Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

There are two things that amaze me about Mary Poppins Returns.

The first is how the filmmakers managed to make so many good decisions while making the film. Everything from the subtle storytelling, the casting, the songs, the cinematography, the animation creates a film that doesn't stray too far from the formula of the first film, but also manages to feel fresh enough that it isn't a dull retread.

The second is that there are people out there who disagree with this assessment.

Not all of the songs hit first time - I initially found opening number of (Underneath the) Lovely London Sky to be okay, but not instantly catchy, but given a bit of time it earwormed itself into my mind - however for the most part, the songs stuck first time.

Emily Blunt on the other hand sticks the first time she appears in the movie. Trying to take over from Julie Andrews may have seemed like a poisoned chalice, but I found that instead of suffering in the shadow of Andrews' Poppins, the legacy instead worked in Blunt's favour. By not attempting to mimic Andrews, and instead delivering a pricklier, more vain Mary Poppins, Blunt creates sufficient distinction to make the role her own, while benefiting from the audience's familiarity with the character.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's turn as Jack the Lamplighter is a reasonable replacement for Bert the Chimney Sweep/Screever/One-Man Band. His accent isn't in the same league as Dick Van Dyke's, but with a fairly stagy (yet sufficiently charming) delivery, he's unlikely to be mistaken for a genuine cockney.

The animated scenes also compare well with the original film. Using hand-drawn animation for the Royal Dalton Ball sequence make the film feel contiguous to Mary Poppins' chalk drawing sequence, although interestingly it uses the opportunity to up the peril factor with a nightmarish chase sequence that felt akin to something out of Disney's Pinocchio or The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

This twisting of the story beats is something the film does quite frequently. It lends to the familiarity as there seems to be a companion piece for all of the the original's main sequences, but it uses those familiar beats to tell a tale that felt to me to be more focused than the plot of the original film.

There's talk of a sequel to Mary Poppins Returns. If they manage to maintain the quality, then I'm looking forward to it.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

When I first heard about Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, my expectations for it were so low the might as well have been the Mariana Trench.

We'd recently been given a live action Spider-Man film, where Sony had made the wise decision to collaborate with Marvel Studios. Now we were going to get what I expected to be a cheaply animated CGI cartoon that should probably have gone direct to video.

But then in the months leading up to the film's release, my opinion began to shift. First was the news that Lord and Miller, the responsible parties for The Lego Movie were going to be involved. Then came the trailers, which indicated that not only was the film going to be gifted with reasonable-looking animation, but it looked like it could be properly funny.

However, trailers all too often lie, so the chances were that my expectations, once low, were now too high. There was no way that the film could meet my expectations.

Except it met them, shook their hands, and then waved goodbye to them as it far exceeded anything I had thought the film capable of delivering.

I've now seen Spider-Verse four times (I only stopped because my local cinema took it off to make room for something like Welcome to Marwen). I've bought the soundtrack, the score, the entire run of comic books on which it was based. Out of the 97 films I saw last year, it's in my top two (don't ask me to pick between them).

I have one issue with the film, which was more of a problem the first time I saw it, and less of one with subsequent viewings. At times the animation in its quest to look edgy and comic book like uses techniques that make the picture look as if you've forgotten to put on your 3D glasses (I was watching in 2D - I have no idea of how confusing this might at a 3D screening).

Aside from that quibble, there's little else I can complain about. The storytelling is superb - there's not a single scene that bored me by the fourth time I was watching. The city environments have a genuine sense of place to them - it feels like a world the characters inhabit rather than only being a background to the real action. The dialogue is clever, sharp, funny. The characters are compelling - both the principle and the supporting parts. There's a sense of experimentation to the film with its clashing animation styles that hasn't been seen in mainstream western animation for a long time - certainly not to this extent.

The film's already won a Golden Globe. If it doesn't win an Oscar, I'll be suspecting foul play. It's the best animated film of the year, the best animated superhero film of all time, and it certainly ranks among the best comic book films committed to film.