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24th Jun '12 8:23:35 PM PaulA

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[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MaryPoppinsPoster_7246.JPG]]

->''"Practically perfect in every way."''

Describe Mary Poppins? She's supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, of course.

If that's too much of a mouthful for you, she's also a magical nanny, who literally flies into the life of the Banks family of London, England, circa [[TheEdwardianEra 1910.]] The ensuing adventures were originally a series of children's books by P. L. Travers, and there's also a musical stage adaptation, but when most people hear the name they think of the [[AdaptationDisplacement 1964 film]] starring JulieAndrews as Mary Poppins and DickVanDyke as Bert. Which is not surprising, as it is a ''very'' good movie; unless you are P. L. Travers, it is in serious competition for claiming the title of finest live-action feature that WaltDisney ever produced. Timeless songs, a perfect cast (yes, even Bert with his [[NarmCharm infamous]] accent), special effects that still hold up 50 years later, and [[RogerRabbitEffect Dyke dances with penguins.]] Show it to your kids. Watch it yourself. Try not to sniffle too much at the climax.

It has recently been adapted to a splendid [[TheMusical musical theater adaptation]] now touring the United States; this version replaces some of the less stageable aspects of the original film (as in the penguins and Uncle Albert's floating) with elements of the original book by Travers, in an example of both AdaptationExpansion ''and'' AdaptationDistillation. Catch it if you can!

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!!A Spoonful Of Tropes'll Help the Article Go Down:

