Mary Poppins - Have You Seen It? (actor, music, picture)

[loves2read]

We saw tonight w/6 yr old grandson
He has seen Mary Poppins on tv and really enjoyed it---
He hated this--
My husband and I felt about the same
I like Emily but she does not have the joy that Julie Andrews personifies in almost any half-way comic role---
This version of Mary Poppins offered no memorable songs--
Who can sing any of these songs like A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine go Down???

It tried to hard IMO to be "new" and break the comparison
But the best moment was when Dick Van Dyke comes out...
The cast left lot to be desired IMO

And the story line was very weak--
Having the signature line on the stock certificate just poo-pooed by Mr. Dawes at the end was not magical...
It should have been conjured
But they had to bring van Dyke in -- so he got job of curing Michael Banks problem
Banks was just dumb and weak --depended too much on his wife--why didn't he go see Dawes before when he had this issue--too gullible by half...
Mary didn't do a very good job of making him ready to support a family

The characters in lady and Tramp and 101 Dalmations run into trouble but the men aren't as downtrodden as Michael Banks...

I was really disappointed in this

[Delahanty]

Originally Posted by Iconographer

Really? Read the book sometime.

Don't look now, but this thread is about the movie.

[Delahanty]

Originally Posted by hertfordshire

Yeah, EB decided she wanted to play MP truer to the P.L. Travers version of the character. She definitely has more edge and bite than the JA version.

Personally I’m glad she didn’t just try to emulate JA. I just felt like there were times when she was overdoing the performance.

Exactly. And I'm not necessarily averse to that portrayal, but the difference between clips of Andrews and those of Blunt are striking. Does EB even sing A spoonful of sugar...? I can't picture it lol.

[Coney]

Originally Posted by loves2read

We saw tonight w/6 yr old grandson
He has seen Mary Poppins on tv and really enjoyed it---
He hated this--
My husband and I felt about the same
I like Emily but she does not have the joy that Julie Andrews personifies in almost any half-way comic role---
This version of Mary Poppins offered no memorable songs--
Who can sing any of these songs like A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine go Down???

It tried to hard IMO to be "new" and break the comparison
But the best moment was when Dick Van Dyke comes out...
The cast left lot to be desired IMO

And the story line was very weak--
Having the signature line on the stock certificate just poo-pooed by Mr. Dawes at the end was not magical...
It should have been conjured
But they had to bring van Dyke in -- so he got job of curing Michael Banks problem
Banks was just dumb and weak --depended too much on his wife--why didn't he go see Dawes before when he had this issue--too gullible by half...
Mary didn't do a very good job of making him ready to support a family

The characters in lady and Tramp and 101 Dalmations run into trouble but the men aren't as downtrodden as Michael Banks...

I was really disappointed in this

The problem with the music is that in the original movie, the songs were written first by the Sherman Brothers and then they cast the movie. In Mary Poppins Returns, they cast the movie first and then wrote the songs for the cast. Julie Andrews is a singer first, actress second. EB is predominantly an actress so they had to write parts that would fit her vocal range. Dick Van Dyke had a supporting role, while Lin-Manuel Miranda had just as much to sing as EB. They added a lot of hip-hop to Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs to suit his style from Hamilton and In the Heights. I think you would have liked the recent Broadway version of Mary Poppins.

[BobCaldwell]

Since childhood seeing stories about people like Mary Poppins and Pippi Longstocking made me wonder just what, exactly, these beings were (within context of the story). Was Mary some sort of spirit, or some distant aspect of the Great Old Ones taken human form? Some interdimensional being whose natural abilities would appear to us as 'magic'?

I also wondered where the Red Brick Road went. There could be a fascinating piece of fiction that could come out of that.

[lottamoxie]

I doubt I'll see this one in the theatre. Just not my cup of tea.

[Sundaydrive00]

Originally Posted by Coney

They added a lot of hip-hop to Lin-Manuel Miranda's songs to suit his style from Hamilton and In the Heights.

I don't recall any hip hop songs in Mary Poppins. Are you talking about his verse in "The Cover is Nit a Book" where he sang a little faster?

[Mrs. Skeffington]

I took my five-year-old grandson to see it last Friday. I was about his age when I saw the original "Mary Poppins". He was a bit fidgety and bored during some parts of it. I remember I was mesmerized at the original (I didn't want to leave the theater...I wanted to see it AGAIN), and my parents went out and bought me the "Disneyland" soundtrack LP.

I found it to be a bit too dark..it somehow didn't have the charm of the original. It was told too much from the adults' view point. Then again, it was created for a different generation used to darker fare. I was hoping for more lighthearted "cleaning up the nursery" type scenes. Meryl Streep as "Topsie" couldn't compete with Uncle Albert, either. My grandson found her "scary". Then again, I've always found Meryl Streep to be "scary".

Seeing Dick Van Dyke was worth it, though. I would have loved to have seen him in a dual role...as both the elderly banker AND Bert the chimney sweep.

[oeccscclhjhn]

Seeing a film through the eyes of an adult is quite a different experience than a child's viewing. Many of the things that I did not like / care for in Mary Poppins Returns would fly over the head of a kid in the audience. During the first third to half I was loving this film, but it did not last.

[loves2read]

Originally Posted by Sundaydrive00

I don't recall any hip hop songs in Mary Poppins. Are you talking about his verse in "The Cover is Nit a Book" where he sang a little faster?

Haven't see Hamilton but the songs in this movie were not that memorable
It was bad music IMO

And once you understand the songs were written afterwards to "fit" the personas it is easier to understand why none of them are that good...

IMO the "best song" for what it's worth--was the one in Meryl Streep's "fix-it" shop
That song had very fast meter--difficult to understand--almost tongue twister but it seemed to fit the story better than some others
But once again--Meryl Streep is there for her name-value--not because she is known for a great voice
Same as Miranda--his casting is drawing from the Hamilton fame...

The Lampy Song/Dance with the ladders was overwrought and put in for spectacle effect
Just like the climb up Big Ben--done to give Miranda more time in the film--when how did it end up?/?
Mary Poppins had to effect the real miracle--
Just wasted time/effort for Miranda before that...
That is just a bad script---I don't care how it conforms to the original books--
some books don't lend themselves to being made into movies...

I just felt like it was a really bad concept--
But when producers and studio heads have the bit in their teeth there is no telling them that
Did anyone really get the idea that Mary Poppins was there because she "loved" those kids?
I can get behind a more astringent nanny manner--but kids should know their nannies love them--
They saw Mary Poppins as a "fixer" -- she didn't even hug them...

This is a movie I would NEVER watch again--even with the captions on streaming to actually understand the vocals...