Writer: Syahida Kamarudin

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Watch this if you liked: “Nanny McPhee”, “Mary Poppins”

Synchronised swimming piglets? Sharing a bed with an elephant? Even defusing a dropped bomb sounds fun and not at all scary in this second installment about the old hag of a nanny, named McPhee ("...with a small c and a big P", as she will tell you, repeatedly).

After the success of the first film "Nanny McPhee" (2005) - inspired by Christianna Brand's book "Nurse Matilda", comes the sequel that took place around 60 years after the last time we saw the wart-faced nurse. The World War II era, to be exact. This time it involves three children, a pair of visiting spoiled cousins, a farm and a mother in the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Emma Thompson is always fascinating as Nanny McPhee, and Maggie Gyllenhaal as the cheerful but depressed Mrs. Green still looks stunning even when she appears to be a mess all the time. The children - while not as merry-looking like those in the first film - still makes a great team of squealing little oddballs, especially the small blonde, Vincent (Oscar Steer) whose task throughout the movie apparently is to make adults go "Awwwwwhhh....". There are appearances from other big names, like Ewan McGregor and Ralph Fiennes, but it is the children that are the stars after all.

In the recent years where children are continuously showered with sardonic pre-teen movies that teach them the negative sides of life and ridiculous kiddy spy movies that make your little one think that jumping off the tree with a thin rope is a jolly good idea, it is refreshing to see such a franchise return to the silver screen. With a Mary Poppins-like character with more pizzazz and a storyline that reminds you of the times where one chooses Enid Blyton over Jeff Kinney, "Nanny McPhee & The Big Bang" is quirky, colourful and classic.

And don't forget to watch out for an eccentric character from the old movie, which makes an appearance once in a while, whose identity only to be revealed by the end of the movie. You may not believe who it is!

Cinema Online, 01 June 2010