‘Mamma Mia!’ returns even better than before

Above: Alexa Davies, Lily James and Jessica Keenan Wynn star in "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again."

Here’s a challenge: Think of a song that sticks in your head. Something like “YMCA” by the Village People. Or, worse, that Disney embarrassment, “It’s a Small World.”

Now try to forget it. Not easy, is it? Let me help you: Just think of ABBA.

I’m referring, of course, to the Swedish quartet that ruled the pop music charts from 1968 to 1974 and whose music, to this day, remains as light and fun and refreshing as ever. Thinks of songs such as “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” “Knowing Me Knowing You” or, perhaps most addictive of all, “Mamma Mia!”

It was that last song that became the title of the immensely popular 1999 musical, written by Catherine Johnson as a tale of a young woman’s attempts to figure out who of three possible men is her biological father. Seems her mother, her mamma, truly was a woman of the 1960s.

Director Phyllida Lloyd moved on from the stage play to helm the 2008 film version. And now, these 10 years later, we have the movie’s sequel, rather obviously named “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.”

Obviousness, though, is not a fault in the hands of this filmmaking crew. Directed by Ol Parker, whose movie writing credits includes “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and its sequel, and co-written by the veteran Richard Curtis, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” is the cinematic version of eating your cake yet still having it. The movie wants you to know that it knows what’s going on, but instead of feeling annoying or overly manipulative, the conceit works just like a Cher concert: You know what’s coming, largely outlandish costumes and familiar songs, but you’re simply willing to enjoy the spectacle.

And, yes, Cher. Now 72, the one-time Oscar winner and all-time pop singer, shows up in “Here We Go Again’s” final scenes, singing the ABBA hit “Fernando.”

An actress who is missing, mostly, from Parker’s sequel is Meryl Streep, whose passing is explained right off. In the 2008 original, Streep played Donna, the randy woman of the ‘60s whose daughter, Sophie, seeks out the father she never know.

Yet Donna’s presence remains as the film splits time between Sophie (played, again, by Amanda Seyfried), trying to open a revamped version of her mother’s Greek Island hotel, and the young Donna – seen in flashback first discovering the island and the trio of possible daddies – and played effervescently by Lily James.

On hand, too, are the three daddy candidates (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgaard and Colin Firth) and their youthful counterparts, as well as Donna’s lifelong pals, Christine Baranski as Tanya and Julie Walters as Rosie, both of whom crack wise so well that the jokes never get lost between Parker’s roving camera and the ongoing musical numbers.

What’s more, “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” isn’t merely a jokey songfest. Along the way, the film offers up moments of quiet reflection as well as an occasional sense of grief.

All of which culminates in a final rousing number, courtesy of ABBA – whose music you’ll likely be humming the rest of your day.