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Mary Poppins is a 1964 American musical film produced by Walt Disney Productions, based on the Mary Poppins series of children's books written by P. L. Travers and illustrated by Mary Shepard. Songs in the film are by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. It is rated G by the MPAA. In 2006 this film ranked #6 on the American Film Institute's list of best musicals.
PlotSpoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Upon learning of the situation, Mr. Banks takes a personal hand in the hiring of a replacement and advertises for a stern authoritarian type, while Jane and Michael draft their own proposal for a fun person who would not be a tyrant. Although Mr. Banks rejects their idea, tears up their ad and throws it in the fireplace, the note magically flies up the chimney. The next day there is a long queue of old (and thoroughly disagreeable, in the children's opinion) nanny candidates waiting at the Banks' door. However, a strong gust of wind literally blows the queue away while Mary Poppins flies down with her umbrella to apply. The interview with Mr. Banks goes quickly, when he is stunned to see this calmly defiant new nanny has responded to the children's ad (rather than his own) despite the fact he destroyed it. As he tries to fathom this mystery, Mary Poppins hires herself and begins work. The children face surprises of their own as they discover that Mary Poppin's method of arrival is only the beginning of her magical talents; she possesses a bottomless carpetbag, and makes the children's disordered nursery tidy itself to the tune of "A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down." The magic continues with a outing in the country with "screever" Bert that begins by literally jumping into one of his chalk pavement drawings, and later having tea while suspended in midair with Mary's joking "Uncle Albert" who floats uncontrollably whenever he laughs.
Upon arrival at the Banks' home, a departing Mrs. Banks hires Bert to watch the children, and he ends up sweeping the chimney while the children watch. Mary arrives back from her day off to caution the children about the hazards of that activity. Sure enough, the children are sucked up the chimney to the roof, and Bert and Mary follow to retrieve them. Taking advantage of the situation, Mary and Bert lead a tour of the rooftops of London that concludes with a joyfully energetic dance with Bert's chimney-sweep colleagues as they demonstrate their acrobatic skill to the music of "Step In Time." A volley of fireworks from the Banks' eccentric neighbor, Admiral Boom, sends the gathering back down the chimney into the Banks home. Mr. Banks arrives home, forcing Mary to conclude the festivities. Banks then receives a phone call from work ordering him to return immediately for disciplinary action. As Mr. Banks gathers his strength to face his superiors, Bert points out that while Mr. Banks does need to make a living, his offspring's childhood will come and go in a blink of an eye, and as a father he needs to be there for them while he can. A sombre and thoughtful Mr. Banks proceeds to the bank where he is fired in the most humiliating way possible for causing the first run on the bank since 1773. However, after being left at a loss for words when ordered to give a statement about his dismissal, Mr. Banks realizes the true priorities of life and gleefully uses Mary's all purpose word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" to tweak Mr Dawes. He then tells Dawes one of Uncle Albert's jokes, and raucously departs to the amazement of his ex-colleagues. Dawes mulls over the joke, finally "gets it" and floats up into the air, laughing... The next morning, the winds have changed and to the children's sorrow, Mary must depart. However, Mr. Banks, now loving and joyful, reappears after a long night's disappearance with a mended kite for the children and an urge to play with his family. Mrs. Banks also realizes that she's been neglectful of her children, and supplies a tail for the kite, using one of her suffragette ribbons. They all leave the house without a backward glance as Mary Poppins watches from a window. In the park with other kite-flyers, Mr. Banks meets Mr. Dawes Jr. who says that his father literally died laughing at the joke. Instead of mournful, the son is delighted his father died happy and rehires Mr. Banks to fill the sudden opening. With her work done, Mary Poppins takes to the air with a farewell from Bert. Production historyThe first book was the main basis for the Walt Disney film Mary Poppins, a musical with mixed live action