Mary Poppins
On 14 September 2015, Disney announced a new "Mary Poppins" film was to be made, with a new plot and new songs, although in P. L. Travers' final will, another movie version was not to be made according to her wishes. The film is directed by Rob Marshall and written by David Magee. Songs are composed by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, who both received support from Richard Sherman, who, along with his late brother-collaborator Robert Sherman wrote the iconic song score of the original "Mary Poppins" film. The film is not a reboot or remake of the original 1964 film; in this film Mary Poppins revisits the now-adult Banks children from the first film and takes charge of the three children of Michael Banks. It is loosely based on the other seven "Mary Poppins" books by Travers, and expands beyond them. Emily Blunt stars as Mary Poppins, alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda in the role of Jack, a similar character to Dick Van Dyke's "Bert" from the first film. It was announced on 31 May 2016 that the film would be titled "Mary Poppins Returns" and would take place in Depression-era London, 25 years after the events of the original film. Emily Mortimer and Ben Whishaw play grown-up Jane and Michael Banks. The release date was 21 December 2018 in the US and the UK.
Mary Poppins Returns
The visual effects were provided by Cinesite, Framestore, Luma Pictures, and TPO VFX and supervised by Christian Irles, Christian Kaestner, Brendan Seals, Matthew Tinsley and Matt Johnson. Like the original film, this film includes a sequence combining live-action and traditional hand-drawn animation. According to Marshall, he asked for an animated/live-action sequence rather than employing modern CGI animation, feeling that it was vital to hold on the classic hand-drawn animation to protect the spirit of the original film. The animation sequence was developed and overall supervision was handled by ex-Pixar veteran Jim Capobianco. Ex-Disney animator, Ken Duncan, supervised physical animation production at his studio in Pasadena. Over 70 animation artists specializing in hand-drawn 2D animation from Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar Animation Studios, and other animation studios were recruited for the sequence. The animated drawings were created using pencil and paper and scanned onto the computer to be digitally inked and painted. Character designer James Woods and animator James Baxter also helped redesign the penguins from the first film. All of the hand-drawn animation was created by Duncan's animation studio, Duncan Studio, in Pasadena, California.