* ActingForTwo: Dick Van Dyke played Bert and [[spoiler:Mr. Dawes, Sr.]]
** In addition to playing Mr. Banks, David Tomlinson performed the voice for Mary Poppin's umbrella. He also voiced some of the characters in the chalk drawing scene.
* AnimatedActors
* AngelUnaware: Mary Poppins. She's seen ''putting her makeup on while sitting waist-deep in a cloudbank'', for [[JustForPun heaven's]] sake. Possibly Bert too, though his magical powers aren't as reliable.
* AshFace: Mary, Bert and the Banks kids are sucked up the chimney and onto the roof, covered in soot. Later, Michael shouts into a chimney and gets even more soot blown into his face.
* BagOfHolding: Mary Poppin's carpetbag.
* BritishStuffiness: Mr. Banks offers perhaps the archetypal example.
* ButNowIMustGo
* CharacterDevelopment: Mary Poppins' presence seems to ''cause'' character development. After she works for the Bankses, all four members of the household gain a new perspective to some degree, but the most drastic change would be Mr. Banks' transformation from aloof and distant patriarch to concerned and loving family man. 
* CatchPhrase: Spit Spot!
* CharacterTitle
* CloudCuckooLander: Mrs. Banks
** Mr. Banks too at times, when not dealing with his job. And let's not forget Admiral Boom, the insane old navy man who made a ship out of his house. 
* TheComicallySerious: Mr Banks in the movie. Especially during the chimney sweep scene.
* CompositeCharacter: The film version of Bert.
* ContinuityCameo: The people Bert sings to in the opening of the movie are all supporting characters from the book series. Mrs. Corry, the woman with the daughters taller than her, has a bigger role in the musical adaptation.
* CrazyPrepared: The carpetbag again.
** Mary Poppins also has a makeup compact containing soot. Y'know, just in case she gets sucked up a chimney, has soot on her face, and wants to add a little more.
*** Hard to tell if she's ''really'' CrazyPrepared, or if she can simply make whatever she wants to come out of the carpetbag. There's CrazyPrepared, and ''then'' there's CrazyPrepared.
* DeadpanSnarker: Mary Poppins has her moments.
* DishDash
* TheEdwardianEra : The setting of the film.
* ElevenOClockNumber: Step In Time in both the film and the stage musical. The stage musical is especially impressive in that [[spoiler: Bert climbs up the wall and tap dances across the ceiling]].
* EnforcedMethodActing: Used a couple of times with the young actors playing Jane and Michael.
** The medicine bottle that pours different colors was a real working prop. The children were not informed of its purpose, so Karen Dotrice's shriek of delight is real.
** The children were unaware that Mr. Dawes Sr. was played by [[spoiler:Dick Van Dyke]]. According to Karen Dotrice (Jane), she didn't know till she saw the end credits.
* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: Again, perhaps the arch-typical example.
* ExpospeakGag: Variant. No expospeak as such, but as it's a kid's movie this line has the same effect as one:
-->''Tradition, discipline and rules''
-->''Must be the tools''
-->''Without them, disorder!''
-->''Catastrophe! Anarchy!''
-->''In short, you have a ghastly mess!''
** Later, this exospeak is heard again with a few different words that still mean the same thing:
-->''Tradition, discipline and rules''
-->''Must be the tools''
-->''Without them, disorder!''
-->''Chaos! Moral disintegration!''
-->''In short, you have a ghastly mess!''
* {{Expy}}: Mary gets one in {{Nanny McPhee}}, only she's a bit snarkier.
** Can anyone say Sherry Bobbins?({{The Simpsons}})
** [[DiscWorld/HogFather Hogfather]] turns Susan Sto Helit into one, though she swears if she ever catches herself dancing on rooftops with chimney sweeps she will beat herself to death with her own umbrella.
* FourthWallObserver: Bert, when alone, often addresses the audience directly.
* FullNameBasis: It's rare for anyone to use less than Mary Poppins' full name.
* TheFilmOfTheBook: Travers and Walt Disney's battles were lengthy.
* GetTheeToANunnery: The "go fly a kite" joke is often lost on modern audiences. The phrase was once used as a family-friendly version of "Go fuck yourself," but is almost never used this way today.
* GoOutWithASmile: [[spoiler:Mr. Dawes, Sr.]] dies as he finally gets a joke.
* GreatWayToGo: What the characters say about the above GoOutWithASmile.
* GrowingUpSucks: More a theme in the original books.
* HappilyMarried: George and Winifred Banks. He may start out a stuffy old bore, but even at the very beginning there's no doubt he and his wife truly love each other.
* HenpeckedHusband: In the cartoon band sequence, as comedy.
* HighTurnoverRate: The Banks's nannies before Mary Poppins arrives.
* TheHyena: Uncle Albert
* HypocriticalSinging: Mary sings a lullabye to the kids entitled [[ReversePsychology "Stay Awake."]]
* InexplicablyAwesome: Mary is a classic example. She never explains anything, after all.
* InsigniaRipOffRitual: Hilariously parodied when [[spoiler:Mr. Banks]] is fired from the bank.
* JawDrop: "We are not a codfish."
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Mr. Banks.
* LateToThePunchline[=/=]{{Parental Bonus}}: Watch it as a kid and you'll get a thoroughly entertaining movie. Watch it again twenty years later and you'll suddenly be able to understand a whole host of jokes and subplots that you couldn't possibly have gotten as a kid, either for want of experience or vocabulary, or simply because the adults were talking too fast.
