History Characters / MaryPoppins

!!!'''Stage actresses:''' Charlotte Spencer (original London cast recording), Adelaide Barham (West End revival cast recording)

* WomenAreWiser: She's more aware of her children's feelings than her husband.

* HateSink: Katie Nanna is the last kind of person you want to entrust with your children. She mentions that she has lost the children a grand total of four times during her service with the Banks family and refuses to accept any of the blame, instead insisting that the children are beasts and that it is all on them for getting themselves lost. She even packs up and leaves the Banks residence while they are still missing! On top of that, she has the nerve to demand her pay before storming out bags and everything. The only reason Ellen tries to dissuade her is to because of the fact that she ends up having to look after the children when there are no nannies present. Mrs. Brill, however, is not the least bit upset to see her out. Downplayed in the musical, where Katie Nanna is seen for all but two minutes, nearly dragging the kids home before they ditch her. She then quits per the film.

* AllKnowingSingingNarrator: His role in the stage musical is this. He moves the story along as much as he's in it.

* TitleCharacter: ''Mary Poppins'', ''Mary Poppins Returns'' and so on.

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: In the Russian film, he is Jane and Michael's uncle rather than one of their household servants.

* CanonForeigner: Mr. Dawes, Sr. and his son were not in the original Mary Poppins books.

* NoFullNameGiven: Seeing as he has a "Jr" in his name, he must be named after his father, but we don't know the first name of either of them.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Even after [[spoiler:it is pointed out that the signatures are missing from the certificate, Mr. Dawes tells Michael that it is fine and he can still save the shares for his children]].

* LongLived: She doesn't appear to age between the first movie and ''Returns'', despite the passing of decades. She doesn't explain this because she never explains anything, and one rarely discusses a woman's age in the first place. It's incredibly rude to ask.

* GoodIsNotNice: Initially in the beginning of the movie, though eventually she becomes more outright [[NiceGirl kind]] towards the children. Played straight in the books, ''Returns'', and the musical.

* MagicalNanny: The original, endlessly referenced and parodied.

* SuperOCD: In the film. He's a ScheduleFanatic who insists on everything in his life being "run with precision", and when Mary Poppins shows up and causes little disruptions to his life, he sees it as chaos. Likewise, in the play, he insists on "precision and order" in his household.

* [[WidowWoman Widower Man]]: His wife has sadly passed away by the time Mary Poppins comes back.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Albert's laughter makes him literally defy gravity, and it is contagious enough that Mary warns the children and they react with fear. It is contagious enough that LateToThePunchline joke he got after Banks was fired caused Mr. Dawes Sr. to laugh loudly enough that he developed the same disorder and literally [[DieLaughing died laughing]]. In the novels, Uncle Albert floats to the ceiling whenever his birthday falls on a Friday, due to laughing gas.
-->'''Jane:''' Will we get spots?!

* VanityIsFeminine: Very much so in the novels, but even Disney's version of Mary Poppins has a ''very'' strong vain streak about her. She obviously admires her own beauty, and gets downright offended if it's ever implied that other women might be prettier than her.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Mere minutes into his introduction, George breaks into an IAmSong that's all about showcasing what a proud, well-intentioned but comically flawed man he is; one who "can't see past the end of his nose," as Mary Poppins later puts it.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Mere minutes into his introduction, George breaks into an IAmSong that's all about showcasing his main personality traits as a proud and well-intentioned man but also a comically flawed one who "can't see past the end of his nose," as Mary Poppins would later put it.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Mere minutes into his introduction, George breaks into an IAmSong that's all about portraying him as a proud and well-intentioned man but also a comically flawed one who "can't see past the end of his nose," as Mary Poppins would later put it.

* HappilyMarried: In spite of all his ParentalNeglect, his marriage with Winifred doesn't seem unhappy at any point in the film. Subverted in the musical, where he and Winifred can't seem to understand one another.

* AdaptationalBadass: Come Act 2 of the musical, after she meets Miss Andrew, Winifred realizes that George has had a rough childhood and sees a new side to her husband. With the encouragement of Mary Poppins and her children, she goes to the bank and stands up for him when it seems he's about to be fired. [[spoiler: Fortunately, he keeps his job and gets promoted with, at her insistence, ''quadruple'' his previous salary.]]

* AntiVillain: For all his crustiness, at worst he is insensitive and unwilling to listen to a child. He truly doesn't mean harm, and fires Mr. Banks because he thinks it's the only proper thing to do.

* NoFullNameGiven: We don't know his first name, but because of the "Sr." in his name, it must be the same as his son's, whatever his name is.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Despite earlier blaming George Banks and his children for causing a run on the bank, when he dies, his son offers George a new position at the bank.

* MorallyBankruptBanker: He only cares about his bank making profits; downplayed in that he cares about the customers.

%%* CoolOldGuy: He epitomizes this in the sequel.

* HonestCorporateExecutive: Appear in ''Returns'' as that rarest of things, an honest ''bank president''. [[spoiler:In his ReasonYouSuckSpeech to his nephew, he presents not just a moral argument against Wilkins' actions but also a business one - his dishonest practices are going to start scaring away customers in the long term]].

* NiceHat: She always wears a straw boater when going outside in both the film and musical.

* FourthWallObserver: He addresses the audience directly at the start of the film. As noted in AllKnowingSingingNarrator above, this is taken UpToEleven in the musical with him being the one telling the Mary Poppins story along with participating in it.

* MorallyBankruptBanker: [[{{UpToEleven}} Even more so than]] his uncle and grandfather in the first film. [[spoiler: He convinces Jane and Michael that he is willing to help them save their home. On the contrary, he's the one who wants to repossess it personally, destroying George Banks's records of owning shares.]] As stern as his family members were about making profits in the first film, they never did anything ''illegal''. As [[spoiler:his uncle tells him]], they made the bank's profits by smartly investing the money with which their customers trusted them, not by taking advantage of the ones struggling financially and seizing their property.

* AdaptationalNiceGuy: The movie version of Mary Poppins has been softened up considerably compared to her original book counterpart.

** It's worth noting that in the books her cousin is ''a giant talking snake''.

* AdultFear: She's close to tears when she realizes the children are missing, and gets upset every time she hears that they've run off from whoever is taking care of them. She also fears near the end of the film that her husband has been DrivenToSuicide after getting fired from his job.

* AdultFear: After he grows up, he finds his day job clashing with his dreams of being an artist, in the middle of TheGreatDepression. Then his wife Kate dies, his house might be repossessed, and his children start running around alone in the park.

* AdultFear: He's concerned about how Jane and Michael's father isn't picking up the hints that the kids want to spend time with their dad and have fun. He can't do more than offer his opinion, and promises to watch over the family.

* NoFullNameGiven: We never learn her first name.

* OutnumberedSibling: Annabel is outnumbered by her two brothers.