Come Sing Along With The Thoroughly Delightful Mary Poppins

I have been a Disney geek my entire life, to the point that my first word uttered on this planet was "Disney". I was doomed from the start to be a total nerd for all things Disney which is a key reason why I have such an encyclopedic knowledge of animated Disney fare and hold the man known as Walt Disney in such high esteem. Despite all of that though, I'd somehow never seen the movie Mary Poppins until just a few days ago. Perhaps the running time had put me off the movie as a lad, or perhaps because I wasn't as enamored with other classic live-action Disney movies as I was with classic animated Disney fare, but whatever the reason, Mary Poppins had evaded my eyeballs for over two decades of my life.


Thankfully, that is no longer true and I can dive right into examining every nook and cranny of this 1964 adaptation of P.L. Travers Mary Poppins character. Of course, the movie doesn't start out with the titular nanny (aside from a brief glimpse of her in the clouds during the opening credits). No, our primary focus as the feature begins is establishing the Banks household, which is presided over by the husband/'wife duo of the busy banker George Banks (David Tomlinson) and suffragette supporter Winifred Banks (Glynis Johns). These two have a pair of rambunctious children, Michael (Matthew Garber) and Jane (Karen Dotrice), neither of whom feel like they receive proper attention from their father.

The high-wire antics of these children cause the families nanny to leave promptly, so the time has come to hire a new one to look after Michael and Jane. Enter: Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews), a lady who's self-described as "practically perfect in every way". That's an apt description for the lady, who takes Michael and Jane on fantastical adventures into fantasy worlds and also conjures up fun games that help them achieve previously menial tasks they dreaded. With Bert (Dick Van Dyke) also along for the ride, Mary Poppins and her unique approach to handling children just might make the Banks family closer than ever.

There's a sense of unbridled whimsy in Mary Poppins as it segues from one fanciful sequence to the next. You just never know what this lady is gonna do next with her optimistic attitude and seemingly bottomless bag full of essential items. Having never read the original books by P.L. Travers, I can't comment on how the characterization of the lead characters or the tone of the overall movie compares to its source material but I can say that, on its own merits, Mary Poppins thoroughly succeeds at being an extremely entertaining fantasy family film, one whose delightfully inventive spirit is key to its success.

Also key to its success? Optimism. There isn't a cynical bone in this movies body and it isn't looking to do any sort of revisionist take on the character of Mary Poppins or the world she inhabits. While not as common as it would become in the Shrek-influenced 21st century family movie scene, we were still seeing some more wacky modern-leaning takes on classical literature material from the Mouse House itself in the early 1960's in the form of their 1963 animated movie The Sword In The Stone. That style isn't even hinted at here in Mary Poppins, with an appropriately timeless atmosphere permeating the entire movie as eternally enjoyable activities like singing penguin waiters taking the place of any strained attempts to be hip.

Those singing penguin waiters belong in an extended animated sequence that turns out to be a subtly exquisite example of well-done cinematography, as Dick Van Dyke engages in extended dance numbers with these fully animated black-and-white fowl. The interactions between the penguins and Dick Van Dyke are seamless with the two elements occupying different visual mediums yet bouncing off each other in an effortless manner that makes it seem like they're in the same room together. Honestly, the live-action actors interact with these hand-drawn animated backgrounds and characters in a far more seamless manner than many modern-day examples of live-action actors interacting with fully computer-generated backgrounds and characters, it's quite the visual effects marvel that more than holds up today.

There's plenty to crow about in Mary Poppins but above all else, a lion's share of the praise towards this motion picture must go to Julie Andrews in the lead role. This woman was absolutely made for this part, as her body language, dialogue delivery and dynamic with the other actors just suits the role as its written so absolutely perfectly. Julie Andrews is able to wonderfully convey that "firm but fair" attitude Mary Poppins describes herself as and the more casual way Andrew plays off the more fantastical elements Mary Poppins conjures up and/or interacts with has a similarly effortless quality to it. She lends so much warmth and joy to Mary Poppins, a fantasy movie that, over half-a-century later, still registers as a major cinematic feat.