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.
Who plays the old lady at the end of Mary Poppins Returns?
Her performance in the magical movie sparks delight amongst fans of the dazzling actress and, even the film's director, who said Angela was an obvious choice for the role. Mary Poppins Returns' director Rob Marshall told USA Today: "There's a shorthand with Angela Lansbury. You see her and there's a magic about her.
Given the long time between movies, it's unsurprising that not many original cast members appear in Mary Poppins Returns. However, there's a brief cameo from Karen Dotrice, who played the young Jane, and the legendary Dick Van Dyke sings and tap dances at the grand old age of 93. Then there's Angela Lansbury.
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 (1964) Cast THEN and NOW, The actors have aged horribly!!
Why did Julie Andrews not appear 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.
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.
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.
Though the state of Mary and Bert's relationship has always been a little fuzzy, a popular theory has recently resurfaced ahead of Mary Poppins Returns explaining their interesting bond: Mary Poppins (played by Julie Andrews in the original and Emily Blunt in the sequel) was actually Bert's nanny when he was a kid.
It was in 1924, while Travers worked as a journalist at a London newspaper, that she came up with the idea for a novel about a whimsical-yet-stern nanny called Mary Poppins. The name, Travers told the BBC, came from the inscription "M. Poppins" written in the flyleaf of one of her favorite books as a child.
Is there going to be a sequel to Mary Poppins Returns?
It wasn't long after the release of Mary Poppins Returns that it was revealed Mary Poppins 3 is in the works. Rob Marshall confirmed he's working on another film and the plan is for Blunt to reprise her role as Mary Poppins.
Dawes Jr., the son of bank director Mr. Dawes from the original film, there is also a very quick cameo from the original Jane Banks, played by actress Karen Dotrice. The cameo happens about halfway through the film, when Jane (Emily Mortimer) and Jack (Lin-Manuel Miranda) are chatting outside the Banks home.
"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."
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.
Eagle-eyed audience members will spot 63-year-old Karen Dotrice, the O.G. Jane Banks, in a fabulous momentary flash as a passerby who asks for directions to another house on Cherry Tree Lane. Her role in the credits is "Elegant Woman," a title that can presumably also be applied to her real life since Mary Poppins.
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).
How long between Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Returns?
Emily Blunt Uses Magic to Help Banks Family in 'Mary Poppins Returns' Trailer. The film is set in 1935 London, 25 years after the original. Its events will unfold against the backdrop of the Great Depression. Filming began in February 2017 and wrapped in early June.
For Mary Poppins on Broadway, a fully-automated three-point pendulum system was used to fly Mary out over the audience for her grand exit at the end of the show.
His secretary suggested the Broadway star of My Fair Lady, Julie Andrews. Walt chose her after watching her performance in Camelot and being impressed by her loud clear whistle. She chose Walt after Jack Warner rejected her for the My Fair Lady movie, claiming the actress was unphotogenic.
We realize that Mary Poppins came not to fix the children, nor was this their journey, but to fix Mr. Banks, a character, dragged down by conflicting loyalties. The wind changes and Mary Poppins must now leave the Banks children, presumably to help assist another family.
