“It is wonderful to see you.”
March 6, 2018 5:42 PM   Subscribe

Mary Poppins Returns [Official Teaser Trailer] ““Mary Poppins Returns” stars: Emily Blunt as the practically-perfect nanny with unique magical skills who can turn any task into an unforgettable, fantastic adventure; Lin-Manuel Miranda as her friend Jack, an optimistic street lamplighter who helps bring light—and life—to the streets of London; Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks; Emily Mortimer as Jane Banks; and Julie Walters as the Banks’ housekeeper Ellen; with Colin Firth as Fidelity Fiduciary Bank’s William Weatherall Wilkins; and Meryl Streep as Mary’s eccentric cousin, Topsy. The film also introduces three new Banks’ children played by Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and newcomer Joel Dawson. Angela Lansbury appears as the Balloon Lady, a treasured character from the PL Travers books and Dick Van Dyke is Mr. Dawes Jr., the retired chairman of the bank now run by Firth’s character.”
posted by Fizz (79 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
In related news, St Mary the Virgin's Church in Twickenham, England has been reporting earthquakes localized in the cemetery area.
posted by dannyboybell at 5:52 PM on March 6, 2018 [18 favorites]


Thought for a moment you were linking to the actual 4.4 quake that hit Wales last month. Not to mention the mass die-off of sea creatures and the Chicken Disappearance. Basically, end of days type stuff. ;)
posted by Celsius1414 at 5:59 PM on March 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


Lin-Manuel Miranda's original tweet announcement: "Mary Poppins y'all!"
posted by emmet at 6:00 PM on March 6, 2018 [13 favorites]


DICK VAN DYKE IS STILL ALIVE???
posted by saturday_morning at 6:02 PM on March 6, 2018 [13 favorites]


Dick Van Dyke is immortal and shame on you for suggesting otherwise.
posted by gatorae at 6:09 PM on March 6, 2018 [50 favorites]


He's NINETY TWO. Someone in my FB feed posted a video of him singing "Viper's Drag" at a jazz club in LA last week.
posted by mwhybark at 6:12 PM on March 6, 2018 [10 favorites]


“Mary Poppins Returns”

Eugh, come on, do we have to do a warmed-over rehash of a perfectly fine classic movie?

Lin-Manuel Miranda

OK, disregard that, this will be awesome.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:13 PM on March 6, 2018 [26 favorites]


That's really gross, the author explicitly stated in her will that she didn't want any more movie adaptations. Especially considering everything Disney has done to protect their precious IP, you'd think they'd treat someone else's with a little more respect.
posted by drinkyclown at 6:16 PM on March 6, 2018 [24 favorites]


On the one hand, I love some LMM. On the other hand, like Mr. Encyclopedia, I keep thinking, this *had* to be remade?

I've seen Saving Mr. Banks, I am unshocked that Disney continued to make this anyway.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:18 PM on March 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


Disney also just dropped a teaser for Christopher Robin, another movie about grown-up characters from a classic children's story coping with the gray hardships of life by having a psychotic break reconnecting with fantastical figures from their past.

People, if you have a screenplay called Bedknobs and Broomsticks 2: What If the Kids Got Older and Were Sad? gathering dust in your desk drawer, you've got to mail that shit in before this wave crests.
posted by Iridic at 6:19 PM on March 6, 2018 [100 favorites]


I saw Dick Van Dyke at D23 a few years ago and lost my head completely when I realized I had just walked by him and in full costume* I jumped as high as I could to see over the crowd surrounding him so I could shout, "Mr. Dick Van Dyke I love you so!!!"

Upon hearing my strangled cry of adulation he looked around with this adorably puzzled look on his face and replied loudly, "Why thank you person I can't see!"

And the rest of my day just couldn't compare to that because Dick Van Dyke aka Bert from Mary Poppins ACKNOWLEDGED me I mean what even

I was Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6, I was wearing 6 inch heels, the jump probably could have broken my ankles and maybe a femur but through Disney Magic it somehow didn't
posted by Hermione Granger at 6:20 PM on March 6, 2018 [104 favorites]


People, if you have a screenplay called Bedknobs and Broomsticks 2: What If the Kids Got Older and Were Sad? gathering dust in your desk drawer, you've got to mail that shit in before this wave crests.

I got a Bedknobs and Broomsticks meets Gnome-Mobile script, does that count?
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:23 PM on March 6, 2018 [6 favorites]


Wait, if this is 30 years or so after the original, is it going to be about The War? That seems like a terrible idea, but there's sort of an "in for a penny, in for a pound" feeling to this whole thing, so why not, let's use the spoonful of sugar to deflect incoming bombs.
posted by Copronymus at 6:25 PM on March 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


Especially considering everything Disney has done to protect their precious IP, you'd think they'd treat someone else's with a little more respect.

