I’m Mary Poppins Y’All!

Now with that overused reference out of the way, Mary Poppins is practically perfect in every way. It was the first Disney movie to be nominated for Best Picture technically the first movie with animation to be nominated too (Beauty and the Beast was the first fully animated movie to be nominated). They literally made a movie about the author. The story is pretty simple. A nanny named Mary Poppins comes to take care of the Banks children. If you think this is too similar to the first one, yes it is. After my family watched this my brother said that he thought Mary Poppins Returns was Mary Poppins 2.0 and I kind of agree with him. The movie at times feels like a retread of the original. It has similar beats like making a chore fun, going to an animated world, meeting one of Mary Poppins “relatives”,

Emily Blunt is practically perfect as Mary Poppins. She has the same strict but also charming performance as Julie Andrews. Of course you can’t beat the original actress Emily is still a great replacement for Julie. My Mom is a huge fan of the Broadway show Hamilton so she was excited to see Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack. Jack is very likable and has the same charm and energy as Dick Van Dyke’s Bert. Both leads work wonderfully with each other. The rest of the cast is good including two well done cameos by Dick Van Dyke and Angela Lansbury. However there is one that doesn’t work and that’s the villain. Why did this have to have a villain? His motivations for taking the Bank’s house is never explained and comes off as like some kids movie villain from the 90s.

I got more excited for Mary Poppins Returns when they confirmed that there would be a scene with 2d animation just like in the original. If you know me, I love 2d animation (why can’t we get more 2d animated movies nowadays?). The Royal Doulton Bowl scene is definitely one of the highlights of the movie. The animation is wonderful, the textures are impressive and the live action characters look like there in the scene. Mary Poppins is known for having great songs and the sequel managed to make great songs too. My favorite songs have to be the opening song (Underneath the) Lovely London Sky and Trip a Little Light Fantastic both ironically sung by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The songs capture the same energy as the songs from the original. It also helps that Richard M. Sherman one of the original song writers worked on this movie as a music consultant

Is Mary Poppins Returns better than the first one? No but let’s face it, why should we top something that was great to begin with. I heard somewhere that Mary Poppins Returns feels like seeing an old friend and I believe that too. Mary Poppins Returns is a nice welcome back into the whimsical world of the practically perfect nanny Mary Poppins.

Verdict:
+ Emily Blunt
+ Lin-Manuel Miranda
+ Royal Doulton Bowl
+ Songs
– A retread
– A villain

Score: A-

This review is dedicated to the creators of the web slinger, Steve Ditko and Stan Lee.

2018 has surprisingly been a good year for Spider Man. He had a great video game and now a great animated movie by Sony animation. Yes the same studio that made The Emoji Movie. How did an animation studio that made that garbage one year later created what I think is there best animated movie yet? I bet nobody thought this would happen.

One of the highlights of Into the Spider Verse is the animation. If Hilda was this year’s best animation of for an animated series, than Spider Man into the Spider verse is this year’s best animation for film. The animation is incredible. It feels like a comic book with so much attention to detail like the thought bubbles or textures and the colors really pop out and help make the movie amazing to look at. The animation also gives us some really cool actions scenes especially in the climax.

Another highlight for me were the Spider Men. Each of them have their own unique backstories, and personalities. Miles Morales is a really likable main character and it’ refreshing to have Spider Man movie where Peter Parker is not the protagonist. The washed up Peter Parker we see throughout the movie is a lot different from other Spider Men but still enjoyable and Gwen Stacy is also cool too. My favorites have to be Spider-Man Noir, Peni Parker, and Spider-Ham. I love their designs, animations, and personalities. I hope they get their own spinoff shorts because you know you have great characters when you want to see more of them.

Loss is a big theme in superhero media and that goes for Spider Man. Loss plays a big theme in this movie and it ties into the plot nicely. Spoilers: Miles loses his Uncle and the other Spider Men tell him that they have all experienced lost too and that’s what makes them Spider Man. New York City also suffers the loss of Peter Parker from Mile’s universe and even the villain’s plan ties into losing his family. I will admit we didn’t get much scenes between Miles and his uncle (Prowler while cool wasn’t in it that long either). There could have been a few more scenes with Miles and Aaron in order to give his death more of an impact. Though that’s my only problem with the movie, other than that I think this movie is awesome.

I compare this movie to Blue Sky Studio’s The Peanuts because when both animated studios did something new and different compared to there other movies, both Peanuts and Spider Verse ended up being the best movies from their studios. I heard there are spin-offs and sequels planned for the future so s so that pretty much shows that this movie was a hit. Spider Man: into the Spider Verse feels like a love letter to the character himself. There’s not contest this is not only the best Sony animated movie and in my opinion the best Spider Man movie.

Verdict:
+ Loss
+ Spider Men
+ The action
+ The animation
-The Prowler

Score: A+

Finally a Disney movie without a twist villain! Ralph Breaks The Internet is the sequel to one of my favorite Disney movies Wreck it Ralph. It was kind of like Who Framed Roger Rabbit but with video games. This time Ralph and Vanellope explore the internet.

The internet is probably one of the biggest worlds in the Disney canon. Disney does some really creative ideas with the websites like Ebay being an auctioning convention or the Searchbar being controlled by this know it all named KnowsMore. Oh My Disney is a brilliant way to do a giant crossover with Disney. There’s a lot of jokes making fun of Disney and seeing all the princesses was great too. Don’t expect a lot of Fix-It Felix Jr or Calhoun because there not in the film that much even though they sort of set up a sub plot of them adopting the racers of Sugar Rush. It’s only one scene and whatever Felix Jr. and Calhoun do happens off screen and didn’t seem necessary.

The friendship between Ralph and Vanellope is the emotional center of the movie. John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman bring to much life to these characters. They both have a lot in common and great moments together. Ralph’s friendship with Vanellope however does cause him to make really reckless choices. Spoilers: In the beginning he tries to make a new track for her to race on which causes the steering wheel to break. Didn’t he learn from the first movie to not mess with the program? Later he gets worried that Vanellope will stay in Slaughter Race so he decides to use a virus to make it less awesome. Something about this didn’t seem in character for Ralph and came off as selfish. The movie surprisingly has a bittersweet ending where Ralph lets Vanellope stay in Slaughter Race which means while they won’t see each other more often they’ll still be best friends. Learning that best friends don’t always have e the same dream but can still work it out is a really good lesson and great way to end the movie.

While I do think the first one is better Ralph breaks the Internet is a great continuation of the first movie. I would say the first one is better but this was a fun adventure to explore the pros and cons of the internet even if they did waste the opportunity to do a Kingdom Hearts reference.

Verdict:
+ Bittersweet ending
+ Ralph and Vanellope
+ The internet
– Fix it Felix Jr. subplot
– Ralph’s choices

Score: A