I was in first grade when the Disney version of "Mary Poppins" came out, and my friends and I loved it. My classmate Liz Fry wowed us by singing "Supercali (etc.)" backwards; perhaps not coincidentally, she went on to become a financial wizard in Manhattan.
My mother bought me a Mary Poppins doll, the soundtrack album AND an abridged copy of the P. L. Travers book, with a photo on the cover of Julie Andrews holding her parrot-head umbrella (movie spinoffs are nothing new). Later my grandmother bought me the real, complete book, which I learned to love as I got a little older, and which I still have.
All of this is to say that I was eager to see "Mary Poppins Returns," the new movie with Emily Blunt in the title role. I liked it very much. It's a feel-good movie, and it's actually a lot closer to the book. A couple of times I guessed that the image on the screen was inspired by the Mary Shepard illustration in the book, like when the young Banks lad is pulling with all his might on the kite that's bearing Mary P. down from the sky.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is delightful as Jack the lamplighter, Colin Firth hams it up as an evil banker trying to repossess Number 17 Cherry-Tree Lane, and Dick Van Dyke (the original Bert the chimney sweep!) steals the show. Don't miss Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady. In the credits I noticed Karen Dotrice's name (Jane Banks in the original) as an "Elegant Lady."
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