It's so cute that you think they'd think that way. :)
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:25 PM on March 6, 2018 [17 favorites]


Wait, if this is 30 years or so after the original, is it going to be about The War?

It's "set in 1930s London," which kindles a slim hope in me that Mary Poppins will join the Battle of Cable Street and hurl jagged chunks of brick at Oswald Mosley.
posted by Iridic at 6:32 PM on March 6, 2018 [57 favorites]


Mary Poppins quits.
posted by jabo at 6:35 PM on March 6, 2018 [14 favorites]


BUT WHYYY
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:50 PM on March 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


I mean, I know that's not considered a valid question in this century, BUT WHYYY
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:52 PM on March 6, 2018 [10 favorites]


I like Lin Manuel Miranda, but I want the old Mary Poppins. :(
posted by aielen at 6:54 PM on March 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


You'll eat your reboots and you'll like it.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 6:56 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


I want another Rescuers movie :( :(
posted by fluttering hellfire at 7:07 PM on March 6, 2018 [9 favorites]


Yes, I don't quite know what to think of this. One the one hand, the casting is excellent and there aren't a lot of 50 year old movies that interest kids, even ones which we believe are brilliant beyond all imagining, so I think it's pretty cool that a new generation will hear the stories of Mary Poppins, but on the other hand, Ms. Travers was quite clear that she didn't want it remade, and I'm not sure a period movie is going to capture a young audience any better than the original might have done had it been remastered and rereleased, so...

I'm conflicted.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 7:08 PM on March 6, 2018 [6 favorites]


wait is it at all possible that the new Mary Poppins and Christopher Robin exist in the same time stream

oh my god I think it is

both stories involve the British bank

what if that's the crossover point

ahhh!!!!
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:31 PM on March 6, 2018 [7 favorites]


Stop calling it a reboot. Whatever faults anyone finds in it once it's in theaters, this is not a "warmed-over rehash." It's a new story in which the kids are now adults.

I mean, I get it, this is MetaFilter and we will overthink a microwaved plate of leftover beans, but let's at least not call them leftovers when they aren't.
posted by tzikeh at 7:35 PM on March 6, 2018 [13 favorites]


> saturday_morning:
"DICK VAN DYKE IS STILL ALIVE???"

The internet still has periods available, so, yeah.
posted by Samizdata at 7:40 PM on March 6, 2018 [3 favorites]


People, if you have a screenplay called Bedknobs and Broomsticks 2: What If the Kids Got Older and Were Sad? gathering dust in your desk drawer, you've got to mail that shit in before this wave crests.

In my reboot of Bedknobs and Broomsticks, the kids make it back to London and are squatting in a bombed out house.
Charlie dies in the Blitz, Carrie ends up nursing invalids and Paul, no one knows what happened to Paul.
There is no magic, Naboombu turns out to be a fever dream induced by green exhaust smoke, and Professor Emelius Browne is more of a Fagin type character.
Somewhere in the distance, a voice cries, 'Are you my mummy'?

I'm pitching it as 'V for Vendetta' but, you know, for kids.
posted by madajb at 7:43 PM on March 6, 2018 [17 favorites]


I’m interested to see whether the mother in this reboot will similarly give up her her quest for suffrage so that she can, literally, go fly a kite.
posted by scantee at 7:45 PM on March 6, 2018 [7 favorites]


Disney also just dropped a teaser for Christopher Robin

Gawddamn they nailed Pooh's voice from my childhood. Guess I'll be hitting that one up for that alone.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:46 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


Whelp, figures I guess. A quick gut check for Pooh means the nuance makes sense because it's the same person. Looks like Jim Cummings voiced Pooh for my memorial stories (and damn near everything else maybe). Well, not the earlier stuff, which I do recall but I really cut my teeth on the Adventures series I suppose, which seems to be Sterling Holloway, who was also great as far as I can recall.
posted by RolandOfEld at 7:52 PM on March 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


The Banks children were whiny and annoying, why must we come back to see their whiny annoying offspring.

Also it's the Depression, yes, that should lighten the mood.
posted by emjaybee at 8:00 PM on March 6, 2018 [2 favorites]


holding out for the Vin Diesel remake 2Chitty 2Bang
posted by um at 8:06 PM on March 6, 2018 [115 favorites]


I’m interested to see whether the mother in this reboot will similarly give up her her quest for suffrage so that she can, literally, go fly a kite.

