Mary Poppins Returns cast defend 'forgettable' songs

 

There's only one rule laid down to journalists at the press launch of Mary Poppins Returns.

"Don't ask any of the cast to spell Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
This point is made by the film's publicists twice over as we arrive, and it's clear they aren't joking. Fortunately we think we can live with it.
Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Mortimer and director Rob Marshall are here to talk about the follow-up to the 1964 classic, which is released in the UK this weekend.
Hollywood may be awash with remakes of films like A Star is Born, Tomb Raider and Ghostbusters, but Miranda insists this is a different beast. It is a sequel, not a reboot.
"That's an important distinction because it's not us trying to improve on Supercalifragilistice
xpialidocious," he tells BBC News.
"You can't improve on that, and we know that. The goal is there are eight books by [author] PL Travers, there are some amazing Mary Poppins stories that haven't made it to the screen."
 

Mary Poppins Returns is set in 1930s London, two decades after the original, with the famous nanny returning to help look after a new generation of Banks children.
Arriving in cinemas 54 years after its predecessor, the reviews for the film have been mainly positive.
The Telegraph's Robbie Collin called it "practically perfect in every way" in his five-star rave, while Empire's Olly Richards said Blunt was "impeccably cast as Poppins".
But some critics have focused on the soundtrack, suggesting it doesn't live up to the original.
"The songs of Mary Poppins Returns are almost shockingly forgettable," wrote Alissa Wilkinson in Vox. "I defy you to hum any of the tunes on your way out of the theatre."
The Hollywood Reporter acknowledged: "There's no song as memorably poignant as Feed the Birds," although it praised The Place Where Lost Things Go for "conveying the film's underlying sorrow with a comforting message of hope".