Mary Poppins Returns
Robert Marshall is an American film and theatre director , producer , and choreographer . His most notable work is the Academy Award - gain ground filmChicago(2002 ) , for which he won the Directors Guild of America Award . A five - clip Tony Award nominee , he also bring home the bacon a Primetime Emmy Award for his stage dancing in the television filmAnnie(1999 ) . He talks about what it was like to reanimate such an iconic reality inMary Poppins Returnsand his experience working with the fabled Dick Van Dyke who portray the chimney sweep , Bert , in the originalMary Poppins(1964 ) .
Screen Rant : Here we are again . Mary Poppins Returns , again .
Rob Marshall : I have it off again , again , again .
Screen fustian : It seems like you ’ve been kind of , this has been your life sentence , I mean from your filmography to what you ’re doing now . From your scope in euphony and the stage and dance . Have you been prepare for this movie your whole life-time ?
Rob Marshall : It ’s such a great question . And you know what I guess I have , I really have . I mean , I ’ve been dying to do for many , many geezerhood now an original melodious for film . And so to be capable to do it with this one , especially because the first film means so , so much to me . It was an , and I knew the bar is so high . That I just wanted to do it with every ounce in every inch in me . And to be able to accumulate this sort of team , this sort of casting , to do it this direction , you have a go at it , with Disney ’s incredible support behind me . I mean , I will say this was a aspiration total unfeigned and it was a three year cognitive process . But I have to say , I loved escaping into the worldly concern of Cherry Tree Lane . For me personally , peculiarly in the world today . I was so happy to go there and to bring the story to life .
Screen Rant : One matter I have it off about the pic is the 2D animation , and I bonk that that ’s traditional 2D animation and now it ’s kind of a lost graphics . So can you talk and what better place than at Disney to find 2D ?
Rob Marshall : The animation construction ’s right there .
Screen Rant : Right . Was that really grueling to determine vitalizer that were really fuck that panache of spiritedness because it ’s still kind of a lost art .
Rob Marshall : It is a lose art . And I will say that everybody was so unrestrained when I enunciate I want to do 2D manus disembowel animation for this . And people were so activated because it ’s so fresh and so novel again , but you ’re utterly right because we , it was hard to retrieve animators who screw that . So we did a lot of looking and a wad of bozo came out of retirement to do it . And a heap of wonderful artists also that were immature who are interested in the old school expressive style make out onboard too . So you had these sort of honest-to-goodness kinfolk and then you had this younger team of hoi polloi who are frantic about that . I mean it ’s that Graeco-Roman thing , you know , the drawing off , every frame , thumb , turn over , flip and all of that you do . I mean , and I think you feel the artistry . I call up you finger it . I think you , it ’s , there ’s nothing like visualise it and then to see it with lively actors , you know , it ’s thrilling .
Screen fustian : I also be intimate that you were one of the choreographers on the film as well . What was the self-aggrandising challenge of adapting what you know now to the style ofMary Poppinswas fifty - four years ago ?
Rob Marshall : Wow . Well , you know what ? I will say that I was anxious to do . I stand for in terms of stage dancing pass a lot of stage dancing , but the big immense saltation number , a tripper , a little visible radiation , fantastic is an eight minute chronological succession and that was my aspiration . From in my whole lifespan to do a big huge production number of that scale of measurement with , you know , athleticism and hombre dancing . And you know I always tell that I ’d in all probability would have been one of those , her lamplighters up there trip the light fantastic toe away because it ’s , you screw , what I did . And so that was also a dreaming come true to be able to do something like that on that scale . And you fuck , led by Lin - Manuel Miranda and Emily blunt . It was , that was great .
Screen Rant : Well Lin - Manuel articulate in the behind the vista featurette that most of the times when he would do the stage hooey that he never had that much prep clip . And the way that you had that prospect kind of developed , everything look so lifelike with their stage dancing . Speaking of Lin - Manuel what did , what was it like join forces with him and did he like kind of help inform any of the stage dancing at all or any of the medicine ?
Rob Marshall : Well , I care to try and make the stage dancing , John DeLuca and myself around the gift , you fuck , take advantage of their strength . So , you make out , we have something mapped out , but then we tailor make it to who we ’re working with . And that happened with Emily and with Meryl Streep and anybody that ’s dancing , you know , what are , what do they do well ? And so that ’s what we were looking for . And that ’s what we ’re working on . And I mean , they ’re just , there ’s nothing like working with actors who are in a direction newfangled to dance or new euphony and discover how to press out yourself in that way . And that it ’s a continuation of the character reference . You fuck , it ’s not just sort of like a little production , you know , presentational number . It actually is a development of your character . And so I do n’t , I think because I ’m a theater director , choreographer , you screw , it does n’t sort of stop the , you know , the story does n’t stop when the number begin and then then pick up again . It ’s like , it ’s all part of it . And I think weave that fabric of it altogether is very helpful , I recall for the film , but also for the actors as well .
Screen Rant : Well , you ’ll be get together with Lin again onTheLittle Mermaid , which was actually my first Disney motion-picture show I ’ve ever seen . How ’s that physical process going ?
Rob Marshall : That ’s thrilling . I mean , we ’re just at the stage of writing it and I actually , David McGee , who compose Mary Poppins returns with us and John Deluca and myself . It ’s the same team . We ’re just starting to put it together and create you know , the level . I mean , you obviously have the unbelievable invigoration movie exalt celluloid , But you live , a springy action mechanism films different . It ’s a whole ' nother thing . So you , you have to work from that and produce something . So we ’re at the writing microscope stage and there ’ll be some new song by Alan Menken Lin - Manuel Miranda , which is thrilling and I ca n’t wait . So it ’s all in the works mightily now .
Screen Rant : 17 Cherry Tree Lane , down to the rebuff , every contingent was there . When you first ill-treat on that hardening , what croak through your read/write head ?
Rob Marshall : It was very impress to me . I have to say , it was sort of like , well here it is , you bonk , that thing that you ’ve seen on screen for so many years . We are here in the middle of it living it . And I think it was that way for everybody . I remember when I brought citizenry onto the lot to see it for the first clip I play medicine , you have it away , so that when they came out it was an emotional experience at the same metre . And you know , all of us felt , I make love humble to be there or grateful to be there and keep the legacy .
Screen Rant : You say that the bar was limit fairly high for you . Cause it ’s Mary Poppins . It ’s so many people are protective of it . When you had Dick Van Dyke on hardening , can you talk to me about some of the emotions that you were going through ? Cause I saw even you had a tough time saying the word of honor cut when he end up his scene . I had a toughened sentence just find out that .
Rob Marshall : No , I did . I did . Well , it was a dreaming come on-key to have him involved in this picture . For him to touch this film , having come from the first film , all of that was just surreal . But he brings with him such a sense of , I do n’t recognize , joyfulness and wonder and magic , just who he is , how he lives his life . It ’s the lesson of the film about approaching your life from that place . And he ’s the avatar of that . And I just , I could n’t quite believe it was happening . I will say for me and I , you have it away , he allege to me as we walked onto the set , he said , I sense the same spirit on this curing as I did on the first film . And that was the nifty compliment ever , because , you know , that ’s what you hope to achieve . You hope to reach that sort of place . And I matt-up it . I certainly feel it then , I could n’t think that he feel it too .
More:Mary Poppins Returns Easter Eggs & References To Original Film
Mary Poppins Returnsis now uncommitted on Digital and Blu - ray .
