deterred. In the 1980s, she and Brian Sibley, a good friend whom she met in the 1970s, wrote a screenplay for a sequel titled Mary Poppins Comes Back, based on the parts from Travers' second Mary Poppins book unused in the 1964 film. Sibley then wrote a letter to Roy E. Disney about making the film, to which Disney contracted them to supply a film treatment. According to Sibley, Travers wrote notes on his script ideas and though she rejected some of them, she liked some of them, including replacing Bert with his brother, an ice cream man in a park in Edwardian London who similarly served as Mary's friend and potential admirer. Four months later, however, casting issues emerged, as Andrews temporarily retired from making films and was not interested in reprising her role as Mary Poppins. It was tricky to find an actor to play Bert's brother, though an executive suggested that singer Michael Jackson was right for the part. The planned sequel was eventually cancelled because of a combination of issues: the casting problems and the fact that new executives took over the company.[18]

The 2004 release of the 40th Anniversary DVD of the original film contained a trivia track that stated, in regards to a possible sequel, "One day the wind may change again ...".[19] On 14 September 2015, Walt Disney Pictures president Sean Bailey pitched a new Mary Poppins film to Rob Marshall, John DeLuca, and Marc Platt, as the team had produced Into the Woods for the studio the year prior. With approval from Travers' estate, Disney greenlit the project with the film taking place 25 years after the first[20] featuring a standalone narrative, based on the remaining seven books in the series. Marshall was hired to direct, while DeLuca and Platt would serve as producers along with Marshall. David Magee was hired to write the script.[21]

On 18 February 2016, Emily Blunt entered negotiations to play the title role in the sequel.[8] On 24 February 2016, Lin-Manuel Miranda was cast in the film to play Jack, a lamplighter.[10] In April 2016, Disney confirmed that the film was in development and Blunt and Miranda's castings.[7] In May, Disney announced the film's title as Mary Poppins Returns.[22] By July 2016, Meryl Streep had entered negotiations to join the cast to play cousin Topsy,[15] and would be officially cast in September.[23] Ben Whishaw was in negotiations to play the adult Michael Banks in August,[9] with Emily Mortimer cast as the adult Jane Banks,[11] and Colin Firth joined the film as William Weatherall Wilkins, president of the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in October.[14]

In February 2017, Angela Lansbury was cast to play the Balloon Lady.[24] Julie Andrews, who portrayed Poppins in the 1964 film, was approached to do a cameo (possibly as the Balloon Lady before the part was offered to Angela Lansbury)[25] in the sequel but turned down the offer as she wanted it to be "Emily's show."[26] Dick Van Dyke, who portrayed Bert and Mr. Dawes Sr. in the original film, returns in the sequel as the latter's son, Mr. Dawes Jr., replacing Arthur Malet, who died in 2013.[27] Karen Dotrice, who played the young Jane Banks in the original, has a cameo appearance in the film.[28]

Principal photography on the film began on 10 February 2017, at Shepperton Studios in Surrey, England.[16] Eight soundstages were used to build practical sets for the film, including Cherry Tree Lane, and the enormous abandoned park, where a big part of the musical number, "Trip a Little Light Fantastic," was set.[29]

Scenes requiring green and blue screens for visual effects were first filmed on J and K Stages with physical set pieces for the cast to interact with, which would then swapped out in post-production with animation.[30] Unlike the first film, which was wholly shot within soundstages in Hollywood, filming also took place on location, including outside the Bank of England in March 2017, and outside Buckingham Palace in April 2017.[31][32] Principal photography was wrapped by July 2017.[33]

The visual effects were provided by Cinesite, Framestore, Luma Pictures, Pixomondo, the Government of Victoria with the assistance of Film Victoria (both in Australia), and TPO VFX and supervised by Christian Irles, Christian Kaestner, Brendan Seals, Matthew Tinsley and Matt Johnson.[34] Like the original film, this film includes a sequence combining live-action and traditional hand-drawn animation. According to Marshall, he asked for an animated/live-action sequence rather than employing modern CGI animation, feeling that it was vital to hold on the classic hand-drawn animation to protect the spirit of the original film.[35]

The animation sequence was developed and overall supervision was handled by Jim Capobianco, with Ken Duncan supervising physical animation production at his studio in Pasadena, California. Over 70 animation artists specializing in hand-drawn 2D animation from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and other animation studios were recruited for the sequence.[1] The animated drawings were created using pencil and paper and scanned onto the computer to be digitally inked and painted. Character designer James Woods and animator James Baxter also helped redesign the penguins from the first film. All of the hand-drawn animation was created by Duncan's animation studio, Duncan Studio, in Pasadena.[36]

The music and score for the film was composed by Marc Shaiman, with song lyrics written by Scott Wittman and Shaiman.[37] The complete soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records on 7 December 2018.[37] Shaiman had heard about the film in 2014 and begged director Marshall to be allowed to write the songs for the film. Shaiman, in regards to working on the film, stated “Our love for the original movie overrode our fears, we re-embraced the thing we loved as children. There’s no need for irony or snark. This is our love letter to the original”.[38]

Disney released a teaser trailer for the film on March 4, 2018.[40][41] An official trailer was released in September, which revealed new footage, a snippet of an original song from the film, "The Place where Lost Things Go".[42] During "Disney Night" on Dancing with the Stars, a teaser for one of the film's original songs, "Can You Imagine That", was revealed.[43] On November 15, 2018, Disney released a sneak peek, which teased another original song from the film, "Trip a Little Light Fantastic."[44]

