Nanny Mcphee

*** A REVIEW FOR THE BLU RAY ***As I suspected "Nanny McPhee" is a delight on BLU RAY with a vastly improved picture quality that is quite beautiful at times.The bonus features are generous too:1. Casting The Children2. Village Life3. Nanny McPhee makeover4. Deleted Scenes5. Gag Reel6. How Nanny McPhee Came To Be7. Feature commentary by the Director Kirk Jones and ChildrenBecause it's set at 2:35 aspect, when I used the Zoom feature on my Sony, it did stretch the picture a tad, but it still looked great.Language subtitles include English (Hard Of Hearing), French, Canadian French, German, Spanish, Latin American Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, Norwegian, Portuguese, Greek, Cantonese and Traditional Mandarin.Emma Thompson's creation is part Mary Poppins, part Wicked Witch Of The East. She arrives when called for (title above) looking grotesque and fearsome (17 nannies have been dispatched by the children in varying ways since their beloved mother's passing). But Nanny McPhee is not about to be sent packing by any screaming brat. With her strange way of arriving in a room without using doors and her walking stick that seems to have magical powers, she is a force to be reckoned with. And then there's her disappearing ugliness - Nanny McPhee seems to grow prettier as the children stop being horrid and start behaving and doing good things. And on it goes to its lovely snowbound ending...Nanny McPhee is actually an incredibly moral little tale and has a delight to it that is very hard to get right in a kid's movie. Both Colin Firth and the lovely Kelly MacDonald are superb as the well-matched couple that can't see that they were made for each other, while Emma Thompson is both funny and beautifully luminous (perhaps she's an angel working on behalf of an absent mum?). Throw in the fabulously crass Celia Imrie as a truly wicked marriage gold-digger who will see all the children sent off to an orphanage and Angela Lansbury as a bumbling, but well-meaning aunt - and it all just so works.To sum up - as a replacement for your old DVD - or as a new purchase for the kids and adults alike - this Blu Ray reissue is recommended wholeheartedly - and it's reasonably priced online too.A rather lovely little movie really...

A widowed father (Colin Firth) has seven children who are running riot in his household, scaring away a succession of nannies from the agency. The children are all excellent in this film, working together as a team, with excellent comic timing. The mysterious wart-covered Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson looking most unlike herself) arrives, and takes over….There's a lot of magic and some humour (mostly slapstick) in the film, alongside some quite sad subplots. The father works for a funeral parlour, which in itself is an odd feature for a children's film. He's lonely, the children are missing their mother. Nanny McPhee is very coercive but she's on their side, and her gradual transformation is nicely done, as the children become kinder and their father less stressed.I loved this when I first watched it over ten years ago, and recently saw it again with my three-year-old grandson. The rating is U in the UK; the US rating of PG is, in my opinion, more appropriate. I had forgotten that there are a couple of mild ‘bad’ words and a scene full of innuendoes, though nothing explicit. There’s a fair amount of mock violence too, though it's mostly intended to be humorous. It's really more appropriate for children of about seven and upwards.Still, this is a very enjoyable film with a big name cast, and I’m delighted that I had the opportunity to watch it again!

Emma Thompson, two times Oscar Winner for both acting and writing, started writing the screenplay for "Nanny McPhee" in early 1995. When interviewed, she said that the best way to write is always to leave your work, then come back to it, maybe 2-3 months later, and to get as many people as possible to read it. Clearly, the fact that she took such a long time to write the film, would suggest that she has taken the upmost care and thought over writing it. Being a 17 year old Film Studies student, Nanny McPhee, when analysed, is a beautifully intricate film, combining elements of allegory and blockbuster sucess into a family film.Many have said Nanny McPhee is too similar to Mary Poppins (1964, Robert Stevenson), and clear parallels can be seen, but I feel that Nanny McPhee was in a realm of it's own. The enchanting acting done by Thompson, and the recent "Love Actually" (2003, Richard Curtis) child star Thomas Sangster, combined with the beautifully experienced Kelly MacDonald brings about a satiric treat of tangible laughter.The film is very focused on fables, and thus also fairy tales. This ironically, is where the magic of the film comes from. The enchanting ending, and stunning cinematography by Henry Braham, of "Waking Ned" (1998, Kirk Jones) and "Land Girls" (1998, David Leland) fame, brings the story to life, and breathes magic into a dying genre; sucessful family films.The film, though raved about in the US, was not as sucessful as it could have been; Independent British Cinema doesn't often stand well infront of the Hollywood Giants, but still recieved a lot of critical acclaim.One not to miss, especially if you're after some fun, Nanny McPhee is a perfect juxtaposition of family fun, and enchantment.