A largely pointless sequel is flying high on streaming

As one of the most beloved family films ever made, it would be fair to say that nobody was crying out for a sequel to Mary Poppins, especially one that arrived 54 years after the original and didn’t really bring all that much to the table in terms of originality or inventiveness.

That’s not to say Mary Poppins Returns is a bad movie; far from it, in fact. Disney regular Rob Marshall spun an entertaining yarn that landed an 80% Rotten Tomatoes score, earned close to $350 million at the box office, nabbed four Academy Award nominations, and four Golden Globe nods including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress in the Musical or Comedy categories.

By those metrics, Mary Poppins Returns was a major success story, but it’s not a film you hear people talking about all that often. It takes either a huge set of stones or immense self-belief to step into the legendary shoes of Julie Andrews, but Emily Blunt is more than capable of following in such daunting footsteps.

It’s become a recurring favorite on streaming since Disney Plus was first launched, though, and it’s back at it again. As per FlixPatrol, Mary Poppins Returns has been flying up the most-watched list all week as fans revisit the whimsical story in their droves.