On November 22, 2018, Disney released a special episode of 20/20 on ABC called "Mary Poppins Returns: Behind the Magic" which included an extended look of the film,[45] with advance tickets for the film' going on sale along with the digital pre-order of the soundtrack and the release of two tracks off the soundtrack, "The Place Where Lost Things Go" and "Trip a Little Light Fantastic."[46]

Mary Poppins Returns grossed $172 million in the United States and Canada, and $177.6 million in other territories, for a total worldwide gross of $349.5 million against a production budget of $130 million.[4]

In the United States and Canada, the film was projected to gross $49–51 million from 4,090 theatres over its first five days (including around $35 million in its first weekend) and a total of $75 million over its first week of release.[47] The film made $4.8 million on its first day of release and $4.1 million on its second.[48] It went on to gross $23.5 million its opening weekend (a total of $32.3 million over its first five days), finishing below expectations but second at the box office behind fellow newcomer Aquaman. It then made $6.1 million on Monday and $11.5 million on Christmas Day for total week opening of $49.9 million.[49][50] In its second weekend the film increased by 20.5% to $28.4 million, remaining in second, and in its third weekend made $15.9 million, finishing third behind Aquaman and newcomer Escape Room.[51][52][53][54]

Emily Blunt's performance as Mary Poppins garnered critical acclaim.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 79% based on 371 reviews, with an average rating of 7.28/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Mary Poppins Returns relies on the magic of its classic forebear to cast a familiar – but still solidly effective – family-friendly spell."[55] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 66 out of 100, based on 54 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."[56] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an 84% overall positive score and a 62% "definite recommend".[49]

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film 3 out of 5 stars, writing "Emily Blunt is the magical nanny in this scarily accomplished clone-pastiche sequel, which starts terrifically and ends cloyingly – just like the original."[57] Geoffrey MacNab of The Independent wrote "The nostalgia here could easily have been very cloying. Instead, it adds to the richness and mystery. In an era of superhero franchises where sequels to successful movies turn up almost instantly, Mary Poppins's return shows that sometimes it pays to wait. Half a century on, her allure hasn't faded at all."[58] Owen Gleiberman of Variety deemed the film a "rapturous piece of nostalgia"; lauded Blunt's take on Mary Poppins and described her casting as "practically perfect"; and gave his praise on Marshall's direction as well as the production design, musical score, songs, and the supporting cast (particularly Miranda, Whishaw, Firth, and Streep). He compared the film's quality and tone to that of 1960s musicals, and its nostalgia to Star Wars: The Force Awakens.[59] David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Its old-fashioned, honest sentimentality plasters a smile across your face and plants a tear in your eye, often simultaneously." Rooney lauded Blunt's work (whom he labelled as "preening vanity with unmistakable warmth") along with the supporting cast as well as the costumes, sets, musical score, and songs. He referred to the last two as the best since Hairspray and described these as "full of personality and humor, and reverential without being slavish in their adherence to the musical patterns of the first film".[60]

Brian Truitt of USA Today described the film as a "comforting nostalgia-fest" and "satisfaction in spit-spot fashion" as well as commended the performances of Blunt and Miranda, Marshall's knack on musical numbers and Shaiman's "swinging delight" original score.[61] The Atlantic's Christopher Orr remarked that: "Mary Poppins Returns serves as a reminder that, for all its global scope and hegemonic ambition, Disney still has a little magic left up its sleeve." Orr called it a "highly likable diversion" and similarly praised the film for balancing the familiar and the new. Orr praised Blunt's version of Mary Poppins to be "excellent", finding it "a little chillier and more austere" while referring to it as "truer to the spirit of the heroine of P. L. Travers’s books".[62] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film with three out of five stars and praised Blunt's portrayal of the title character. Despite finding the film not living up to the original film, Travers nevertheless praised the film, remarking, "Mary Poppins Returns shows it has the power to leave you deliriously happy".[63] Time magazine's Stephanie Zacharek wrote that "Mary Poppins Returns honors the spirit of its predecessor". She also highlighted Blunt's interpretation of the title character (in which she described the performance as close to "Travers’s original vision"), as well as the costumes, production values, and 2D animation sequences, but found fault with Shaiman's and Wittman's songs as one of the film's "weaker points".[64]

Will Gompertz of the BBC gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, stating, "It looks fantastic, the special effects are special, and a great deal of money has clearly been spent in the hope of making it supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. All of which is great. Except the movie – unlike the eponymous super nanny – never quite takes off."[65] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that "Mary Poppins Returns looks, feels and sounds like a sales pitch" and "ratchets up more than the family’s existential stakes", but praised the "emotional rawness" of Whishaw's acting; she called Shaiman's and Wittman's songs "the gravest disappointment", stressing that "there’s nothing here with comparable melodic or lyrical staying power" to the Sherman Brothers' original 1964 songs.[66] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle regarded the sequel as inferior to its 1964 original, feeling that the story did not deliver, and gave a mixed review on the songs. He described some of the songs as "forgettable", "indifferent", and "dreadful", but singled out others, such as Underneath the Lovely London Sky and The Place Where Lost Things Go, as some of the best; he stated "Mary Poppins Returns might have had a chance had the movie not tried to compete with the original in terms of scale. With 20 minutes of song and dance numbers cut, the movie really could have been better – not great, but better".[67]