and animation released on August 29, 1964. The multiple Academy Award-winning film is considered by many critics[citation needed] to be the best of Disney's live-action musicals and it made a major film star of Julie Andrews, who was making her movie acting debut after a successful stage career. Andrews got the prime role of Mary Poppins soon after being passed over by Jack Warner and replaced with Audrey Hepburn for the role of Eliza Doolittle in his screen version of My Fair Lady, even though Andrews had originated the role on Broadway. Ironically, Andrews beat Hepburn for the coveted Best Actress Awards in both the Golden Globes and Academy Awards for their respective roles. Disney cast Dick Van Dyke in the key supporting role of Bert, thanks to his work on The Dick Van Dyke Show. Van Dyke also played the senior Mr. Dawes in the film. Although he is fondly remembered for this film, Van Dyke's attempt at a cockney accent was nonetheless widely ridiculed and is still frequently parodied. It is still often cited as one of the worst attempts at a British accent by an American actor,[1] a fact acknowledged with good humour by Van Dyke himself on the 2004 DVD release of the film. Image:JulieAndrews.jpg Mary Poppins (right, behind) as portrayed by Julie Andrews in the most famous adaptation of the character. According to the 40th anniversary DVD release of the film in 2004, Walt Disney first attempted to purchase the film rights to Mary Poppins from P.L. Travers as early as 1938 but was rebuffed because Travers did not believe a film version of her books would do justice to her creation. In addition, Disney was known at the time primarily as a producer of cartoons and had yet to produce any major live action work. For more than 20 years, Disney periodically made efforts to convince Travers to allow him to make a Poppins movie. He finally succeeded in 1961, although Travers demanded and got script approval rights. The process of planning the film and composing the songs took about two years. Travers objected to a number of elements that actually made it into the movie. Rather than original songs, she wanted the soundtrack to feature known standards of the Edwardian period in which the movie was set. She also objected to the animated sequence. However, Disney overruled her, citing contract stipulations that he had final say on the finished print. Much of their correspondence is part of the Travers collection of papers in the Mitchell Library of New South Wales, Australia. The relationship between Travers and Disney is detailed in Mary Poppins She Wrote, a biography of Travers, by Valerie Lawson, published by Aurum Press in the United Kingdom. The biography is the basis for two documentaries on Travers, The Real Mary Poppins and The Shadow of Mary Poppins. A number of other changes were necessary to condense the story into feature length. In the movie, there are only two Banks children, Jane and Michael. Mary Poppins' character as portrayed by Andrews in the film is somewhat less vain and more sympathetic toward the children than the nanny in the original book. Bert, as played by Van Dyke, was a composite of several characters from Travers' stories. Travers demanded that any suggestions of romance between Mary and Bert be eliminated, so lyrics were written for "Jolly Holiday" that clearly indicated that their friendship was purely platonic (some subtle hints of romance remain, however). As mentioned above, Van Dyke played two roles in the film. Andrews did at least three: she provided the robin"s whistling harmony during "A Spoonful of Sugar", and was also one of the "pearly" singers during "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious". David Tomlinson, besides playing Mr. Banks, also provided the voice of Mary's talking umbrella as well as numerous other voice-over parts (including that of Admiral Boom's first mate). During the "Jolly Holiday" sequence, one of the singing animals was voiced by Marni Nixon. Nixon would later play one of Julie Andrews' fellow nuns in The Sound Of Music. International release dates
Songs
Image:MaryDVD.jpg Special editon DVD cover for Mary Poppins Deleted songsA number of other songs were written for the film by the Sherman Brothers and either rejected or cut for time. Richard Sherman, on the 2004 DVD release, indicated that more than 30 songs were written at various stages of the film's development. No cast recordings of any of these songs have been released to the public, only demos or later performances done by the songwriters — with the exception of the rooftop reprise of "Chim-Chim-Cheree" and the "smoke staircase yodel" mentioned below.
