Ever since I was a kid, I have always adored Julie Andrews, particularly playing the titular role in Mary Poppins. I had a Mary Poppins themed birthday party when I was younger, and even a mini lace parasol for playing dress-up. Naturally, when I heard that they were making a sequel to the original movie after 54 years, I was both excited and apprehensive about the creators doing justice to such an important piece of many people’s childhood, my own included. After all, the original is:
After watching the trailer, disappointingly, I must say that my exceedingly high expectations have not yet been met. Though the movie itself may surprise me, the trailer left me underwhelmed. Below, you can watch the trailer and judge the quality for yourself:
Now that you have watched the preview, see my thoughts on it below.
The “Sugar”:
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The Kite during the very opening scene was a sweet reminder of the message from the original that we should take time to enjoy life instead of just working, and Michael’s discarding of it in the trash shows that it is easy to forget about this as adults.
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Seeing Lin-Manuel Miranda gave me hope, as anyone in the world of musical theater knows that he tends to add a very special touch to any project that he’s involved with.
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Finding out that Dick Van Dyke is going to be in the new movie made me very happy, especially given the physical similarities between his character in the sequel and his uncredited role as the owner of the bank in the original.
The “Medicine”:
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My face after seeing Emily Blunt’s impersonation of Julie Andrews:
I love Emily Blunt in other movies such as “Into the Woods”, and I think she is a good actress. However, her Julie Andrews impression is subpar at best, leaving much to be desired.
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Similarly, my reaction to hearing the bedtime song she sings to the Banks children:
Though I’m sure it’s due in part to nostalgia, I also know that almost no song could hold a candle to “feed the birds” from the original movie, which was actually Walt Disney’s favorite song from any of his movies.
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Additionally, the visual effects in this movie had me
While I appreciate the animators’ attempts to keep the material similar to the original, it just didn’t seem to have the same magical quality of the blend between live action and animation that the first movie did.
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Finally, finding out that Julie Andrews herself will not be featured in any role in this movie had me like:
How could they not feature her in the role that she singlehandedly helped to make so iconic??
After all is said and done, I will be interested to see how the movie comes out. In the end, I guess it’s always true that
But regardless of how the new movie turns out, the original will always have a special place in my heart.