Mary Poppins Returns – Home Video Release – Jason’s 1st Impressions

Mary Poppins Returns is available on home video in several formats.   The film takes you back to 17 Cherry Tree Lane as Mary Poppins returns to help the Banks family find hope/light in a dark time.    For more on the film itself here is Maggie’s Review from the theatrical release.

This release features a traditional set of bonus features including an extended making of series of pieces, deleted scenes & song, a look behind the camera on several of the musical numbers, bloopers, a sing along and commentary version.  For full specifications here is the original press release.

I explored the Blu-ray and Movies Anywhere versions of the release:

• The Practically Perfect Making of “Mary Poppins Returns”  – This four featurette set has a combined running time of just under 24 minutes.  It explores the making of the film  including some sets, fantasy sequences and musical numbers.
• Seeing Things From a Different Point of View”: The Musical Numbers of “Mary Poppins Returns” – Four featurettes with varying lengths showing a behind the scenes perspective of the key musical numbers from the film.
• Back to Cherry Tree Lane: Dick Van Dyke Returns – A just over five minute piece on Dick Van Dyke’s return to Mary Poppins and his role in this film.
• Practically Perfect Bloopers – About two minutes of bloopers and outtakes
• Two deleted scenes and a deleted song –   No introductions or context for the scenes was provided in the features.
• Two additional options to view the film – Sing-Along Mode and a digital exclusive Audio Commentary by director Rob Marshall and producer John DeLuca

Overall I thought this was a solid offering of bonus material.  The number of featurettes and lengths were on par with what you would expect.   I always enjoy a look at the making of a film and this release features an eight part series (if you combine the making of and different point of view featurettes) looking at many aspects of the production.   A highlight in these featurettes was the Angela Lansbury segment.  I thought hearing her thoughts was interesting.   The Dick Van Dyke featurette was my favorite of the offerings though.  Hearing him talk about the original and then his impact on the team during his time on set for this one was great to see.

My only real complaint with the release is the MoviesAnywhere interface. I thought the way the bonus features are grouped and presented is not intuitive at all.  For example the Audio Commentary is listed under Deleted Song.  I think a grouping of the featurettes more like the on screen menus for the Blu-ray would be a better way to navigate through.

Mary Poppins Returns will make a great addition to your Disney film library.  The bonus features are engaging and substantive if you want to learn a little of what went into making the film.