Product Details

• Actors: Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury, Kelly Macdonald, Thomas Brodie-Sangster
• Directors: Kirk Jones
• Writers: Emma Thompson, Christianna Brand
• Producers: David Brown, Debra Hayward, Eric Fellner, Glynis Murray, Lindsay Doran
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: May 6, 2008
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (197 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000F1IQNM
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,996 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Nanny McPhee (Widescreen Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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 colorful 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 Devine. 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

Product Description

In this wickedly charming tale, Emma Thompson portrays a mysterious woman with special powers who enters the household of the recently widowed Mr. Brown (Colin Firth) and attempts to tame his seven children. The children have managed to drive away 17 previous nannies, but as Nanny McPhee takes control, they begin to notice that their misbehaving has magical and startling consequences. "A magical, fantastic and wonderful fable that will capture the heart of the whole family!" (Maria Salas, NBC-TV) Starring: Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Angela Lansbury, Kelly Macdonald, Derek Jacobi, Patrick Barlow, Celia Imrie, Imelda Staunton, Thomas Sangster Directed by: Kirk Jones

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 90 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What you need is Nanny McPhee, February 15, 2006

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

That's what Mr. Cedric Brown (Colin Firth), the widower father of seven children who'd take the team Olympic Gold for mischief-making does. Working at a funeral parlor with two silly assistants, Mr. Jowl and Mr.Wheen (Derek Jacobi), he relies on nannies to look after his offspring, but his childrens' antics are all to drive away the nannies; in the case of Nanny Weston, they make as if they were eating the youngest, an infant.

Mcphee (Emma Thompson) arrives at the Brown resident one stormy night, and her profile silhouetted outside the door reminds me of the shudder one thinks when Alfred Hitchcock's profile is shown on his show. If the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz and Mary Poppins were thrown together, one would get Nanny McPhee. She's clearly no beauty, as she has two warts on her face, a swollen nose, and a tooth that hangs over her lower lip. She also carries a crooked staff which she taps on the floor in order to conjure magic.

She wastes no time in getting the kids well-behaved, especially in a scene where the children have invaded the kitchen in defiance of their father punishing them. Her way is akin to forcing a PS2 junkie to keep playing games until he either gets bleeding controller blisters or his eyes pop out of his skull. Result, he'll have had enough.

Brown is gratified that her only conditions are that she teach his rambunctious kids five lessons and that she requires Sunday afternoons off. The lessons include saying please and thank you, going to bed on time, getting up on time, and doing what they're told. And mysteriously, when one of the lessons are learned, her warts disappear until...

Brown though is quite ineffectual in enforcing discipline in the household, as he is wishy-washy and too busy at his job. It's clear that the death of his wife, whom he still talks to via the empty chair she used to sit in, is still affecting him. His oldest, Simon says that he doesn't care about or spend time with them like he did when their mother was alive. But he is living off an allowance from his forbidding Aunt Adelaide, and if he doesn't marry by the end of the month, she'll cut him off. The children will be sent to foster homes or put to work in the workhouses. He's desperate enough to choose Selma Quickly, a disreputable and loudmouthed woman whose taste in colours are a garish dayglo fuschia and green, as a prospective new wife. Why not Evangeline, the scullery maid who's learning to read and is concerned about the children?

Three performers from Love Actually are reunited. They are Colin Firth, Emma Thompson, and Thomas Sangster, who played Liam Neeson's son. Thompson provides the film's sole center of stability and rationality, a soothing contrast to the stiff eccentricity of Angela Lansbury's Aunt Adelaide, and Celia Imry's vulgar Quickly.

McPhee's five lessons are values that seem to have been lost on the kids of today's era. In fact, they seem to have more in common with the wild jungle mentality the Brown children have in the beginning. She tells her charges: "When you need me, but do not want me, then I will stay. When you want me, but do not need me, then I have to go." Nanny McPhee effectively joins the ranks of Mary Poppins and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in instilling good manners and values in children.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For the "Kid" in everyone!, February 8, 2006

By 

Karen Vincent "spikeyv" (New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

In the past few years, it seems like all of the movies that are safe to take young children to are computer generated animation films full of adult humor. The kids are entertained by the animation - the parents by the adult humor. "Nanny McPhee" thankfully breaks the mold with a sweet story for everyone in the theater. Children identify with the young actors in the film and the story never drags. The six-year old who accompanied me is usually one who loves action cartoons, killing, shooting, etc. When we left the theater he said, "That's the best movie I ever saw!" Thanks, Ms. Thompson, for reminding us about what children SHOULD be watching at the movies!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MOVIE FOR EVERYONE, April 14, 2006

By 

Velma Paetro - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nanny McPhee (Full Screen Edition) (DVD)

I saw this movie 10 minutes ago in a hotel room. Immediately, I go to Amazon.com to see if I can buy it. This is how good the movie is. You want to own it and watch it again and again. The story is good (no doubt, if you have read the book). The director is good. Just love it. Highly recommended.