A less cynical interpretation of that scene is that by repurposing her sash as the kite’s tail and hoisting it to the skies, Mrs. Banks is actually promulgating the message of women’s suffrage throughout the entire city of London.
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:15 PM on March 6, 2018 [20 favorites]


I hope Dick van Dyke is credited as Navckid Keyd once again. It’s a shame they’re not giving him the chance to reprise his legendary ‘Cockney’ accent, which has the unchallenged status of Worst British Accent Ever.

I like the film and have accommodated its wilful distortions of some of the characters from the books, especially poor Mr Banks. But sometime somewhere I’d like to see an accurate portrayal of the original Poppins; vainer, stranger, scarier and above all, much more working class than Julie Andrews.
posted by Segundus at 8:30 PM on March 6, 2018 [17 favorites]


With Lin-Manuel Miranda maybe it's going to be ok, just as long as he doesn't do Cockney as laughably badly as Dick van Dyke. It might not have been so grating for non-Brits, but DvD's accent was deplorably phony and only bearable because Julie Andrews was wonderful in everything she did.

A glance at the Christopher Robin teaser shows a stiff-looking idea of Pooh Bear.
posted by anadem at 8:48 PM on March 6, 2018


We're a few years too late for the sequel I wanted, which is Mary Poppins and the Young Ones.

co-starring Alexei Sayle as Bert Balowski
posted by delfin at 8:50 PM on March 6, 2018 [12 favorites]


Poor Dick van Dyke and the Infamous Mangled English Accent; someone should have gotten that man a coach, or I don't know... something.

(For me, Eddie Izzard made it all better when he said that DvD was doing a great Aussie accent. So maybe Bert's backstory is that he's the grandson of convicts who were sent to Botany Bay, and he made his way back to England for some reason or other.)
posted by tzikeh at 8:58 PM on March 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


Let's all just chillax out a lil bit and relax to the best cover of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" ever.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:04 PM on March 6, 2018 [4 favorites]


Mary Poppins was "practically perfect in every way".

Why are we here??
posted by Toddles at 9:28 PM on March 6, 2018 [1 favorite]


Eddie Izzard is very much incorrect. DvD's accent is one of a kind.
posted by threecheesetrees at 9:47 PM on March 6, 2018


So maybe Bert's backstory is that he's the grandson of convicts who were sent to Botany Bay, and he made his way back to England for some reason or other.

Whereupon he anonymously bestowed his entire ill-gotten fortune upon Michael Banks, who spent it on birdseed.
posted by Pallas Athena at 9:52 PM on March 6, 2018 [8 favorites]


vainer, stranger, scarier

IIRC, she derives her powers partly from her status as "the Great Exception." In the books, it's explained that all humans are born with a connection to the animistic universe and the ability to converse with animals, objects, and natural phenomena, but inevitably lose this power around the time their teeth start coming in. Mary Poppins, however, never lost her connection to the numinous, which means she has continually accumulated secret knowledge since the day of her birth. Given another thirty years of this accumulation, she must wield the puissance of a god.
posted by Iridic at 10:07 PM on March 6, 2018 [28 favorites]


Wow, Hollywood has really gotten quite good at reproducing the look of old films. This almost looks like it could have been shot right after the original 1964 movie, rather than fifty-some years later.
posted by mbrubeck at 10:22 PM on March 6, 2018


Gawddamn they nailed Pooh's voice from my childhood.

Yeah, Jim Cummings keeps getting asymptotically closer to the Sterling Holloway ideal. Now if only the writing is similarly inspired...
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:45 PM on March 6, 2018 [5 favorites]


Mary Poppins, however, never lost her connection to the numinous, which means she has continually accumulated secret knowledge since the day of her birth.

If you meet the Poppins on the road, kill her.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:50 PM on March 6, 2018 [15 favorites]


Do the books explain why Mary Poppins, a powerful supernatural entity in a city full of raw poverty and misery, chooses to help a family with a really nice big comfortable house?

That said, she's clearly got some sort of history with a group of organised labourers, so maybe the life of wealthy fun and luxury is a good cover for other projects, like Batman, and Engels.
posted by BinaryApe at 12:05 AM on March 7, 2018 [21 favorites]


BUT WHYYY

Money and power. All the recent remakes have been ways to strengthen Disney's hold on the often public domain works they are derived from. The live action remakes of Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella serve no other purpose. Any version of Sleeping Beauty where the witch doesn't look like Maleficent will appear wrong in some way. Christopher Robin Milne was a real person, who had a conflicted relationship with the stories that were written about him, but that doesn't matter because Disney own him. Pinocchio is actually a classic 19th century Italian novel, but that doesn't matter outside Italy, because Disney own it. They've even tried to make Alice in Wonderland a part of their IP, and had a shot at The Wind in the Willows at one point.

