Leonard Maltin summed up Mary Poppins perfectly in his book, The Disney Films, when he wrote, “Many people regard Mary Poppins as Walt Disney’s crowning achievement, and that it may well be.”
Celebrating its 60th anniversary this month, Mary Poppins, directed by Robert Stevenson, brought to the screen all that Walt and the talents at his studio had crafted, developed, refined, and innovated through the years – storytelling, filmmaking, music, technology, visual effects, and, of course, animation.
All of them realized by a team of legendary artists and masters of their craft whose work helped Mary Poppins become one of the most beloved films of all time.
As many are aware, Mary Poppins is an adaptation of author P.L. Travers’ book series about the titular Nanny (Julie Andrews in her iconic, Oscar-winning role) who, with magical abilities, comes to care for two children, Jane and Michael Banks (Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber) whose parents (David Tomlinson and Glynis Johns) have become distracted and have neglected the children.
Helping Mary to bring the Banks family back together is a genial chimney sweep named Bert, played by Dick Van Dyke in another iconic role (and he also played the elder Mr. Dawes at the Bank where Mr. Banks works).
The film contains still amazing sequences and effects, including Mary Poppins flying above London, her umbrella above her head, toys in a nursery coming to life, chimney sweeps “stepping in time” on a rooftop, and a stroll through a picture-perfect English countryside.
Visual effects for these scenes included stop-motion animation, striking matte paintings (including a stunner that depicts the sun setting over the city of London), and a marvelous combination of live-action and traditional animation. Renowned effects wizards Peter Ellenshaw, Eustace Lycett, Robert A. Mattey, and Ub Iwerks brought them to the screen.
The Disney studio also enlisted their celebrated animators for the sequence in which Mary, Bert, and the Banks children jump into a sidewalk chalk drawing.
They emerge on the other side decked out in colorful clothes against the backdrop of what looks to be a painting of the English countryside, in a sequence that combines live-action and animation directed by Hamilton Luske, that’s become one of the Disney’s Studio’s most famous moments (read more about Hamilton Luske in Jim Korkis’ 2015 article.
Other legends who worked on the sequence were Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsberry, Frank Thomas, Hal Ambro, Ward Kimball, Eric Larson, Cliff Nordberg, and Jack Boyd.
It’s also the backdrop for two of the film’s cherished songs by Robert and Richard Sherman (read one of Greg Ehrbar’s many articles on the music of Mary Poppins here. The first is “Jolly Holiday,” which finds Mary and Bert strolling through the countryside and is a remarkable example of the filmmaker’s creativity. In one shot, we see Mary and Bert’s live-action reflection in a pond as animated swans swim by, creating ripples in the water, and in another, Bert leads a chorus of barnyard animals.
The two stop in for a snack at a small café (they “start with raspberry ice”) and are assisted by a team of penguin waiters.
Initially, sketches for the sequence, by Don DeGradi, called for human waiters. Walt suggested changing them to penguins, adding another element of fantasy and whimsy to the proceedings.
One of the brilliant members of Disney’s Nine Old Men, animator Frank Thomas, was responsible for bringing the penguins to the screen in this sequence and had to apply some ingenuity. As the live-action was filmed first, and Van Dyke’s choreography and dance moves were so free-wheeling, Thomas had to add animation of the penguins not only dancing but also jumping and ducking to avoid Van Dyke’s feet, which only helped add another fanciful element to the scene.
From here, Mary, Bert, and the children board a merry-go-round, take part in a fox hunt (riding aboard the merry-go-round horses), and perform with a pearly band, singing the Sherman’s song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious,” another now famous Disney musical number with possibly the longest word that’s become part of our pop culture lexicon.
Some of the many talented actors who provided voices for the scene included such Disney stalwarts as Dallas McKennon as the fox, Paul Frees as a horse, Thurl Ravenscroft as a hog, and J. Pat O’Malley as a number of characters, including a member of the pearly band. Additionally, Marni Nixon, who would provide Audrey Hepburn’s singing in My Fair Lady, was the voice of the geese; Alan Napier, later Alfred on TV’s 60s hit series Batman, was several voices, including one of the huntsmen, and matte artist Ellenshaw as the voice of one of the penguins.
