While Disney's Mary Poppins Returns is technically a sequel to the original film, for fans it will surely feel like a return to the original classic. While the story and plot will be entirely new, the producers of Mary Poppins Returns clearly know how well loved the original feature is, which has led them to incorporate some moments in the new movie designed to remind people of the original. Among them, and interaction between live-action and animation, the character of Admiral Boom, and a grown up pair of Banks children who will look a lot like their parents.
While Mary Poppins Returns isn't a remake or reboot, it comes so long after the original that it still sort of plays that role. It's for this reason that the new film has decided to include these moments that are clearly designed to invoke the original in the minds of viewers. Quite possibly the most famous sequence in the original Mary Poppins is when Mary takes Burt and the children into a sidewalk chalk drawing, leading them into a remarkable, for its time, interaction between the live action characters and numerous animated animals. The new movie will include a similar sequence, although this time the animation will be done entirely on computers. According to Entertainment Weekly, Disney and Pixar animators are currently working on the scene that will see our human characters jump inside a Royal Doulton bowl where a musical performance will take place. What's more, the sequence will reportedly include the same penguins who starred in the original animated scene.
Fans of Mary Poppins will also remember the character of Admiral Boom, the maritime obsessed neighbor on Cherry Tree Lane who lived next door to the Banks family. While the new movie will not be reproducing the house exactly, the Admiral is apparently still living on the well-known street and will make an appearance in the new film as well.
Finally, Mary Poppins Returns will feature the Banks children, Jane and Michael, all grown up and with kids of their own. However, it's clear that the new movie will still take cues from the original. Michael Banks will have followed in his father's footsteps and become a banker, while Jane will apparently have followed her mother's passion for social advocacy. Jane will be a union activist. Her mother opened the original film with a song about being a suffragette. Mary Poppins Returns will be set in 1935 and women received full voting rights in Britain in 1928, so there's no need to fight for the vote anymore.
While it will be great to see these little nods to the original Mary Poppins the film's true test will be in its ability to capture the spirit of the original film while doing something entirely new. To know how well it does that we'll have to watch it. To do that we'll have to wait. Mary Poppins Returns hits theaters on Christmas Day in 2018.
