Delayed Reaction: Mary Poppins

Premise: A magical nanny shows up to improve the lives of a couple children in pre-WWI England.

I'm not a monster. I've seen Mary Poppins before. It's just been a long time. I remember going to my pediatrician's office years ago. This was on the TV and at the time, I thought "I haven't seen this in years". So, we're looking at 20-25 years since my last viewing if I add it all up. I was due a rewatch, especially with the releases of Saving Mister Banks and Mary Poppins Returns in the last few years drumming up my nostalgia.

The movie is exactly how I remember it. The music is great. Everything about the movie is silly, like everything in the house nearly falling over when the cannon goes off. Dick Van Dyke is a ball of energy. Mostly though, Julie Andrews. She is so good in this. I'll be honest, whenever I think about her winning the Lead Actress Oscar for this, I will start to rationalize it as a strange decision that wouldn't happen again. It's just a silly family movie, after all. I just assume it's not something that would really hold up. Wrong! Andrews is perfect. She's basically that cocky friend of yours who you can't hate for being cocky because they are pretty awesome. She's a force of nature and she knows it. Now I want to rewatch The Sound of Music even sooner.

I did forget how long the movie is. In my head, I always expect family movies to be under 2hrs if not struggling to fill 90m. I never remember to calculate in musicals being longer. That's not really a criticism though. It's just to say that toward the end I did pause to check how long this thing was. This is also "First World Problems: The Movie". This is a rich family with maids and nannies. Their parents are around, just not super attentive. It's easy to understand how Disney got the reputation that it's been spending decades getting out of. Again, not a complaint. Just a reminder.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend