Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3095 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-02-13
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
With hairy warts, a stern-looking unibrow and one extremely protruding buck-tooth, Nanny McPhee is a wonderfully comedic substitute for Mary Poppins in this entertaining family fantasy. By loosely adapting Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda children's books of the 1960s, Oscar-winning screenwriter Emma Thompson (Sense and Sensibility) has also given herself the plum role of Nanny McPhee, who can tame even the most unruly children with a tap of her magic walking stick.

Her latest challenge is the bratty brood of a recent widower Mr. Brown (Colin Firth), who's under pressure to find a new wife or lose his much-needed allowance from wealthy Aunt Adelaide (a tailor-made role for Angela Lansbury). His love for scullery maid Evangeline (Kelly Macdonald) remains unspoken as he wincingly woos the eagerly merry widow Mrs. Quickly (Celia Imrie), but Brown's raucous rugrats have a plan to make things right, especially after they've come under the benevolent influence of Nanny McPhee, whose peculiar brand of discipline works wonders for everyone involved.

Both quintessentially British and universally appealing, this wildly colourful comedy (thanks to a bold palette of costume and production design) was capably directed by Kirk Jones, whose appreciation for comic actors was equally apparent in his critically acclaimed 1998 comedy Waking Ned. With just a hint of darkness to offset the whimsy, Nanny McPhee offers a splendid match of director, cast and material, guaranteed to please Wallace & Gromit fans and anyone else with a taste for British zaniness.-- Jeff Shannon

Synopsis
A recently widowed Mr Brown employs the services of a nanny in the hope that order will be restored to his household and his seven children. However, the children have other ideas having already dispatched seventeen nannies, who also thought that they knew better. Unfortunately the children have met their match, Nanny McPhee has special powers...

Customer Reviews

pleasantly surprised.
Yet another watchable family film that exceeded my expectations. Perhaps the story of unruly children tamed by a mysterious nanny is somewhat familiar, but it really doesn't matter if the result is a film that offers likeable characters, a reasonable story and above all, inoffensive entertainment. A strong cast ensures that this film is a winner. If you have no children, just buy it anyway. Perfect for a wet sunday afternoon.

Mary Poppins, eat your heart out!
I went to see this movie at the the cinema with my friends - my best friend's 18-yr-old boyfrind was slightly embarrased at going to see a "kids" moive, but he came out raving as mush as the rest of us!!
The storyline is lovely; and it has refreshingly upright morals as well. Emma Thompson is fantastic as the magical nanny, and Colin Firth is as sweet as ever as the children's father. The children themselves do not come across as precocious brats, and the eldest is, I'm sure, one of Britain's up-and-coming stars. He'll be around for a while yet!
Enjoyable for all the family. Well worth a second viewing... even a third, fourth or fifth, come to that!!

"There's no more nannies, you've had the lot!"
The flustered and poor undertaker Mr. Brown (Colin Firth) is having a terrible time with his children. Unruly and precocious, the Brown brats have invaded the kitchen, tie up Mrs. Blatherwick -- the family's russet-colored cook (Imelda Staunton) and have exhausted both the resources and the patience of the local nanny agency.

After their 17th governess flees the premises in hysterics, Mr. Brown at the agency's door, but is denied admittance. Luckily, he hears the voice of Nanny McPhee (Emma Thomson) who abruptly and unceremoniously arrives on his doorstep just in time to rescue the cook and the kitchen from being destroyed. The Nanny is a foreboding presence indeed, calm, cool and collected, she quietly tells the children to clean up the kitchen and go to bed.

She is indeed a shocking sight, dressed in black, Her eyes are beady and black, her nose a bulbous monstrosity, and from her upper lip a single snaggletooth descends in the direction of her two frighteningly whiskered warts. There is nothing about her that could be described as warm or fuzzy, and her manner sets the children on edge: We will never want you,'' says the oldest boy Simon (Thomas Sangster), the oldest boy and also the most incorrigible. "Then I will never go,'' she replies.

Her arrival is an absolute godsend for Mr. Brown, as he needs to get the children in order so that he can attract a wife. His evil parrot-nosed, semi-blind aristocrat Aunt Adelaide (a fabulous Angela Lansbury) has threatened to withdraw the stipend that keeps the family together, unless he can find a bride control his children.

In the meantime, the lovely Evangeline, the Brown's scullery maid (Kelly Macdonald) watches over the family and seems more like Mr. Brown's type than the wicked and tacky Mrs. Quickly (Celia Imrie) who seems more concerned with obtaining the family's inheritance than being a mother to the children.

Nanny McPhee is a real delight and highlights some fine British talent. Colin Firth is very good as the harried and ineffectual father who turns to his late wife's empty chair to consult with her on a mounting list of family-threatening problems. But most extraordinary of all is the wonderful Emma Thompson, who gives a performance that is without vanity and without flaw. She never allows Nanny McPhee to become cute and overly nice and she never sells out the children's wishes.

The film has a real Dickensian feel to it, complete with gaudy and vibrant colours and it tumbles along at the speed of a cartoon, with everything over-accentuated and all so very British. The dialogue is also wonderfully droll, as when Aunt Adelaide huffs, "If there's one thing I won't stand for, is loose vowels!" Fairy tale or not, the film is a real charmer and great fun for adults and kids alike! Mike Leonard August 06.