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