Mary Poppins was released on August 29, 1964, and quickly became one of Walt Disney’s most popular films, embraced by critics and audiences. The film received a whopping thirteen Academy Award nominations, winning five, including Best Film Editing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Music Score, Best Song for “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” and Best Actress for Julie Andrews.
The film’s legacy and love from fans remains strong six decades later, so much so that in 2004, an extremely popular stage musical was produced, and, just five years ago, Disney produced a sequel, Mary Poppins Returns, with Emily Blunt in the title role.
Throughout production of the original Mary Poppins, Walt Disney was close to the film, providing input and guidance, and many who worked on the film note that his creative direction helped give the film its heart.
Richard Sherman, who we sadly lost this past May, (read Greg Ehrbar’s tribute here) said of Walt in a 2000 interview, “He was the most creative talent we [he and his brother Robert] have ever met. He could steer you and inspire you like no one in the world. We’ve met many talented, wonderful people in our career, but there’s never been anyone who has been one-tenth of who Walt Disney was.”
The Sherman Brothers flank Julie Andrews at the Oscars in 1965.
As they did with all their work, The Sherman Brothers brought tremendous emotion to the songs in Mary Poppins, including “Feed the Birds.”
In an interview in 2000, Robert Sherman, who we sadly lost in 2012, said, “Your sensitivity is based on your experiences. When you’re writing a song, your sensitivity and your experiences dictate how you think and how you write.”
“Feed the Birds” was a favorite song of Walt’s, as well.
“On Friday afternoons, Walt would call us over to his office,” recalled Richard in 2000. “We would talk about what we were working on. Then, he would look out the north window of his office and just say, ‘Play it.’ He didn’t even have to say which song. We would then play the song and sing it for him. He felt very strongly about the song because it meant a lot more than just buying breadcrumbs and feeding birds. It was really about being kind to your fellow man and the fact that it doesn’t take much to do that.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
“Mary Poppins” was probably the first movie I ever saw, at the tender age of four. I saw it most recently earlier this year just after Richard Sherman passed away. I’ll probably watch it again later tonight. Like “The Wizard of Oz”, it’s a movie I never tire of; the moment when Mary, Bert and the children jumped into the sidewalk painting had me believing in magic when I first saw it, and it still thrills me to this day.
Another talent who deserves to be mentioned here is producer Bill Walsh, who oversaw every aspect of an extraordinarily complex production. There were huge sets that had to be constructed from scratch, elaborately choreographed musical numbers, state-of-the-art special effects, and above all, multiple sequences combining live action with both stop-motion and cel animation. Yet Walsh put it all together, on time and under budget. Every film studio in Hollywood offered him millions to come and work for them; yet, to the great consternation of his wife, Walsh turned them all down, because there was no one he would rather work for than Walt Disney.
About ten years ago Disney released “Saving Mr. Banks”, a feature about the making of “Mary Poppins”; and while certain elements of its story are at variance with historical fact (it is, after all, a feature film and not a documentary), I was especially impressed with Tom Hanks’s sensitive and insightful portrayal of Walt Disney. Hanks looks nothing like Disney, of course, but I thought he perfectly captured the personality of the lovable showman I saw on television every Sunday night when I was very young.
It was also something of a revelation. Many years ago I read in a biography of Walt Disney — I think it was DISNEY’S WORLD by Leonard Moseley — that Walt would often criticise the work of his artists, sometimes harshly, and usually in the presence of their colleagues; but he would never say a word in praise of it. The best he would ever say, if he was satisfied, was “That’ll do.” When you read something like that, you can’t help but think what a tyrannical and unpleasant boss Walt Disney must have been to work for.
That is, until I saw the scene in “Saving Mr. Banks” where Walt hears Dick Sherman sing “Feed the Birds” for the first time, and, deeply moved by it, tells him: “Yes! That’ll do!” I realised then that when Walt Disney said “That’ll do,” it meant that the work in question was up to his own personal standard, beyond reproach, of the highest quality possible — practically perfect in every way. A “That’ll do” from Walt Disney meant more than the most effusive encomiums from anybody else. Bill Walsh and the Sherman brothers would have understood this, and it no doubt accounts for the high esteem in which they held him.
