Mary Poppins (1964)

The only really great live action Disney film in existence, Mary Poppins is the product of years of tedious consideration by Disney studios. Based on a popular series of children’s books by P.L. Travers, Walt Disney himself had attempted to get the rights to the film for many years even before Disney really had established itself in live action movies. Over the years Walt Disney would approach P.L. Travers and each time he did she would object to a film but Disney, as stubborn as she, kept on trying and eventually, after much agony, was able to secure the rights on the grounds that Disney’s final script would meet her approval. After many rewrites she still wasn’t happy with everything but the movie was made and to much thunderous applause. (Apparently the exchanges between Disney and P.L. Travers were interesting enough to have a movie made about it Starring Tom Hanks as Walt Disney....the trailer's out there).

Michael and Jane are neglected upper middle class children living in London who write an advertisement for an ideal new nanny when after their most recent nanny suddenly quits. Though ripped to shreds and thrown in the fire by their cantankerously rigid and self-centered father the advertisement is answered by the mysterious and magically endowed Mary Poppins who literally flies into their family’s life by way of an umbrella and initiates a plan to inspire Jane and Michael’s parents to pay proper attention to their children and each other.

This movie really shouldn’t have worked, just like all those other “whimsical” nanny movies set in England, and never mind the fact that Disney in general is entirely incompetent when it comes to live action. Maybe all those years of living with the story payed off because much to most everyone’s delight Mary Poppins is one of the best Disney movies ever made.

The story is imaginative, compelling, and genuinely moving with a strong moral theme about the importance of familial love over the pride of personal exploits beyond the home. The father, Mr Banks, is a wealthy banking executive who is practically hell bent on climbing the ladder at work. Mrs Banks, a flighty socialite, is determined to fight for women’s suffrage in England....mostly because she has nothing to do, like you know, raising thriving children. The children of Mary Poppins, like the children of reality, suffer at the hands of their parents illegitimately exalted ambitions. You can’t have it all and sometimes you have to sacrifice your laurels to win the race that really matters. It’s a profound message for our age yet it's introduced in a way that isn’t hamfisted or offensive like other moralizing Disney movies, such as Pocahontas.

Julie Andrews, who plays Mary Poppins, is unbelievably good in this and, indeed, she walked away with best actress that year at the Academy Awards (the movie itself was nominated for best picture but lost to the excellent but less magical My Fair Lady). I mean she is spot on amazing. She is dignified and a little pompous and yet warm and caring. She’s wise, full of magic powers, and yet somehow also demure in English middle class fashion....which always makes me want to have scones and tea, like a civilized person. Then there is her mysterious, intriguing relationship with Bert the chimney sweep, played by Dick Van Dyke, who serves as Mary’s respected and yet permanently unrequitable love interest, almost as if to say that magical family saving nannies must be celibate on principle. Makes sense to me....oh, and she can sing too, like the dickens.

Dick Van Dyke is also a lot of fun in this and he does the best impression of an American doing a cockney accent that I have ever seen. The children? Charming. Mr Banks and his wife (David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns)? Practically perfect in every way.

The live action musical sequences in this movie, which sometimes incorporate animation, are without parallel among Disney films. With songs written by the legendary Sherman Brothers Mary Poppins has more Disney hits in it than all the Disney movies of the 2000’s combined....which really isn’t saying much. A Spoon Full of Sugar is wonderful and probably haunts your memory. You probably still can’t pronounce Supercalifragilisticexpialidotious backwards and that Christian inspired song about feeding the birds still makes me teary eyed every time. But don’t forget about all the other great sequences like the animated penguin waiters or the dance of the Chimney Sweeps over the rooftops of London. Or the tea party on the ceiling with that guy who looks like Benjamin Franklin. As if you could, this movie is virtually unforgettable, chump.

Mary Poppins is a rare piece of movie magic and one of the greatest musicals of all time, Disney or otherwise. It has great characters, an involving and unique story and, most importantly to me, a moral message that places the value of children far above having a job at the bank. It’s not that working for a living is wrong, you Bolshevick, it’s that loving your children is far more important in the grand scheme of things. I love it.

I give it 4.8 tuppence for the bird lady on the steps of St Paul’s

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

During the “Disney Renaissance” Disney’s animation studios relied on a often ridiculed formula: Discontent, strong headed young woman breaks social norms and finds fulfillment in some kind of forbidden love. Add a broadway soundtrack, a plucky, wisecracking male counterpart, a megalomaniacal villain and lots of goofy comic relief characters and, bam, you have a 1990s Disney movie. Sure there are deviations from this but for the most part this is it. Beauty and the Beast is no exception in terms of the formula but it just so happens that in terms of the particulars of this fairy tale that the Disney formula churns out the maximum amount of magic possible.

