20140216

Mr Banks, saved

I waited a long time for Mary Poppins to be released on blu-ray.  I'd been thinking of buying it on DVD for a couple of years, but decided to wait until the 50th anniversary, when it was sure to be released.  And lo, it so came to pass.

So I got it, remembering that I had liked it a lot as a kid, but not remembering much else about it.

Well, I watched it with the kids a couple days ago, and was a bit disappointed.  It set in pretty early, when my son mostly stopped paying attention only a few minutes in (by contrast, he was enraptured by The Sound of Music, and paid close attention at least until the Intermission, despite being eight or nine months younger when we watched that).  And the disappointment continued, as I got a bit bored, as well.

It wasn't a bad movie, just not nearly as magical as I remembered.

I was more impressed with Dick van Dyke; I remembered liking him, but it was still a much stronger performance than I'd recalled.  In particular, his dancing was really, really good, especially for needing to look... casual, I guess.  I love Julie Andrews, but I'm not at all sure that she deserved an Oscar for the performance (on the flip side, I've watched The Sound of Music many, many times, and I get more and more impressed with her performance in that one every time I watch it.  She really had to carry most of that movie, and did so with aplomb).  Not to say it was bad, since it wasn't, just... not amazing, I guess.

I still haven't seen Saving Mr Banks, and I'm torn about it now.  I know my dad liked it, and the idea is certainly interesting.  But Mary Poppins revisited wasn't as great, and I'm not a big fan of Tom Hanks, though I like Emma Thompson.

The one thing I find interesting about it is the timing of the release.  My suspicion (backed by nothing more than my gut) is that they started doing research for a 'Making Of...' special for the 50th anniversary release, and found a lot more material than they were expecting, leading to the new movie.

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