Mary Poppins is back in Cherry Tree Lane, so get ready to trip a little light fantastic
with everyone's favourite British nanny.
Yippee-ki-yay movie lovers, I'm Jan and today I'm revealing the most supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
easter eggs, nostalgic call-backs, cameos, and secrets hidden in Mary Poppins Returns!
If you spotted any others, do share them in the comments below!
And be sure to subscribe to get all my new Mary Poppins videos!
Some mild spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the movie yet.
During Lin-Manuel Miranda's opening number, we get a mini-tour of London, with one iconic
location – St Paul's Cathedral – making a lovely return from the original movie.
As the camera passes over the cathedral, look carefully and you'll spot an old lady on the
steps and, as the camera moves up, a flock of pigeons scatter and fly away.
This little moment is a very sweet homage to the Bird Woman from the 1964 film who sold
breadcrumbs on the steps of St Paul's for tuppence a bag.
There's a lovely sequence in the new movie where the children disappear down the bathtub
drain with Mary as she sings "Can You Imagine That?"
This glorious fantasy sequence is a deep-cut easter egg to an under-the-water scene based
on the books that didn't make it into the first Mary Poppins film and it also has shades
of the under-the-sea sequence from Disney's 1971 movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks.
And that connection is no coincidence because the song "The Beautiful Briny", which Angela
Lansbury and David Tomlinson sing during their watery adventures in Bedknobs and Broomsticks,
was actually originally written for 1964's Mary Poppins.
And there's even more connections between the movies because Angela Lansbury plays the
part of the Balloon Lady in the Mary Poppins sequel, and her fellow Bedknobs and Broomsticks
star David Tomlinson was the original Mr Banks.
The "Can You Imagine That?"
underwater scene and song also tip their hat to Disney's Peter Pan [film] with a pirate
ship appearing together with the line [in the song] "Some pirates follow treasure maps
[…] They search the world for buried gold.
They won't grow up and don't grow old"
The animated English countryside sequence from the original Mary Poppins is one of the
movie's most treasured moments, and the sequel doesn't disappoint when it creates its own
version.
This time around, the family's Royal Doulton Bowl serves as the portal into the fantasy
world, with the painting on the bowl's surface giving us a glimpse of what's inside the world,
similar to Bert's pavement paintings in the first film.
The decision to employ old-school, hand-drawn animation techniques for the scenes inside
the bowl was a deliberate tribute to the original movie by the sequel's director Rob Marshall.
And to make Mary Poppins, Jack and the children look like they really belonged in the 2D hand-drawn
world, the costume design team literally painted on top of the fabric used to make their costumes.
The scale of production for these sequences was immense with the entire process taking
16 months to complete and involving more than 70 animators, some of whom even came out of
retirement for the opportunity to work on a sequel to such a Disney classic.
A Royal Doulton Bowl also features in the second Mary Poppins book, although what happens
there is much darker and scarier as Jane ends up trapped inside the bowl with a creepy old
man who tells her she's gone back in time 60 years and he intends to keep her there!
The Royal Doulton music hall is also the setting for an especially inventive musical number
called "A Cover Is Not The Book", in which Mary and Jack perform a vaudeville song that's
stacked with easter eggs to P.L.
Travers' original Mary Poppins books.
For example, the lyrics mention Nellie Rubina, a human-sized wooden doll who gives the children
Conversation Sweets in the book "Mary Poppins Comes Back".
Lin-Manuel Miranda gets to demonstrate the kind of verbal dexterity that's become his
signature in musicals like Hamilton when he performs a 1930s-style rap as part of "A Cover
Is Not The Book".
But Miranda's rap-esque moment is also a hat tip to the rat-a-tat section in Jolly Holiday
where Bert speak-sings about all the women who can't quite match up to Mary Poppins.
"Mavis and Sybil have ways that are winning."
"And Prudence and Gwendolyn set your heart spinnin'"
"Phoebe's delightful, Maude is disarming."
"Felicia, Janice and Lydia" "Charming!"
On the stage in the background, there's also a book called "The Day Out", which is the
title of the second chapter of PL Travers' first Mary Poppins book, and that chapter
was the inspiration for the "Jolly Holiday" scene in the first movie.
Another book in this scene called "The Cat That Looked At A King" is an easter egg to
a chapter from the book, Mary Poppins Opens The Door, which was also adapted into a short
film starring Julie Andrews which appeared on the 2004 DVD release of Mary Poppins.
The lovable penguins from the original film's animated scenes make a comeback during the
music hall section.
The penguins – which danced with Bert in the first film – this time around beg to
dance with Mary Poppins herself and later they also dance with Jack.
Mary even honks the beak of one of the penguins which feels like a fun nod to how one of the
four penguins in the original film seemed especially enamoured with the magical nanny.
"Anything for you, Mary Poppins."