As for this post — well, there’s a certain polysyllabic adjective that springs to mind; but in the spirit of the great Walt Disney, I’ll just say “Yes! That’ll do!”
Always great to hear from someone who saw the movie when it was new! Thanks for sharing the name of Bill Walsh and his important role and your insights about Walt’s style of directing.
I’m with Walt on this one; the bigger, splashier numbers have left a greater impression on pop culture, but “Feed the Birds” is the best song of the film. If only more people nowadays would listen to it and heed its message.
I, too, saw the film at age four. It was likewise my first experience of a movie theatre. In those days, going to a movie was a much bigger event than it is today. We went inside a theatre with rich red carpeting, red carpeted staircases, and thick velvety curtains held with gold ropes. I will never forget seeing a booth in the lobby festooned with Mary Poppins memorabilia–which my parents whisked me past as fast as possible and never acknowledged it was there. I realize now that this evening at the movies was an extravagance that they could barely afford, so they weren’t about to get into a situation where I would start begging for items that they couldn’t buy. Still, I wish I could freeze the frame and examine that booth in my memory. I would love to know what I missed out on.
The movie itself, was of course, the reason we were there. I was so small I could not easily hold down a movie theatre seat. It kept popping up and my parents had to push the seat down so that I could sit in it. This happened every time one of the songs came on, because I had heard the Marni Nixon record and got so excited when one of them occurred that I could barely stay in my seat.
On the way home, I remember my parents discussing who played Mary Poppins and Bert and so forth, and I didn’t understand their conversation, because of course it was all real and those were real people we had seen on the screen. To my four-year-old mind, the idea of acting was completely foreign. Yet as the months progressed, and we went back to see it several times, I developed a better understanding of how this worked, and how a man we watched on daytime television could also appear on the big screen as Bert. This led to a lifelong fascination with acting and theatre that has lasted to this day.
The best acting training in the world comes from watching the performances in films you love. I can proudly boast as an actor that I was “trained by greats” such as Dick Van Dyke, Julia Andrews, and Walt Disney. All from that early exposure to what became, in its own time, a screen classic.
Films today, probably because of the wide variety available, don’t generally transform or inspire popular culture as movies did back then. It was rare to watch anything on television that didn’t reference Mary Poppins in one manner or another. Plus there were so many artists performing so many covers of the songs, which were so hugely popular. It was an exciting time to be a kid! I also like to think that the film provided some much needed lightness and relief for a nation that had been plunged into deep mourning just one year previously. People were ready for something joyous and uplifting.
We have a copy of “Mary Poppins” on VHS tape, a gift for our child who is now grown. When we went to see “Saving Mr. Banks” at the movie theater, I had to pull it out and watch it, after not having seen it in years. It was just as magical then as it was when I first saw it at the movies as a youngster. As filmed entertainment, it is perfect.
Marry Poppins Returns is one of the very few unnecessary sequels made decades later just to cash in on the memories…….. that is actually good. Maybe partially due to being based on an idea from Walt himself.
Though I am a huge fan of the original, I found much to admire and appreciate in “Mary Poppins Returns”. I felt that Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda proved worthy successors to Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. They had a natural chemistry that worked very well, and each brought a new kind of energy to the proceedings. Emily’s performance was not simply a copy of Julie’s, but she went back to the original books and took her inspiration from the original character as depicted therein. I could tell this even before I read Emily’s comments on how she prepared for the role. The songs, though not of Sherman caliber, were nevertheless tuneful and engaging. If a sequel had to be made, at least it was done “right,”
A sequence-by-sequence examination of both films will reveal that the creators of the sequel used the template of the first picture to make the second. The patterns of the story outlines are almost identical. And yet there are differences. This time around, Mary Poppins has the heartfelt task of helping the children and their father overcome their grief at the mother’s passing, yet the grief and sentiment do not overwhelm the picture. Plus, there are many touches that are reminiscent of episodes from the various books, particularly the balloon sequence at the end. The biggest difference that I noticed is that Mary Poppins becomes more intimately involved with the entire family and even ends up working together with them to bring about a satisfactory resolution. A friend pointed out that this is because she knew Michael and Jane in their childhoods and so there is a deeper bond and connection from their previous encounter. Point is, the sequell film is worth a look!
