After 54 years, everyone’s favorite British nanny comes back to 17 Cherry Tree Lane in the sequel Mary Poppins Returns. The movie is like seeing something familiar, yet at the same time it’s completely new. It is just as brilliant and heartwarming as the original film.

Mary Poppins Returns takes place 20 years later when Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) are all grown up. Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) comes back to care for the children of Michael Banks– Annabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathanael Saleh) and Georgie (Joel Dawson.) Meanwhile Michael Banks learns that his house will be repossessed in five days unless he can pay back a loan. His only hope is to find a missing certificate that shows proof of valuable shares of the bank that his father left him years earlier.

Emily Blunt was casted perfectly as Mary Poppins. She appeared to be portraying the part similarly to how the character was written in the book. In an interview once Blunt stated, “She is completely batty and funny and vain and rude and terribly empathetic in a very weird way, not necessarily by what she says but by what she does.”

Lin-Manuel Miranda portrays Jack, the lamplighter (or leerie) who knew Mary Poppins when he was a kid. He brings life and joy to every scene that he is in, especially during the song “Trip A Little Light Fantastic” in which Jack and the other leeries are helping the Banks children who have become lost in a fog. It was a huge production number with wonderful choreography and an overall classic musical theatre vibe.

The music in the film is absolutely brilliant and captures the colorful tone and childlike wonder perfectly. It is also a wonderful testament to the first movie. There are even a few musical references in the film. In the song “Nowhere to Go But Up” there are a few cues to “Let’s Go Fly a Kite.”

There are three celebrity cameos in the film. Meryl Streep portrays Topsy who has a scene in the middle of the film. Angela Lansbury portrays the balloon lady who sings “Nowhere to Go But Up.” But the highlight of the film happened when Dick Van Dyke made his appearance as Mr. Dawes Jr.

However one big name did not make an appearance in the movie. When offered a cameo, Julie Andrews turned it down and said, “This is Emily’s show, and I want her to run with this. She should run with this. This is hers. I don’t want to be on top of that.” Interestingly, in the original contract regarding Mary Poppins, it is stated that no Mary Poppins movie was to be made unless Julie Andrews is in it.

Overall, I’d say that Mary Poppins Returns is an excellent sequel that perfectly captures the feeling of the 1964 film. This movie is really supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

Photo credit: thegemtheater.com