The Compass Sequence, a precursor to "Jolly Holiday", was to be a multiple-song sequence. A number of possible musical components have been identified:
Deleted Scores and Music
TriviaImage:Marypoposter.jpg Re-release poster for Mary Poppins
The Cat That Looked at a KingIn 2004, Julie Andrews appeared in an animated/live action short that was produced by DisneyToon Studios for the 40th anniversary DVD release of the 1964 film. Entitled The Cat That Looked at a King, the film was based upon part of the P.L. Travers book Mary Poppins Opens the Door and could be seen as something of a sequel or followup to the movie. The film opens in the modern day with two British children looking at chalk drawings at the same location where Bert did his artwork in the original movie (the set was recreated, down to the last detail using the originals, according to Julie Andrews). Andrews, dressed in modern clothes, greets the children and takes them into the chalk drawing where they watch the tale unfold. The King and the Prime Minister are both voiced by David Ogden Stiers, while the king's wife is voiced by Sarah Ferguson and the cat by Tracey Ullman. Whether Andrews is playing a modern-day Mary Poppins or not is left to the viewer's imagination, although some sources identify Andrews' character as Mary Poppins.[1] CharactersListed in order of appearance. Mary PoppinsQuoting herself when she reads her tape measure: "Practically perfect in every way". She comes down from the clouds in response to the Banks children's advertisement for a nanny. Her personality can be abrasive at times. She is also vain and acerbic, but she is not very sympathetic to the kids other than in the Disney movie adaptation. This is a contrast to the movie incarnation where she is portrayed as not only firm in her use of authority, but kind and gentle as well. She was played by Julie Andrews.The film was very popular with the public, and Andrews won a Best Actress Oscar award for her role. As a result, the role has caused her to suffer from immense typecasting; she has portrayed a benevolent caretaker of children in several films since this one, including The Sound of Music, the movie version of Eloise in which she played "Nanny," and The Princess Diaries films. BertBert, portrayed by Dick Van Dyke, is a jack-of-all-trades and Mary's closest normal friend who is notable in that he is completely accustomed to her magic. Bert has four jobs during the movie: a chimneysweep, a one-man band, a sidewalk chalk artist, and a kite seller. Bert also hints at selling hot chestnuts. Mrs. BanksMrs. Winifred Banks is the wife of George Banks and mother of Jane and Michael. She is more fully developed in the movie than in the books. She is depicted as a member of Emmeline Pankhurst's suffragette movement; a scatterbrained woman who appears to neglect her children for her duties as a suffragette. Her main outfit is a blue and orange Edwardian-style dress with a white and blue sash that reads "Votes for Women" in black letters. She wears white gloves in the film (as did most Edwardian English women). Her song in the movie is "Sister Suffragette". The part was played by Glynis Johns. Mrs. Banks' four "Votes for Women" sashes from the movie have all survived. One can be seen being "pulled out" of Richard M. Sherman's "special musicians' trunk" on the Musical Journey seen on the 2004 DVD release. Mr. BanksGeorge Banks is Mary Poppins' employer. He works at the Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in the City of London, and lives at 17 Cherry Tree Lane with his wife, Winifred, and their children. He is a very cross man who hates the women's suffrage movement but later on in the movie his attitude towards the children and his work changes. Melodies in the score punctuate the children's need for their father's attention and love, and most of the dramatic tension in the film involves his journey from disconnected family autocrat to fully engaged family man. He was played by David Tomlinson. According to the Special Edition Soundtrack Bonus Disc, Mary Poppins was George's own nanny when he was a child. Travers intended to have the script hint this strongly in a few places, but it was largely left out of the movie, except for the following words in Bert's opening song, "Can't put me finger on what lies in store... But I feel what's to 'appen, all 'appened before...!" and George's own statement to the elder Mr. Dawes that "Poppins" was "my nanny". The Banks' childrenWhile the Banks family in the original novel had several children, only Jane and Michael appear in the movie. They were played by Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber. Minor characters
Remake?When the stage version came out Steven Spielberg was very open about being a fan of it, leading many people to believe he was going to do a remake of the movie. Many actresses contacted both Disney and Spielberg's office about playing the leading lady. It's reported that Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey contacted both Disney and Spielberg's office about playing Bert[citation needed]. Early in 2006, Steven Spielberg's office made a statement that he doesn't have any intentions on remaking it. "No way would Steven Spielberg ever remake a classic—Especially a Walt Disney classic." [2] Mary Poppins in popular culture
See also
References
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