I was glad about the temporary reprieve for 2D animators provided by “Mary Poppins Returns.” It could be argued that no sequel is necessary, but actually I was surprised and pleased that someone was still able to make a big, happy family musical in the old style. The main problem is that Emily Blunt is merely adequate; she doesn’t dominate as she should, and the film becomes Lin-Manuel Miranda’s.
I too saw it first run and in more than one theater. And in those days some theaters would advertise, “continuous after 1 o’clock,” instead of the standard in and out procedure now, and if you wanted, you could simply sit through it again and again, which I did once or twice, the end credits rolled, the thin curtain came down and immediately went up again with the Buena Vista logo. My dad would take me to theaters somewhat far from home when it was still playing months later here and there so that I could see it just one last time, one last time… One theater gave me the press book after it concluded its run so I could see all the ads and promotional things that I wish we could have had 🙂 Flash forward to a couple years ago When I could finally afford to get a reasonably good poster after it was an Oscar winner, it sits in my living room with a framed autograph of Van Dyke and Karen Dotrice. No movie affected me as much then or since.
I am sort of a astonished that Walt Disney hasn’t done some sort of big 60th anniversary re-release on the big screen through fathom events or something, certainly it deserves it… There were actually a few sniffles during that climactic scene in “Saving Mr. Banks“ when we could hear that familiar orchestral opening. I still think after all these years and there have been some wonderful Disney productions, Mary Poppins really is the best thing that Walt Disney Studios ever put out, certainly in his lifetime, and for my money, way beyond.
I revisited Mary Poppins in a cinema (albeit digitally) in my part of the world earlier this year, as it played in the multiplexes once on a Sunday afternoon earlier this year.
Not quite the experience of the 35mm screenings of it together with Donald’s Off Day (1944) in the 1970s.
Mary Poppins was my introduction to legendary comic Ed Wynn, who, as Uncle Arthur, laughed so hard he floated up to the ceiling!
Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber later turned up in Disney’s The Gnome Mobile, a lesser-known fantasy adventure I always liked.
Ed Wynn played Uncle Albert. You may be thinking of Paul Lynde’s character on “Bewitched”, another fun-loving uncle who loved to laugh.
You can’t possibly go without also noting the role he’s likely best remembered for: The Mad Hatter in Disney’s 1951 version of “Alice in Wonderland.”
He even ad-libbed during breaks between live-action reference sessions. (“Mustard?! Don’t let’s be silly!”) At that time, the recorder was still recording Wynn’s speech and Walt liked it so much that he asked the sound technicians to use the ad-libbing in the final film, even though there was too much background noise. All Walt could say to the sound technicians was, “That’s your problem.”
Somehow, they were able to erase enough background noise so that the ad-libbing could be mixed into the final soundtrack, and we are all the more grateful for it. It displays Wynn’s comedic timing and genius at its finest. There will never be another like him.
Old Mr. Dawes really scared me when I was little. In fact, I found the whole scene in the bank, with those pompous old men trying to get their hands on the children’s tuppence, profoundly disturbing. Many years went by before I discovered, much to my surprise, that the actor who played the ancient banker was the same one who also played lovable Bert the chimney sweep. (It took me just as long to come to the same realisation about Samantha’s cousin Serena and Morticia’s sister Ophelia.)
Perhaps I should have paid closer attention to the closing credits, where the actor playing old Mr. Dawes is identified as “Navckid Keyd”; then, by the magic of animation, the letters unscramble themselves to spell out “Dick Van Dyke”. This bothered me, as “Navckid Keyd” is such an outrageously bogus-sounding name; in English, the letter V is never followed by another consonant, nor is the -ck combination ever preceded by one. Granted, “Dick Van Dyke” isn’t a great name for anagrams; while it has a good vowel-to-consonant ratio, the two Ds and two Ks are problematic. But it can nevertheless be rearranged into some much more likely-sounding names than “Navckid Keyd”, such as:
David Keckny
Neddy Kavick
Kevin K. Caddy
Andy D. Kevick
Vance K. Kiddy
Nicky Vaddek
The best one of all, by far, is “Naked Vicky D.”, but she would have been all wrong for the role of old Mr. Dawes.