"You're our favourite person."
A new character we meet in the sequel is Mary's cousin Topsy who runs a Fix-It shop that gets
turned upside-down every second Wednesday.
Her scenes with Mary, Jack and the children feel like an homage to the first film's floating
scene with Uncle Albert.
And if you keep your eyes peeled, you'll see the weather vane from the 1964 movie during
the "Turning Turtle" song in Topsy's shop!
Interestingly, Meryl Streep's Topsy is a mix of two characters from the books: Mary's cousin,
Arthur Turvy, who Mary also asked to mend a cracked Royal Doulton bowl, and a woman
named Topsy who marries Arthur Turvy.
And, similar to the film, everything in Arthur Turvy's life is the opposite of what it should
be one day a month.
Dick van Dyke makes a very special cameo in Mary Poppins Returns as Mr Dawes Jr., which
is a little inside joke for fans of the original movie because in that film he played Mr Dawes
Sr, the father of the character he plays in the sequel.
And the amazing little dance the 93-year old actor performs in the new movie is also reminiscent
of some of Bert's famous dance moves from the first film such as his dance alongside
the animated penguins and his chimney sweep routine on the rooftops of London.
There's also a wink and a nod to his double-role in the first movie when the sequel replays
how he was credited for his second part as Mr Dawes Sr.
So, once again during the credits, when we see Dick van Dyke's name, the letters first
appear scrambled before they magically rearrange themselves to reveal his real name.
And when Dick van Dyke sits down to tell the story about Michael's tuppence, he slyly starts
by saying, "once upon a time, there was a man with a wooden leg" which is a clever little
call-back to the first film's running joke about a wooden leg.
"A wooden leg named Smith."
In the 1964 movie, Dick van Dyke's Bert first told the joke to Uncle Albert; then the Banks
children passed it on to their father who eventually told it to Dick van Dyke's Mr Dawes
Sr, who later died laughing from the joke.
As well as Dick van Dyke returning from the first film, there's also a fun cameo by Karen
Dotrice who played the original Jane Banks.
In Mary Poppins Returns, Dotrice turns up on the street outside the Banks house asking
for directions to 19 Cherry Tree Lane, which is funny because that would have been her
neighbour's house.
And when she leaves, Dotrice politely says, 'many thanks, sincerely', which is exactly
how Jane and Michael signed off their advert for a new nanny in the first film.
Actor David Tomlinson who played Jane's father is no longer alive, but this shot of a man
in the park looks a lot like George Banks, and the way the kite knocks his hat off, feels
like a literal hat tip to the original movie where Mr Banks had his bowler hat punched
through when he was sacked.
Also, look out for photographs of the original Mr and Mrs Banks in the living room at 17
Cherry Tree Lane.
And there are plenty more delicious callbacks to the original film.
One of my favourites is when Mary arrives at the Banks home and addresses the gobsmacked
Michael.
"Mary..."
"Poppins!"
"Close your mouth please Michael, we are still not a codfish."
"Jane Banks.
Still rather inclined to giggle I see."
"Close your mouth please Michael.
We are not codfish."
"Now you, Jane."
"Rather inclined to giggle.
Doesn't put things away."
Then Mary admires herself in the mirror and walks away, although her reflection stays
behind, watching and raising an eyebrow as she leaves in a sweet throwback to when Mary's
reflection took on a life of its own in the first film, joining her in singing A Spoonful
of Sugar, before watching Mary leave and then winking!
And then there's some classic moments from the first film replayed with a twist such
as Mary Poppins sliding up the bannisters, as she did in the 1964 film, only this time
Jane and Michael don't see her!
Also Mary Poppins and the children tidy away the mess made by Michael and Jane with some
magical assistance, just as Mary did with the young Michael and Jane in the first movie.
You might remember Miss Lark's dog Andrew from the original movie.
As Mary Poppins Returns is set around 25 years after the first film, Miss Lark now has a
new dog called Willoughby, which is a fun little easter egg because in the books Miss
Lark has two dogs, Andrew and Willoughby.
And while Mary returning on a kite at the start of the film is taken from PL Travers'
second book, Mary Poppins Comes Back; the fact she says she'll stay with the Banks family
"till the door opens" comes from the third book, "Mary Poppins Opens The Door."
The kite also still has the Suffragette's "Votes For Women" sash that Mrs Banks attached
to it in the first movie.
There are other intriguing easter eggs such as the robin on Mary Poppins' hat, her talking
parrot umbrella, and the St Paul's snow globe, and I talk about why they're so important
in my other video.
I'll add a card with a link here as soon as I upload it so subscribe and hit the bell
to get notified as soon as it's posted!
Tap left to find out all the big differences between the sequel and the original.
Or tap right for my full Mary Poppins playlist.
Thanks for watching and see ya next time!
Yippee-ki-yay, movie lovers!