There probably isn't a child in the western world since 1964 who has not seen the original “Mary Poppins” and loved it and its star, the then young and always delightful Julie Andrews. So when the announcement that “Mary Poppins Returns,” starring Emily Blunt as the umbrella wielding, finger snapping, and flying nanny came out, audiences of all ages greeted the news with rare anticipation.
So what has been happening with the Banks kids since the first movie?
It’s the 1930s, and the Banks kids are grown up with adult problems. Michael still lives at 17 Cherry Tree Lane and has become a banker like his dad.
He has just lost his wife and is left to try to raise his three children as a single dad. His British stiff upper lip, carrying one approach is not working very well, as people in the more sensitive 21st Century could tell him.
Meanwhile, Jane is living in her own flat, is wearing trousers, and being scandalous as a union organizer (God!) In this way she is following in her mum’s footsteps as a radical agitator but is hopefully not being too annoying about it. Clearly, the Banks family is in need of the flying nanny to swoop in and bring some magic back into their lives.
Who from the first movie is going to be in ‘Mary Poppins Returns?’
Dick Van Dyke, still spry in his 90s will be making an appearance.
He will not be portraying Bert, the chimney sweep/one man band/original gig economy entrepreneur. To be fair, Bert is probably long gone, either from black lung from all of that chimney soot or from World War I if he volunteered as a middle aged bloke. That's too bad because he was such a cheery fellow.,
Julie Andrews will not be in the Movie, though the word is that she is behind the sequel “1000 percent.” The original Mary Poppins appearing, even in another role, would just be too great a distraction.
How will the new movie do?
“Mary Poppins Returns” is not due to show up on the big screen until Christmas 2018. The fact that the sequel is being done over 50 years after the first movie, in a different era than the early 60s, may be a cause of concern. Expectations will be so high one wonders if any movie will quite measure up to the first one, which brought magic not only to the fiction Banks family but to many millions of families over nearly two generations. Of course, everybody is going to see the new movie when it comes out. That is a given. But hopefully, it will provide some of its own magic to a world that desperately needs it.
