News Announced: Mary Poppins Attraction in UK Pavilion

[Matt_Black]

Because we've come full circle. Rinse and repeat. "Return to Poppins" is coming to theaters VERY soon. Will it have the same charms as the original or will it be more like "Return to Oz" a serviceable middle-ground movie that makes a studio millions yet struggles to charm the audiences that fell in love with the classic.

It's a little different. Return to Oz was made in an era where children's films seemed to have the sole goal of traumatizing the young audience. See also: The Never-Ending Story, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Black Cauldron, The Secret of Nimh....

 

[Magenta Panther]

Or that loving and sentimental opening sequence in Return to Oz, featuring electroshock therapy on a little girl

Gah, what an awful movie that was. I didn't expect it to reflect the MGM movie (that was lightning in a bottle, I guess), but still, I didn't think the film would be so dark and horrid and joyless. You know, maybe some literary properties should be forever left alone once they've been successfully translated into film, like MGM's "Oz". Maybe studios shouldn't make a movie about anything that's already been done unless they can do it better (like the recent live-action remake of "The Jungle Book". That was much better than the original film IMO).

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Gah, what an awful movie that was. I didn't expect it to reflect the MGM movie (that was lightning in a bottle, I guess), but still, I didn't think the film would be so dark and horrid and joyless. You know, maybe some literary properties should be forever left alone once they've been successfully translated into film, like MGM's "Oz". Maybe studios shouldn't make a movie about anything that's already been done unless they can do it better (like the recent live-action remake of "The Jungle Book". That was much better than the original film IMO).

I loved Return to Oz as a kid. Much more than the original. I may have been brought up wrong by my parents, though, as I remember being taken to see Aliens in the cinema when it first came out and I was born in 1981, so I can't have been more than 5 or 6 years old.
Still, Wheelers! And who can forget that scene with all the disembodied heads shouting "Dorothy Gale".

 

[mickEblu]

It's a little different. Return to Oz was made in an era where children's films seemed to have the sole goal of traumatizing the young audience. See also: The Never-Ending Story, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, The Adventures of Mark Twain, The Black Cauldron, The Secret of Nimh....

And what a great time it was.

 

[mickEblu]

I loved Return to Oz as a kid. Much more than the original. I may have been brought up wrong by my parents, though, as I remember being taken to see Aliens in the cinema when it first came out and I was born in 1981, so I can't have been more than 5 or 6 years old.
Still, Wheelers! And who can forget that scene with all the disembodied heads shouting "Dorothy Gale".

I was born in 82 and wouldn't trade growing up in the 80s for anything. The best movies, cartoons, music, toys, video games, WWF...people genuinely seemed to be happy or maybe it was because I was just a kid?

 

[WDWFANSINCE81]

I don,t see how they can possibly do justice let alone be in the same ballpark as the original.

From the clips they showed at the D23 live action panel...I can assure you Mary Poppins Returns will be great. It was reverential to the original and looked amazing. I wanted to hate this film but man o man I got chills watching the few clips. It will be huge!

 

[Matt_Black]

I was born in 82 and wouldn't trade growing up in the 80s for anything. The best movies, cartoons, music, toys, video games, WWF...people genuinely seemed to be happy or maybe it was because I was just a kid?

Well, the pop culture was good. The ACTUAL culture was full of insidious veiled racism, homophobia, and lots of other bad things.

 

[Figment Newton]

One of my favorite parts of the UK pavilion was always the quaint little toy shop that had the Mr. Men and Little Miss books. Just one of those nice unique touches that Disney unfortunately doesn't have any more. I believe it is now a shop for UK Bands merch (Beatles, Rolling Stones . . .), which still fits the theme of UK pavillion but lacks that authentic charm.

For the new attraction, I could see a simple Poppins carousel working well. Of course, a Toad ride would be really cool but probably won't happen. In the end, I would rather Disney do something small but appropriate than something larger scale that overly dominates the pavillion.

 

[Aries1975]

@Figment Newton I love your avatar!

 

[Figment Newton]

@Figment Newton I love your avatar!

Thank you!

 

[NearTheEars]

Personally if we must have an IP themed attraction for the UK let us have The Muppets Christmas Carol ride. Celebrates one of great British writers and the Muppets which was filmed originally here in the UK.

