The film relies on clever cutting-edge technology in many places – but not, it seems, for one particularly impressive moment. There’s a shot in the movie, that also appeared in the trailers, of Emily Blunt’s Mary Poppins perched on the end of a bathtub. She excitedly says “off we go!”, before letting herself slip backwards into what is revealed to be a whole underwater world.
While the assumption could understandably be that a raft of special effects were used to achieve that shot, it was actually pretty much all as it seemed.
A new behind-the-scenes documentary reveals that the team used a clever structure that saw a slide masked beneath all the bubbles – so when Blunt leant backwards and disappeared into the tub, that was essentially what was happening.
A behind-the-scenes clip of the moment, which sees Blunt being met by helpful crew when she reaches the bottom of the slide, has gone viral on Twitter – achieving 6.6 million views and 52,000 Retweets.
It’s taken from a Making The Impossible featurette, which provides an in-depth look at how the film came together.
Mary Poppins Returns has managed an impressive £38.3 million at the UK box office since its release, although its US release was overshadowed a little by the surprisingly all-conquering Aquaman.
Now, talk has turned to a potential sequel – which director Rob Marshall has implied is on the cards.
“It is early stages but I will say right now that there were eight books, so there’s a lot of great material still to mine,” he told The Sun.
“That’s what we worked from, those incredible eight books of P.L. Travers. So, you know…
“If there’s a great character and story to tell, why not?”
Producer John DeLuca added: “Emily does light up when she speaks to me about it. And if the people want it, I think it will happen.”
Original Poppins star Julie Andrews did not appear in the sequel, but she was alleged to have had a small role planned for her – one eventually taken by Angela Lansbury.
Mary Poppins Returns is out now.