What Disney literally do is cultural appropriation - they take other people's culture, change it to suit their purposes and then maintain control over it. The latest wave of remakes is just an attempt to extend that control into the future.

A sequel to Mary Poppins should have more Gurdjieff in it, anyway.
posted by Grangousier at 1:01 AM on March 7, 2018 [30 favorites]


Metafilter: wield the puissance.
posted by Segundus at 1:08 AM on March 7, 2018 [8 favorites]


I’m interested to see whether the mother in this reboot will similarly give up her her quest for suffrage so that she can, literally, go fly a kite.

I always assumed it showed the Banks family accepting her politics, after all, thinking women should be able to vote was not exactly a radical position in the early 1960s.
posted by betweenthebars at 1:13 AM on March 7, 2018 [3 favorites]




I need this to be good for utterly selfish reasons.

If it tanks, it will break Lin-Manuels current successful creative streak.

2018 is not looking to be a year where I can bear for that to happen.
posted by Faintdreams at 4:12 AM on March 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


Metafilter: Should have more Gurdjieff in it, anyway.
posted by under_petticoat_rule at 5:05 AM on March 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


What Disney literally do is cultural appropriation - they take other people's culture, change it to suit their purposes and then maintain control over it. The latest wave of remakes is just an attempt to extend that control into the future.

Winnie-the-Pooh is not American, but I am glad you get to hear the voice from your childhood.

Although I am willing to accept you hear him directly in whatever voice you see to be appropriate, because he doesn't speak aloud.
posted by eyeofthetiger at 5:11 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


I will watch it if Dick van Dyke dances.
posted by JanetLand at 5:32 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Especially considering everything Disney has done to protect their precious IP, you'd think they'd treat someone else's with a little more respect.

HAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHA. Oh dear. Thank you for the chuckle.
posted by thecjm at 5:48 AM on March 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


> Bedknobs and Broomsticks 2: What If the Kids Got Older and Were Sad?

> Mary Poppins will join the Battle of Cable Street

> Given another thirty years of this accumulation, she must wield the puissance of a god.


There are a lot of takeaways from this thread, but first among them is that we need a Kickstarter to fuel Iridic's screenwriting career, and the inevitable torrent of lawsuits that shall thereupon issue forth from Disney.
posted by Mayor West at 5:54 AM on March 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


Cross over movie:

The Sound of Poppins: Supercali-DoReMe
posted by ian1977 at 6:27 AM on March 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


But sometime somewhere I’d like to see an accurate portrayal of the original Poppins; vainer, stranger, scarier and above all, much more working class than Julie Andrews.

Well, we ain't gonna get it from Emily bleeding Blunt, that's for damn sure.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:33 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


I should read the book.

Actually I should order it right now before the kiddo is too old to read it to.
posted by Artw at 6:49 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


There were EIGHT books, just for the record. I made some of the recipes when I was a tyke.

I don't know if I can articulate my feelings about the class issues etc. so I will just leave my comment there for now.
posted by warriorqueen at 7:25 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


So, did Mirror Poppins take a good look at Real Poppins' ass as she walked away?

If so, I am on board with this film.
posted by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 7:26 AM on March 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Well I only ordered the first two just now so I guess I'll have to re-up when they are done. And a recipe book!
posted by Artw at 7:37 AM on March 7, 2018


The Nanny McPhee movies, though based on another author's books, certainly borrowed from Travers' books in many regards (she is mentioned in the credits, in fact) The second film even deals with the conceit of Nanny McPhee returning to oversee another group of children with ties to the first set, as the Blitz looms over London.
posted by briank at 8:03 AM on March 7, 2018


This is blasphemy -- especially given that I write children's books for a living -- but Mary Poppins the movie was better than Mary Poppins the book. In fact, I have a theory (admittedly unprovable) that the main reason the book remains popular is that people picture Julie Andrews when they read it, thereby making Mary a more appealing character than she is on the page.
posted by yankeefog at 8:17 AM on March 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


RE: the Pooh movie

Yeah, Jim Cummings keeps getting asymptotically closer to the Sterling Holloway ideal.