Plus seen as we were the first to create the trend of sending 'Christmas cards' it would be a nice piece to put in the gift shop.

I would not be opposed to that. People make fun of me, but it's my No. 1 Christmas film. Love it.

But not sure it would hold up year round.

 

[Princess Leia]

I would not be opposed to that. People make fun of me, but it's my No. 1 Christmas film. Love it.

But not sure it would hold up year round.

I have to watch it every Christmas. It was one of those movies that scared me a little when I was a kid (actually, any version of A Christmas Carol did this once the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come showed up), but I love the music. I was actually humming 'Scrooge' the other day, and 'When Love is Gone' is in my head at least once a month. The movie has a really solid soundtrack.

While I'm not sure a year-round Muppet Christmas Carol area would work, it'd be kind of cool if they could set up a Muppet Christmas show somewhere for the holiday season. The Muppet Christmas album with John Denver is also required listening for me over the holidays.

 

[Kman101]

I LOVED Return to Oz lol. It was so dark and weird. But I love the original Wizard of Oz more. I was obssessed as a kid. I'm very disappointed to lose that scene when they gut GMR It always brought a smile to my face.

 

[Phineas]

...I was actually humming 'Scrooge' the other day, and 'When Love is Gone' is in my head at least once a month. The movie has a really solid soundtrack...

That's Paul Williams for you. He's very good at what he does, and he's an old friend of The Muppets, appearing in the first season of The Muppet Show, and composing a great number of their songs over the years.

Also, thanks to you, I now have the opening number stuck in my head.

There goes Mr. Humbug, There goes Mr. Grim...

 

[Princess Leia]

I LOVED Return to Oz lol. It was so dark and weird. But I love the original Wizard of Oz more. I was obssessed as a kid. I'm very disappointed to lose that scene when they gut GMR It always brought a smile to my face.

Not to keep the Oz conversation going (even though I wish they would reuse the GMR sets somewhere), but while I haven't seen Return to Oz, it seems like it was truer to the source material than the original Oz film? My sister and I loved the books growing up (I actually just bought collections containing Books 1-10 of the series, need to pick up the final collection one of these days), but they were pretty dark for kids books (at least, they seemed that way for children's fantasy of the 1900s). Dorothy and Ozma both deal with some pretty grave situations, and while they overcome it, it's not pleasant.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

Do we know if the sun is going to rise tomorrow?

"Here comes the sun and I say, it's all right..."

 

[larryz]

I have to watch it every Christmas. It was one of those movies that scared me a little when I was a kid (actually, any version of A Christmas Carol did this once the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come showed up), but I love the music. I was actually humming 'Scrooge' the other day, and 'When Love is Gone' is in my head at least once a month. The movie has a really solid soundtrack.

While I'm not sure a year-round Muppet Christmas Carol area would work, it'd be kind of cool if they could set up a Muppet Christmas show somewhere for the holiday season. The Muppet Christmas album with John Denver is also required listening for me over the holidays.

You'd probably like Scrooged. Bill Murray does a good job, and there's a great supporting cast.

 

[Princess Leia]

You'd probably like Scrooged. Bill Murray does a good job, and there's a great supporting cast.

That's another Christmas favorite

Though, again, I hate the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come

ugh
nope...

 

[Kman101]

Not to keep the Oz conversation going (even though I wish they would reuse the GMR sets somewhere), but while I haven't seen Return to Oz, it seems like it was truer to the source material than the original Oz film? My sister and I loved the books growing up (I actually just bought collections containing Books 1-10 of the series, need to pick up the final collection one of these days), but they were pretty dark for kids books (at least, they seemed that way for children's fantasy of the 1900s). Dorothy and Ozma both deal with some pretty grave situations, and while they overcome it, it's not pleasant.

It was definitely dark and a lot of the Oz books are slightly darker than the 1939 movie (amazing it was made in 1939 and still holds up to this day, it turns 80 in 2019) would lead you to believe. I'd love a real Oz series. I enjoyed Tin Man for what it was. Emerald City on NBC was a total disappointment.

But I guess we're pretty off topic

 

[The_Jobu]

I was born in 82 and wouldn't trade growing up in the 80s for anything. The best movies, cartoons, music, toys, video games, WWF...people genuinely seemed to be happy or maybe it was because I was just a kid?

Good times man.