Mary Poppins

Walt Disney produced many great films during his lifetime but the one that is considered his biggest achievement for a live-action movie, is none other than Mary Poppins.

It was released in 1964, based on the book series by P.L. Travers, and stars the ever so famous Julie Andrews in as Mary Poppins, in her feature film debut.

The story begins with Winifred and George Banks who need to find a new Nanny for their children, Jane, and Michael, after their current Nanny quit her job when the children ran away for the fourth time in a week.

They advertise the job, and several nannies wait outside the Banks family’s home to be interviewed but a strong gust of wind magically blows them away. Suddenly, a women gracefully ascends from the sky using an umbrella as a parachute.

She enters the Banks home and introduces herself as Mary Poppins. She promises that she will be firm with the children and is given the job as their Nanny. 

She begins by magically helping Jane and Michael clean their nursery whilst singing “A Spoonful of Sugar.”

Another great character is Mary’s friend Bert, whom she meets whilst walking in the park with the children. Bert is a street painter, and Mary uses her magic to transport them all into one of Bert’s drawings, where they ride a carousel and have a horse race. Mary wins the race and sings the iconic song, “Supercalifragilisticexpalidocious.”

A funny scene is when Mary Poppins takes Jane and Michael to visit her, Uncle Albert and Bert joins them. Uncle Albert is floating up by the ceiling which happens when he laughs. He starts telling jokes and Bert, Jane, and Michael start to laugh and float to the ceiling. Mary joins them and they have a tea party up in the air. After a while Mary gets tired of all the jokes and with her magic powers, she makes them all float back to the ground.

There are many memorable songs in this iconic movie and one of the standouts involving great dancing is when Bert, who is now a chimney sweep, dances on the roof tops with other chimney sweeps to “Step in Time.”  This scene follows on from Bert singing “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” which won an Academy Award for Best Original Song.

The movie received 13 Academy Award nominations which is a record for any film released by Walt Disney Studios and won five awards, including Best Actress for Julie Andrews.

In 2013, the movie was inducted into the hall of fame with the character  of Mary Poppins and the song “Supercalifragilisticexpalidocious” following in 2021. 

This is truly a memorable movie with beautiful costumes and lots of catchy tunes that one will never grow tired of.