** [[JustforPun Mr Banks, a bank clerk, is given a "cashiering" on dismissal]].
** Mr. Dawes, Sr. takes a minute to get the wooden leg joke.
* LondonTown
* LonelyRichKid: Jane and Michael.
* LyricalDissonance: "Stay Awake". It's a lullaby. A very effective one.
** Also, Burt's own variation on the upbeat "Spoonful Of Sugar", sung as a lyrical {{Aesop}} to Mr. Banks, is a virtual TearJerker.
* MagicalGuardian
* MagicalNanny: The original, endlessly referenced and parodied.
* MatteShot: Since the entire film was shot on a soundstage, Peter Ellenshaw made sixty-four matte paintings to recreate the vistas and skies of Edwardian London.
* MeaningfulName: Mr. Banks and Admiral Boom. Also the admiral's assistant Mr. Binnacle
* MediumBlending: When they interacted with animated characters inside Bert's paintings.
* MisplacedWildlife: American robins in England, despite there being another species native to the British Isles with the same name. The penguins might also count, but it is a fantasy world after all.
* MorallyBankruptBanker: Mr. Bank's employers.
* TheMusical
* {{Neologism}}: "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious", although there is some dispute about whether the movie invented the word or merely popularized it. [[hottip:*: But if you say it loud enough, it doesn't matter, because you'll always sound precocious.]]
** The lyricist mentioned on the 40th anniversary DVD that he started mashing words together to see what sounded interesting and sesquipedalian. [[hottip:**: And it is so rococo-co-cious.]]
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: Ed Wynn in his [[OneSceneWonder brief appearance]] as Uncle Albert.
* OhNoNotAgain: "Ahh! They're at it again!", "They're at it again, step in time! They're at it again, step in time!"
* OneSteveLimit: Minor aversion. One of the female names rattled off in the penguin scene is "Jane". Presumably they aren't referring to Jane Banks.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Dick van Dyke's Cockney accent is a contender for second most notorious film example of all time. If you're wondering who owns the title for most notorious, see [[SeanConnery here]].
** Dick defended himself on {{NPR}}'s ''Radio/WaitWaitDontTellMe'' by explaining that his accent coach was J. Pat O'Malley, an Irishman who didn't speak cockney any better than he did.
* ParasolOfPrettiness: Mary Poppins has one in the chalk painting sequence. Along with a [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PimpedOutDress lacy white dress.]]
* ParasolParachute: It goes up as well as down..
* ParrotExpowhat: Mr. Banks' initial inability to say, "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
-->'''Jane:''' Mary Poppins taught us the most wonderful word!
-->'''Michael:''' Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
-->'''Mr. Banks:''' What on earth are you talking about, supercal-- super-- or whatever the infernal thing is?
-->'''Jane:''' It's something to say when you don't know what to say.
-->'''Mr. Banks:''' Yes, well, I always know what to say.
** And later, as he sings "The Life I Lead" again:
-->'''Mr. Banks:''' (singing) These silly words, like... (stops singing) Superca... Superca... Superca...
-->'''Mary Poppins:''' Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
-->'''Mr. Banks:''' Yes, well done. You said it.
*** He eventually comes around when he is discharged from the bank and Mr. Dawes, Sr., asks him if he has anything to say:
--->'''Mr. Banks:''' (giggling hysterically) Just one word, sir.
--->'''Mr. Dawes, Sr.:''' Yes?
--->'''Mr. Banks:''' Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious!
--->'''Mr. Dawes, Sr.:''' What?
--->'''Mr. Banks:''' Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious! Mary Poppins was right, it's extraordinary! It *does* make you feel better! (giggles some more)
--->'''Mr. Dawes, Sr.:''' What are you talking about, man? There's no such word!
--->'''Mr. Banks:''' Oh yes! It is a word! A perfectly good word! Actually, do you know what there's no such thing as? It turns out, with due respect, when all is said and done, that there's no such thing as ''YOU''! 
* ProperLady with a PrimAndProperBun: ''MaryPoppins'' of course! Practically perfect in every way!
* PolitenessJudo: How Mary Poppins wins the horse race.
* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Travers was one of the few classic authors to live long enough to have to personally edit her books to eliminate racist terms and stereotypes. In other cases, such as EnidBlyton, this was done posthumously.
** One bit of political incorrectness survives in the film, in which Admiral Boom uses the now derogatory term "Hottentots", as in "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXyOTO5242k We're being attacked by Hottentots!]]" But let's face it, you just used Google to figure out what that term meant.
*** Pity, it is fun just to say.
**** [[{{TheWizardofOz}} What makes the Hottentots so hot?]]
* PortalPicture: Bert's pavement drawings.
* PrettyInMink: Mrs. Banks wears an ermine muff to one of her suffrage rallies.
* PragmaticAdaptation: The film folds together the highlights from several of the books.
