The critically acclaimed Disney musical fantasy film Mary Poppins was first released on August 26th, 1964. The film, directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney himself, was an adaptation of P.L. Travers’ the Mary Poppins book series. The interesting part about the making of this film was the overall effort and work that went into bringing this story to life. Along with that effort was a lot of strife between Disney and P.L. Travers herself. She wished that the film would respect and uphold the artistic integrity of the books, but felt that Disney did a poor job of illustrating that in the films. However, perhaps the greatest thing that came out of this dysfunctional relationship was the character of Mary Poppins herself. Marry Poppins was a vibrant, enticing, and magical woman. Her character was different from every other American character introduced in previous Disney films. She had certain character traits that drew both young children and adults. Furthermore, the character that P.L. Travers created had a lot of specific traits that called upon her British roots. This coupled with Poppins living in an American home and setting led to a great cultural dynamic in which audiences enjoyed world wide.
Although Disney tried to illustrate the strife between P.L. Travers and the entire Disney production team in the film Saving Mr. Banks (2013), the film itself romanticised a lot of P.L. Travers relationship with Walt Disney and the rest of the cast, crew, and production team behind the film. The truth of the matter is; P.L. Travers was never happy with the final product of the remake of Mary Poppins. Until her dying days, she specifically stated in her will and testament that: “if a stage musical was to be made, the Sherman Brothers could not be involved, only English-born writers could be used—no Americans—and absolutely no one from the original film production was to be involved.” The great cultural dynamics I spoke about earlier, is here condemned by P.L. Travers herself. However, although the making of this film caused a lot of problems, the one good thing it did was introduce the character of Mary Poppins to audiences everywhere. Disney used its platform to bring her to life, and despite all of the bad, Mary Poppins is still one of the most recognizable, captivating, and riveting characters in film history. Here are 10 quotes by Mary Poppins:
1.)
“First of all, I would like to make one thing clear: I never explain anything.” – Mary Poppins
2.)
“Anything can happen if you let it” – Mary Poppins
3.)
“don’t you know that everyone’s got a fairyland of their own?” – Mary Poppins
4.)
“In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun. You find the fun and – SNAP – the job’s a game.” – Mary Poppins
5.)
“I shouldn’t wonder if you didn’t wonder much too much.” – Mary Poppins
6.)
“Once we have accepted the story we cannot escape the story’s fate.” – Mary Poppins
7.)
“You can’t expect two stars to drop in the same field in one lifetime.” – Mary Poppins
8.)
“Enough is as good as a feast” – Mary Poppins
9.)
“There’s the whole world at your feet.” – Mary Poppins
10.)
“Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” – Mary Poppins
Author Bio: Idil Dahir
Idil Dahir is a freelance writer and editor living in Toronto, Ontario. She is a recent graduate of the University of Toronto in which she completed a specialist program in English. Idil enjoys everything from Films, TV Shows, Sports, Novels, and Comic Books. She is currently working on her fantasy novel as well as her freelance work. If you would like to contact Idil you can reach her at: idilmdahir@gmail.com
