Nanny McPhee [DVD]

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Product Description ------------------- Magical children's feature, starring Emma Thompson. Cedric Brown (Colin Firth) has recently lost his wife and is faced with the prospect of trying to raise his seven unruly children on his own. With the wild children too much for most nannies, all of whom have quickly left his service, Cedric is one day commanded by a mysterious voice to hire the witch-like Nanny McPhee, who uses her magical powers to keep the children in line. From .co.uk ----------- 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, O-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 accled 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