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Rating: Country: USA Release Date: May 9, 2006 Distributor: Universal Studios Director: · Kirk Jones Cast: · Emma Thompson · Colin Firth · Angela Lansbury Related Sites: ·IMDb: Nanny McPhee ·Cinema Spider - Nanny McPhee
Grade: A
Take a batter of "A Series of Unfortunate Events", sprinkle it with bits of "Harry Potter" and press it into a "Marry Poppins" molded pan and bake it until it smells faintly of "Cinderella", and you'll have something quite close to the magical feel that exudes from "Nanny McPhee". Adapted from the Nurse Matilda stories of Christianna Brand by Emma Thompson, who also plays the lead role under all that grotesque prosthetics, "Nanny McPhee" is a delightful movie in the school of Roald Dahl's over-the-top characters and situations.
Mr. Brown (Colin Firth, "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason") has a problem. Specifically, he has seven of them -- his children. A widower, he works hard in a funeral home as an undertaker, hiring nannies to care for the Brown children. But the younger Browns, led by the incorrigably clever Simon, have been able to send any and every nanny brought in, screaming for their sanity.
Enter Nanny McPhee, who comes in the night like a wart-ridden exorcist. Simon isn't scared of her though, and coordinates the other children on a new campaign of terror to drive her away. Nanny McPhee, however, comes armed with something the children have never run up against before: magic. She's stern, but always with the interests of the children at heart, and she'll be there as long as she's needed but not wanted. And when she's wanted but not needed, then it will be time for her to go. As the children begin to learn their lessons about politeness, Nanny McPhee's ugly features undergo subtle transformations until, by the end of the movie, she's very much Emma Thompson and not the potato-nosed unibrowed creature we meet early on. But whether that's because she was ugly and became prettier, or whether she was always that way and what changed was the perception of the children is never fully explained.
"I did knock." Nanny McPhee (Emma Thompson) introduces
herself to the Brown children.
At the core of the plot is Mr. Brown's other problem: he lives off an allowance from his dead wife's aunt, who has insisted he marry by the end of the month. Prospects have been slim, and he has -- quite reluctantly -- settled upon a woman who embodies the very concept of "wicked stepmother." Nanny McPhee will not interfere, but she does encourage Simon to use his cleverness in a more positive direction to ensure the family remains together and happy. In the end, the woman Mr. Brown truly loves comes into the picture, and we have the feeling that perhaps she is the one whom Nanny McPhee was there for all along, playing Fairy Godmother while bringing up the seven children on the side.
There are a handful of special features on this disc, including the to-be-expected featurettes about casting children for the specific roles and getting Emma Thompson transfigured via the makeup and prosthetics process. Of particular interest is a behind-the-scenes featurette about building up the whole village used in the film so that they had a location to shoot that wouldn't have any modern feelings intruding into the fairy-tale like quality of the story. There are deleted scenes, a gag reel, and a fairly intriguing bit of history of the Nurse Matilda books. The feature presentation itself has two optional commentary tracks, one with Director Kirk Jones, and the other with Producer Lindsay Doran and Screenwriter/Actress Emma Thompson.
Audio can be set to either English, Spanish or French (all 5.1) with optional subtitles in all three languages. The presentation is in anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) format.
Previews on this disc include "Over the Hedge", "Curious George", "Polly Pocket: Pollyworld", and Leave it to Beaver Seasons 1 and 2.
Nanny McPhee Disc Guide
Feature Presentation
-optional commentary with Director Kirk Jones
-optional commentary with Producer Lindsay Doran and Screenwriter/Actress Emma Thompson
Casting the Children (11:38)
Village Life (3:51)
Nanny McPhee Makeover (5:38)
Deleted Scenes (13:00)
Gag Reel (2:45)
How Nanny McPhee Came To Be (7:41)