Based on an 18th century French fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast tells the story about a haughty and uncaring young prince who is cursed by an enchantress when he refuses to provide hospitality to a poor old woman. To make his outward appearance match his spiritual state the prince is then turned into a “beast” (a 100% awesome half-animal, half man hybrid) with the stipulation that he will be stuck that way unless he learns to love by his 21st birthday. Unfortunately for the prince's servants they too are all cursed and for some reason that means they have to be anthropomorphized furniture and household goods.....like a libidinous singing candlestick. Yeah.

Meanwhile, Belle, a hipster living in a provincial French village (in other words, somewhere other than Paris) has decided that she doesn’t want to marry the misogynistic and yet oh so dreamy Gaston, the second funniest Disney villain of all time. Also in the meantime, Belle’s father, a good intentioned yet bungling inventor, has set off to enter some sort of steam-powered guillotine (hey, it’s France) into a contest of some sort and gets lost in the process. Eventually he stumbles on the beasts castle, finds out about talking, skirt chasing candles and winds up tossed into the beast's dungeon (apparently he hasn’t changed much over the years). This of course leads Belle to come and look for him where she in turn confronts the beast and, out of love for her father, she agrees to take his place. The beast, moved by her sacrifice, agrees on the grounds that she stays forever and he proceeds to essentially make her his permanent dinner guest. An improbable love story ensues, it is awesome, and you probably know what happens. They dance in a ballroom.

Beauty and the Beast is a really great movie and, I believe, still the only Disney movie to ever be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Like any Disney movie it was essentially a collaborative effort of a team of animators, and for the first time, professional writers, but a few key lights shined through. One was the addition of Linda Woolverton who wrote the screenplay (a Disney animated first) that ultimately won over Jeffrey Katzenberg who had refused to produce the movie until a better story could be produced. Woolverton was a total noob to film writing and had been working doing some writing for Chip and Dale’s Rescue Rangers (totally awesome) when a novel she wrote for children was read by Disney executives. It must have impressed them because she got the job and, clearly, she did a great job because she has had a pretty illustrious career at the House of Mouse ever since. We’ll have to see how her movie about Maleficent turns out!

Then there was Howard Ashman. Ashman, the guy who wrote Little Shop of Horrors for broadway, did a lot to help Disney in this time period since much of the creative work and virtually all of the music for the Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast were done by him and his partner Alan Menken. Unfortunately, Ashman was dying of AIDs at the time of Beauty and Beast's production and he would never actually live to see it released, though it is said that he worked frantically from his home in New York City right up to the end. While I think this was tragically misspent time Beauty and the Beast does have one of if not the very best soundtrack of any of the 90s Disney movies. If you haven’t heard and liked "Be Our Guest" then all I have to say is, YOU LIAR.

The animation was really great, an improvement on the Little Mermaid, but perhaps not as rich as future films like Pocahontas (a beautiful turd). The score is as good as anything in a major movie, the broadway songs funny and well choreographed, the characters are endearing, even the villain, and....rarity of rarities....there is a very beautiful moral message about love and humility. I’ll also go out on a limb and declare Belle to be my favorite fictional Disney princess.

It’s your sister's favorite Disney movie and one of mine too.

I give it 4.8 wilting roses under a bell-jar

Dumbo (1941)

Produced quick and cheap just before World War II, Dumbo was originally only intended to make some money and keep the studio in the public eye until the release of Bambi. But in order to make Snow White, Pinocchio and Fantasia Walt Disney had gathered the most improbably large and talented team of animators and storytellers to ever be assembled, so it shouldn’t be surprising that a “quick little film about a circus elephant” made by such a group of people turned out to be good. What is surprising is that it’s actually something of a masterpiece in terms of both animation and storytelling.

Based on a children’s book that was reworked by legends Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, Dumbo tells the story of an outcast baby circus elephant born with enormous ears that simultaneously serve as the cause of his social trials and his eventual triumph since, it turns out, they also give him the power of flight, making him the star act at the circus. While this overarching story is straightforward, if not cartoonish (duh), there is a strong, well developed connection established between Dumbo and his mother who in the course of events is suddenly taken away, creating all of the movies best dramatic tension and heart-wrenching moments. I dare anyone to not be moved when little Dumbo goes to visit his mother for the first time since she was locked up. Of course the effect is only enhance by good music and this movie has loads of that as well. It also has great supporting characters and a number of brilliant moments like the ever popular “pink elephants on parade” sequence.

At a runtime of about an hour it’s one of Disney’s shortest feature films but it’s one that has, maybe, the most heart. Many consider it the greatest animated movie of all time, with good reason, and I come pretty close to agreeing with them.

  I give it 4.8 magic feathers