A Mary Tune to Toot

The 1964 musical fantasy Mary Poppins is by far one of the best films the Disney studio ever made, even rivaling their heralded animated films. The stars were really in alignment with this one because I can’t think of many other films that do such a good job being engaging, imaginative, surprising and just plain entertaining from start to finish. In my Letterboxd review I said that if I tried to point out all the highlights I would just end up describing the entire movie. Walt Disney’s passion and hands-on perfectionism was no doubt a huge part of the reason why this film worked, but so was the acting of people like Julie Andrews and David Tomlinson, the screenplay of Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, the songs of the Sherman Brothers, Disney’s team of animators and special effects wizards and of course some death defying dance choreography on the rooftops of London.

But this isn’t an article about my endless praise for Mary Poppins. I’m going to highlight some things you may not know and share my list of the ten most interesting things about this movie while highlighting some trivia about its origin, its production and its legacy.

1. The film was based on a series of children’s books by P.L. Travers that Walt Disney read to his daughters. In fact, Walt’s daughters loved those books so much that Walt promised them he would make a film adaptation one day. You know when he made that promise? In the thirties! This film was always in the back of Walt’s mind ever since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came out, and it was clearly important to him that they get it right given the accounts that Walt was very involved in the film’s creative process. This was Walt’s film and as with many of the Disney films created during his lifetime, he pushed to emphasize the story’s more heartfelt elements.
2. P.L. Travers famously hated this movie. Walt Disney changed a lot of things about her stories when adapting them to film, and while Walt was obviously a storytelling genius and all his instincts were spot-on, Travers disliked the characterization of Mary Poppins, she disliked the music and she disliked the animation (in other words she disliked all the best things about the film). Thankfully Walt had final say and he vetoed all her concerns, but he knew what he was doing. The fact that this film is widely considered a masterpiece is not an accident.
3. David Tomlinson deserves a lot of credit for his brilliant performance as George Banks but did you know that he also voiced Mary Poppins’ talking umbrella as well as several of the animated characters? This man’s acting chops had layers.
4. J. Pat O’Malley, whose voice Disney fans will recognize as Tweedledee, Tweedledum, the Walrus and the Carpenter from Alice in Wonderland, Jasper and the Colonel from One Hundred and One Dalmatians, and Hathi and Buzzie from The Jungle Book, is the one responsible for coaching Dick Van Dyke’s cockney accent. Although importantly, J. Pat O’Malley does not have a cockney accent. Which may explain why Van Dyke’s accent in this movie is so notoriously bad that even American viewers can tell it’s not authentic. But the fact that my suspension of disbelief was not completely destroyed by it speaks to how brilliant this movie is.
5. The scene where Dick Van Dyke dances with the penguins is the reason why this movie won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects of 1964. And it’s not hard to see why. Seriously watch it again and see how well choreographed that entire scene is. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke’s acting alone sells it but the technical wizardry is nothing short of amazing.
6. The film adaptation of the stage musical My Fair Lady came out the same year Mary Poppins did, and the two films have several connections to each other. The most famous connection being the fact that Julie Andrews originated the role of Eliza Doolittle on Broadway and despite the fact that she would have played the role on film if they had asked her, they passed on her in favor of Audrey Hepburn because Hepburn was more famous. Which is what led to Julie Andrews getting the role of Mary Poppins. The kicker being that Andrews won the Oscar for her role in Mary Poppins! That’s not all because Disney considered hiring another actor from My Fair Lady when they wanted Stanley Holloway to play Admiral Boom, but Holloway was committed to reprising the role of Alfred P. Doolittle in that show’s film adaptation so the role of Admiral Boom went to Reginald Owen instead. But that’s not all either. You know those singing geese who make a brief appearance in the “Jolly Holiday with Mary” sequence? They were voiced by Marni Nixon, who was one of Hollywood’s go-to singers for dubbing over film actresses who cannot sing. One of those actresses being … wait for it … Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady.
7. This movie was a box office success. So what did Walt Disney do with the profits? He used them to purchase land in Florida and finance the construction of Walt Disney World. So you can thank Mary Poppins for the existence of the Country Bears, Figment, Expedition Everest and the Tower of Terror.
8. Mary Poppins was the first Disney film in history to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture (it lost to My Fair Lady). No Disney film has ever won the Oscar for Best Picture but Disney has been nominated for Best Picture eleven other times since then (and no, I do not include Miramax, 20th Century Fox or Searchlight in that list). Those eleven films are Beauty and the Beast, Quiz Show, The Insider, The Sixth Sense, Up, Toy Story 3, The Help, War Horse, Lincoln, Bridge of Spies and Black Panther.
9. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is ranked # 36 in the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest songs and Mary Poppins itself is ranked # 6 on their list of the greatest movie musicals, behind only Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music and Cabaret.
10. I say this a lot but I like to say it. “Feed the Birds,” which is my favorite Disney song of all time, was also Walt Disney’s favorite song. He would frequently ask the Sherman Brothers to play it for him. The thing I love about the song, and what I suspect Walt also loved about it, is that it’s not just a song about money or a song about birds. It’s a song about extending kindness to people, even if that act of kindness is just a small thing. That song and that message is partly why I love this film so much.