Angela Lansbury as the Balloon Lady, a kindly old woman who sells balloons at the park. The part was written to be a cameo role for Julie Andrews who portrayed Mary Poppins in the original film, but she turned the role down as she felt her presence would unfairly take attention away from Emily Blunt.
Was Julie Andrews supposed to be the Balloon Lady?
When this movie was announced, history repeated itself as Emily Blunt was also pregnant and the movie was postponed to accommodate her pregnancy. Dame Julie Andrews turned down a proposed cameo appearance as the balloon lady, fearing that it would be too distracting from Emily Blunt's performance.
Mary Poppins is a story of redemption. We see how a bad parent, caught by the trappings of his work and the stress of everyday life loses sight of the one thing that matters, his family. It's a great character arc. Whilst the film is called Mary Poppins, really the film isn't about her.
After Mary Poppins, Karen appeared in a string of films, like The Gnome-Mobile (1967) and The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978), as well as on television programs like Upstairs, Downstairs, but eventually she left the business of acting to raise little ones of her own.
A Cover Is Not the Book (From "Mary Poppins Returns"/Audio Only)
What happened to Michael's wife in Mary Poppins Returns?
Sadly, Michael's wife has died, and he's struggling to bring up his children and maintain his house and finances by himself. Just as the bank is about to foreclose on his mortgage, Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) flies in on her umbrella to care for Michael's children.
"Jack is a lamplighter. He apprenticed under Bert from the original films so he knows all about Mary," said Miranda. "So it's really nice to play the Bert position in this film. You kind of get to go on all the fun adventures with the Banks family."
MIRANDA: He grew up alongside the Banks kids, but he was the kid shining shoes outside while they were living in the house. And they've written off their relationship with Mary Poppins, but Jack never forgot. Jack sees Mary Poppins and remembers it all for the magic that it is.
Mary Poppins in Travers' books is strict and no-nonsense, asserting her unusual brand of discipline over the four (later five) Banks children in her charge. Mary is very vain and is always admiring herself in the mirror and other reflections.
Is There a Love Connection between Mary Poppins and Bert the Match-Man? The 1964 Disney movie Mary Poppins certainly suggests such an interpretation. However, Mary Poppins's author P.L. Travers had a different opinion and denied any romantic relationship between these two fictional characters.
The most obvious answer, and the one that makes the most sense, is that she's a witch. Mary Poppins being a witch explains her powers, along with why she seemingly hasn't aged a day in the new movie set decades after the original.
After her last note, "The Sound of Music" star Julie Andrews came out to give Gaga a big hug. "Dear Lady Gaga," said Andrews. "Thank you for that wonderful tribute. It really warmed my heart.
I've LOVED Mary Poppins since I was little. The magical nanny in the great story brings me so much joy. The music is by two of my favorite composers, the Sherman brothers, and is great fun to listen to and play on the piano.
Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack, with a chorus of lamplighters, in Mary Poppins Returns. 4. Jack the Lamplighter and Bert the Chimney Sweep are connected in the great circle of Disney. Bert the Chimney Sweep, played by Dick Van Dyke in the original, does not appear in Mary Poppins Returns — he's out traveling the world.
This is also why Mary Poppins knows him as Uncle Albert! He's not her uncle. If he was, why would Bert just be at the house waiting for her when Mary gets there? She calls him Uncle Albert because that's what she's used to calling him when she saw him often during her time as Bert's nanny.
How come Julie Andrews wasn t in Mary Poppins Returns?
Despite the many callbacks to the original Mary Poppins, the sequel still lacked Andrews' presence. Director Rob Marshall recalled to Variety how quickly Andrews turned down the offer to appear in Mary Poppins Returns. Marshall stated Andrews felt the film was "Emily's show" and didn't want to hog the spotlight.
He is a long time friend of Mary Poppins, though their relationship is noted to be strictly platonic (but there are hints to suggest a more romantic interest between them).
In the Disney version Mary Poppins is more like a fairy godmother than a witch, and her task is to restore the absentee Banks parents to their children, to create a conventionally happy family, one in which children are not raised by servants.
Mary Poppins is set in London, England—capital of the British Empire and home to any number of cockney street sweepers and magical nannies. But Poppins isn't set in then-modern day London (in the swingin' 1960s). It's set in the Edwardian Era, specifically in 1910, back when King Edward VII was doing his thing.
What does Mr. Banks want Michael to do with the tuppence?
In one scene, Poppins encourages the Banks children to pay a woman a “tuppence” for bread crumbs to feed the birds (in the movie, Michael Banks is encouraged by his father and other bankers to instead invest his tuppence).