* ProductionPosse: There are several Disney regulars in this film. Uncle Albert is played by Ed Wynn, who appeared in numerous Disney films, most notably being the voice of the Mad Hatter in ''Disney/AliceInWonderland''. Director Robert Stevenson spent much of his career directing live-action Disney films. The child actors who played Jane and Michael previously appeared in ''TheThreeLivesOfThomasina'' and later appeared together in ''TheGnomeMobile''. Most of DisneysNineOldMen worked on the animation in the chalk drawing scene. This was David Tomlinson's first Disney film, but he would go on to appear in ''TheLoveBug'' and ''BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', both of which were directed by the aforementioned Stevenson. And, of course, the Sherman Brothers wrote music for several Disney films, mostly in the '60s and '70s.
* RefugeInAudacity: Mary Poppins hires herself.
** With, no less, the implication that Mr. Banks is the one who needs to impress her!
** Also, when Mr. Banks demands an explanation for some shenanigans, she replies "First I should like to make one thing quite clear: ''I never explain anything.''"
* ReversePsychology: Mary Poppins ''owns'' this trope. She gets herself hired by interviewing her employer, gets the children to sleep by singing a lullaby about staying awake, and tricks Mr. Banks into taking the kids to work with him by acting like it's his idea.
* RogerRabbitEffect: One of the film's most famous sequences
** Ironically enough, the singing penguins from the Chalk Drawing sequence actually make a cameo in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", serving drinks at the Ink & Paint Club. This raises the dilemma that "Mary Poppins" is a movie made in the early 1960s, while "Roger Rabbit" takes place in the early 1940s. The official word on "early" appearances of toons in Roger Rabbit is that said toons were puttering about Toontown waiting for their big break, but another theory is that the godlike existence of Mary Poppins drew the Toons into being,
* RummageFail: Mary Poppins hunting for her tape-measure.
* SarcasticClapping: Bert's "high-wire" act in the park provokes this response.
* ShooOutTheClowns: Starting when Mr. Banks is called to the bank to be fired for his kids starting the run on the bank and Mr. Banks confides to Bert at the awful prospect of losing his dreams and unable to support his family while Bert reminds him that his children will only be around a short time as well, so he must treasure their love as well. 
* SilkHidingSteel: A prim and ProperLady; the only one not to lose her composure during the laughing scene. She also manipulates her employer with the ease of a pro. See her entry on ReversePsychology.
* SoloDuet
* SpeaksFluentAnimal: Mary can talk to animals. In the original books, everyone can while they are babies.
* SupportingProtagonist: A case is often made that Mary Poppins is this trope and the movie is really about George Banks. This line of thinking can also be applied to the stage musical, but not to the original books. In any case, it's true enough that he gets more CharacterDevelopment than anyone else.
* ThrowItIn: Mr. Dawes Sr.'s trouble walking down the stairs was something [[spoiler: Dick Van Dyke]] did between takes.
** Bert's [[OohMeAccentsSlipping Cockney accent]] is this, basically. Mr. Van Dyke tried doing a serious Cockney accent but found he could only manage a bad one.
* TokenRomance: the 1983 Russian movie tacks on a romance between Mary Poppins and the Banks hippy uncle. Sure, it culminates in great tear jerker of a song but is still doesn't really fit the rest of the film.
** Weirdly, Bert and Mary Poppins are implied to have had this ''before'' the movie begins.
*** ''TheSimpsons'' parodied this in their spoof of Mary Poppins:
---->'''Groundskeeper Willy:''' We were engaged to be married! Then she got her eyesight back. Suddenly the ugliest man in Glasgow wasn't good enough for her!
---->'''[[CaptainErsatz Sherry Bobbins]]:''' It's good to see you, Willy.
---->''[beat]''
---->'''Groundskeeper Willy:''' ''That's not what ya said the '''first''' time ya saw me!!! [stomps off]''
* TricksterMentor
* VillainSong: The stage version not only throws in a villain (Miss Andrew, George's former nanny who was featured in the Poppins books) but also gives her a two-part song, "Brimstone and Treacle". 
* WeirdnessCensor: "Ellen, it is ''now'' eight o'clock."
* WestminsterChimes: In the score during the rooftop scene, between orchestral reprises of "Spoonful of Sugar" and "Feed the Birds".
* WhenYouComingHomeDad: And yes, Mr. Banks learns to have fun with his kids by the end.
** In a heartwarming twist (Likely not included in any other version of this Trope), the kids get an aesop on the subject as well; just because their parents aren't around as much as they'd like doesn't mean they don't love them. And also that being a grown-up and providing for a family is very hard, and you shouldn't be too hard to judging them.
* WhyDoYouKeepChangingJobs: Bert. The implied answer being "because he feels like it."
** Or, [[WMG/MaryPoppins he's really as magical as Mary Poppins, if not more so]]. He's just a lot more humble than she is.
** In the book, Bert is a jack-of-all-trades, so the movie didn't change anything, except to add the trade of chimney-sweep, which is one he doesn't do in the books. (Bert and Mary Poppins also go through the pavement picture alone, on her day off - no kids, it's a date!)
----
''... [[BrickJoke in a most de-light-ful way!]]''

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24th Jun '12 8:00:56 PM PaulA

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24th Jun '12 4:01:48 PM AdamC

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