From Bedknobs to Balloons
Monday, February 20, 2017 at 2:36PM 
Jason from MNPP here with a tidbit of movie news that hit over the weekend - it is official: after a few months of rumors the legendary Dame Angela Lansbury has joined the cast of Mary Poppins Returns, the sequel that Rob Marshall is currently directing with Emily Blunt stuffing her little feet into the great big sturdy shoes of Julie Andrews. The film will tackle elements drawn from the other seven books that Poppins author P.L. Travers (and tell me you don't immediately picture Emma Thompson when I say that name) wrote about the characters.
Lansbury is set to play "The Balloon Lady," and having never read the books I had to do some real digging to find out who the heck that supposedly "beloved" character was -- not even Wikipedia was any help. Thankfully Homorazzi knew what was up:
"Her character was introduced in Mary Poppins Comes Back, the second book of P.L. Travers’ series. She wreaks helium havoc in the park during one of Poppins’ outing with the Banks children."
Have any of you read the books? Is the character as beloved as they say? It's hard to think she won't be once Lansbury gets her hands on her. What a joy it will be to have this grand Dame back on the big screen. We've still got quite the wait on this movie though - it's not set for a release unti Christmas Day 2018.
Reader Comments (7)
This film has gathered an impressive cast.
Lansbury's someone I like a lot but haven't really loved, and if Marshall can do anything it's give a few actresses some great stuff to belt and chew on, so we'll see. I hope it works - Angela Lansbury attacking Emily Blunt while singing at her from a hot air balloon is a wonderful sight to think about.
This movie gives me so much pause. But that cast. And creative team. So wonderful.
However, the writing and the direction hold everything together and I'm very concerned about both.
I wouldn't have chosen that time frame, mostly to have Lansbury be subject of a quick joke. I would have gone with "The Grand-Children of the Banks children" (about 1970-1980) to facilitate this joke: Lansbury looking over New Poppins for a second and then saying, "She may be immortal, but I fought the Nazis. I win." Yes, it's a naked wink at Bedknobs and Broomsticks, but why the crap else do you cast Angela Lansbury in a Mary Poppins sequel if you're not going to openly go there?
I've only read the original Poppins book, she was quite different from Julie Andrews's no-nonsense but underlyingly sweet MP. It was a decent book but didn't make me want to read the others.
I have reservations about this film, at least they're not attempting to do a straight remake thank heavens, but the cast does keep getting better and better. It's always a happy day when a legend makes her way back to the screen.
Future Best Supporting Actress nomination?
Dame Angela is a treasure and we should be thankful she's still with us and still working. The quality of the final product is still up in the air, but Rob Marshall has gathered a terrific cast. I'm cautiously optimistic.