REVIEWED BY JAMES MOTTRAM

Bringing Mary Poppins back to the big screen is a task fraught with peril. The 1964 movie, starring Julie Andrews as P. L. Travers’ magical nanny, is almost unassailable in the pantheon of children’s films. With its spoonfuls of sugar, kite-flying and Dick Van Dyke’s Chim-Chimeneying, it remains a Walt Disney high point, an enchanting blend of live-action and animation.

So Rob Marshall’s Mary Poppins Returns faces enormous challenges. Impressively, it exceeds expectations with a vibrant, sing-a-long family film that pays homage to the original and (almost) goes toe-to-toe with it. Marshall is just about the ideal director, with big-budget movie musicals Chicago and Into The Woods, under his belt. Here, he raids the latter for his Mary Poppins: Emily Blunt.

The British actress is splendid in the role, with Mary returning to the Banks household in Cherry Tree Lane with the kids she once looked after now all grown-up (she hasn’t aged a day, something she seems eternally pleased about). There’s a waspish relish with which she attacks the “come along children” dialogue, and when one of the little’uns asks how much she weighs, the look on her face is priceless.

Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) is a teller at the bank where his father worked, now run by Colin Firth’s meanie. He’s also a widower, having lost his wife in the past year, and father to their three children. Michael is at breaking point. He has taken out a loan, which he now needs to repay in full – to the very bank he works for – or face losing the family home.

The potential saviour is a certificate of ownership proving that Michael and Jane’s father has shares in the bank. But where is it? With the Banks’ having until midnight on Friday, this ticking clock (made very clear in the Big Ben-set finale) is what drives the film. But really it’s the return of Mary Poppins – arriving from the heavens attached to a kite string – that keeps you enchanted. While Michael and Jane are busy looking for certificates, Mary is managing the children in her own inimitable style. This includes a trip into the scenario painted on a valuable Royal Doulton bowl belonging to the late Mrs. Banks that may, think the children, help save their home.

It’s here the film really takes flight, while also inspiring memories of the original, as Marshall mixes live-action with old school 2D hand-drawn animation.

The sequence truly showcases Blunt’s talents as she winds up giving a full-on music hall performance. Accompanying her is Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda), the young chimney sweep who takes the place of Dick Van Dyke’s cheery Burt from the original (although Van Dyke fans fear not, he does make a show-stopping cameo).

Miranda, who is famed for writing the hit musical Hamilton, is just as engaging as Blunt (both have been nominated for Golden Globes). Bookending the film by singing ‘(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky’, he makes the most of the songs written by Marc Shaiman, including the eminently hummable ‘Trip A Little Light Fantastic’. If not quite up there with ‘Chim Chim Cher-ee’, Shaiman’s songs are still jolly good fun.

The music aside, the fantasy sequences in particular show just how well Marshall has nailed the spirit of the first movie. “Everything is possible – even the impossible,” trills Mary, who – as if to prove it – still carries that flighty umbrella of hers, complete with talking handle.

Intriguingly, the film draws from the same well as this year’s sterile Christopher Robin, which similarly posited the titular character as a grown-up who has forgotten the magic of childhood. “They always forget,” sighs Mary Poppins, aware that her magic will fade from young minds until they no longer believe it was real. Renewing our faith in the power of the imagination, no one will forget after seeing this fabulous family film.