I'm glad you all pointed out that the voice is a real person. On viewing, I was sure it was a digital recreation of Sterling Holloway, like some sort of vocal hologram, and I did not feel good about that at all.
posted by dnash at 8:20 AM on March 7, 2018


I really want to see Mary Poppins guest star on Doctor Who this season. Her bag is bigger on the inside, after all. Or, hell, have an episode where the Thirteenth Doctor goes undercover as a British nanny.

She already guest starred. They just called her Missy for contractual reasons.
posted by dng at 9:27 AM on March 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


Bring back Dr. Killinger and his Magic Murder Bag!
posted by Artw at 9:31 AM on March 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


I'm cautiously optimistic on this because a) Lin-Manuel Miranda, and b) I've been seriously impressed with Emily Blunt's range across drama, comedy, action, etc. Can't remember if I've heard her sing, though.

I'm pitching it as 'V for Vendetta' but, you know, for kids.

Now I've got Cookie Monster singing "V is for Vendetta, that's good enough for me!" on an endless loop in my head. Thanks a bunch.
posted by sapere aude at 9:35 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


The 1964 Mary Poppins was the very first movie-theater movie I saw. It was magical. That year for Christmas I got a Mary Poppins doll complete with little carpet bag and two outfits: the blue nanny dress/coat/hat and the floofy white dress from the animated sequence complete with parasol. OMG it was amazing. Of course, all gone now.

I normally don't care for remakes of movies from my childhood but with this cast, I am willing to give it a chance.
posted by agatha_magatha at 9:43 AM on March 7, 2018 [2 favorites]


In a burst of nostalgia, I looked on EBay and of course, found the doll and bought it (link to a similar one). I can have some fun moments revisiting my childhood, and then I have a young cousin who is the perfect age for it.
posted by agatha_magatha at 10:02 AM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Can't remember if I've heard her sing, though.

Emily Blunt was in the movie of Into the Woods. She's maybe no Andrews but she holds her own.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:11 AM on March 7, 2018


The Mary Poppins Returns/Christopher Robin releases so close together seem like a full frontal assault on 20th Century London/proper England by Disney.

And Jim Cummings has been voicing Pooh since Disney made its first TV version in 1988, taking over Tigger from Paul Winchell in the third season and doing voices for all the Disneytoons since the '90s, most notably Darkwing Duck and Pete, Mickey Mouse's resident villain. He was also the voice of Taz in "Taz-Mania", Cat in "Catdog", Fuzzy Lumpkins in "Powerpuff Girls" and Dick Dastardly in any recent "Wacky Races" revivals, plus a lot of minor characters and narrators all over the cartoon business. He's the only full-time voice actor among the animals in Christopher Robin. Tigger is being voiced by IT Crowd's Chris O'Dowd, Eeyore by Brad Garrett and Rabbit by Doctor #12 himself Peter Capaldi.
posted by oneswellfoop at 10:22 AM on March 7, 2018


Or, hell, have an episode where the Thirteenth Doctor goes undercover as a British nanny.

A governess in the streets, and a Time Lord in the sheets.
posted by thelonius at 10:23 AM on March 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


Given another thirty years of this accumulation, she must wield the puissance of a god.

Explains how she did what she did to the Potter boy.

I hope there’s a 3D segment in the Blazing World.
posted by leotrotsky at 11:01 AM on March 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


Cummings also calls sick children in character as Pooh for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
posted by EarBucket at 1:53 PM on March 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Emily Blunt looks like she will add just the right amount of bitch into MP, so I am IN.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 2:01 PM on March 7, 2018


Given another thirty years of this accumulation, she must wield the puissance of a god.



ALL WILL LOVE HER AND DESPAIR
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:06 PM on March 7, 2018 [8 favorites]


ALL WILL LOVE HER AND DESPAIR

That was brilliant. You might have just made my week (and it's been quite a week).
posted by emmet at 2:29 PM on March 7, 2018


"I mean, I get it, this is MetaFilter and we will overthink a microwaved plate of leftover beans, but let's at least not call them leftovers when they aren't."
Well, y'see, you take the same plate of beans story and leave it sit at the back of your fridge IP portfolio. Then you can fry them up re-set it 30 years later, add some fresh hot sauce talent, maybe some cream original actors, and it's like you've got a whole new meal movie - but at half the cost & effort!
posted by Pinback at 5:09 PM on March 7, 2018


I'm not going to lie, 3-6 year old Maarika worshipped this movie, but when 32 year old Maarika tried to rewatch it with her 2 year old, the damn movie would NEVER END. It's over 2 hours long.

But 34 year old Maarika got goosebumps watching the new trailer.
posted by Maarika at 7:02 AM on March 10, 2018


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