Base-Breaking Character: Mary Poppins' strict and pompous behavior has won over some readers, who feel thankful that her personality is refreshing when compared to some of the gentler children's book protagonists, and turned away others, who find her unreasonably heartless.
In Mary Poppins Comes Back, Mary Poppins promises the Banks children, "I'll stay until the chain breaks" (referring to the chain attached to her locket). Eighty-two years later, Mary Poppins would receive an unexpected, but unforgettable homage in a space opera with an ad campaign and climax accompanied by a Fleetwood Mac songnote "The Chain" bearing the line, "I can still hear you saying you would never break the chain"...
Arthur Turvy's misfortunes began when he was born to a woman who wanted a daughter, instead of a son. The writers of Disney's second Mary Poppins movie, Mary Poppins Returns, essentially gave him a Gender Flip, by combining him with Topsy.
In the first book, a penguin writing a birthday song for Mary Poppins decides against rhyming her first name with "Contrary", since It's Been Done by "Mary, Mary Quite Contrary". Mary Poppins Returns resorts to that rhyme in "Turning Turtle".
Older Than They Think: "Mary Poppins is a Time Lord" theories based entirely on the Disney movies would disregard book-only instances of her actually saving the day though time travel.
Sequelitis: The books seem to get less creative as the series progresses, at least to some readers.
Values Dissonance: The oldest books have some racial slurs and stereotypes. In particular, the "Bad Tuesday" chapter of the first book involves a whirlwind round-the-world journey via a magic compass, features stereotypes of Alaskan Native, Chinese, American Indian, and tropical "Negroes" that are grotesque even before a misbehaving Michael earns their wrath all at once.note The "Africans" behave like offensive Southern stereotypes such as eating watermelon and a slave patois There's a reason Disney left this episode out of the movie. Later editions have a revised version in which native animals of the four regions take the place of the humans, but that has its own unfortunate implications for those who know the original (not to mention all of the other books' slurs and stereotypes remain intact).
Disney's movie
Adaptation Displacement: How many of you can actually say that you saw the movie with prior knowledge that it came from a book?
Adorkable: Bert has his moments of endearing awkwardness, mostly around Mary Poppins.
There are those who think Mary Poppins is an irresponsible, dangerous, abusive drunk. She supernaturally "blows" the competition away for the job, then takes her charges to play with a homeless man. After giving them cough medicine that tastes like rum to her. The cough medicine was probably Laudanum (tincture of Opium with alcohol) which was often given to children to keep them quiet, and was often sweetened with sugar to help the medicine go down. So she's getting them high too.
Some people think she gives off a cold and dismissive feeling and would not actually be very successful with real children, like she was in the movie.
Given how dismissive she is of everyone she meets, except when they fall about praising her, Mary Poppins is sometimes interpreted as some kind of high-functioning narcissist. And yet, Pamela Travers (the author of the books) thought the Mary Poppins of the film was too nice. Fans of the books often agree with her.
Time Lady of Gallifrey. Seriously, she pulls a six-foot lamp out of her bag, right there in the film.
Who itself plays with this via the villainess Missy, introduced in Series 8 of the revival (in 2014, coincidentally the 50th anniversary of the film) and a central character in the Twelfth Doctor's Myth Arc. She has a similar appearance and even mannerisms — her key prop is an umbrella that she uses to float down into a graveyard at one point — but is a deranged murderess who, as Big Bad of Series 8, creates a false afterlife for humanity as a way to create an army of Cybermen. In the Expanded Universe story "Teddy Sparkles Must Die!" (The Missy Chronicles), she even takes on a Magical Nanny role to several kids — with the unwilling help of a kidnapped, wish-granting teddy bear-esque alien — as part of her latest sinister plot. The punchline? Teddy Sparkles ends up rewriting reality to make her the inspiration for Mary Poppins (Writing Around Trademarks is at play), which means that people familiar with the character don't take her threats seriously, sincerely believing she's good at heart despite her claims to be Card Carrying Evil!
Some people insist that Bert is actually a Crazy Homeless Person. On the opposite end, people are split if Bert is totally mundane if charming, or if he's of the same breed of magical that Mary is (albeit in a much lesser capacity). The musical seems to support the latter. It can also be argued that he is the true hero of the story, helping the children to understand the difficulty of their father's life while reminding Mr. Banks that childhood is fleeting and he should spend time with Jane and Michael before it is too late.
At the end of the movie, Winifred Banks makes a "Votes For Women" sash into a tail for the kite. Some viewers believe this means she'll give up the suffragette movement to spend more time around the house, while others interpret this action as her supporting the causewhilespending more time with her family. Richard Sherman supports the former explanation in the DVD Commentary, but nothing else in the film itself suggests that Winifred had turned sour on the movement.
When Mary tricked Mr. Banks into taking his children to the bank, did she do so with the knowledge that his bosses would take Michael's money, Michael would demand it back, there would be a run, and Mr. Banks would get fired and learn the value of family? Or did she just do it because she wanted Mr. Banks to take his children on an excursion, and thought the bank would be the easiest place to trick him into taking them? If the former, then it's likely that her teaching the children about feeding the birds was part of said plan, but if the latter, it was likely just to teach them empathy.
Base-Breaking Character: Among people who've both seen the movie and read the books, opinions seem split over whether the movie's less conceited and condescending portrayal of Mary Poppins seems too sweet or easier to warm up to than her literary incarnation.
Can't Un-Hear It: It is impossible to read the books and not hear the cast of the film version as the characters.
Common Knowledge: Pop culture imagines the film version of Mary Poppins as Sickeningly Sweet and chirpy (particularly from book fans who dislike that her character was softened in the adaptation). This ignores that Mary is still very aloof and stern with the children; she actually describes herself as "kind but extremely firm". She only really sweetens up around Bert in the "Jolly Holiday" sequence, and even then they still engage in Snark-to-Snark Combat in their other scenes. In short, she's a Sugar-and-Ice Personality. Part of this seems to be confusing Mary with Maria von Trapp, the otherMagical Nanny character Julie Andrews is famous for, who really is perky and sweet (although by all accounts, the Real Life Maria was closer to Mary Poppins in personality).
Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory: Mary Poppins could be an angel or even some kind of goddess, given her "perfection" and the fact that she comes from the sky. Also, note the religious overtones of "Feed the Birds."
Fanon: A lot of fans like to think that Mary Poppins only says "practically perfect in every way" because part of the perfection is humility - so Mary can't claim to be 100% perfect.
Ellen's suggestion to check the river for Mr. Banks's corpse, the morning after he loses his job, might feel harder to watch for viewers who learned that P.L. Travers' mother attempted to drown herselfnote an incident re-enacted in Saving Mr. Banks, but in a different context than in reality, traumatizing the writer when she was seven year old.
Bert warns Mr. Banks that one day his kids will grow up and be too old to accept his sincere love. In Mary Poppins Returns, George and Winifred have passed by the time Michael is a grown single father with children of his own.
Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dykedisagreed on the radio talk show Hollywood Spotlight Microphone over the possibility of Mary Poppins getting a Broadway adaptation. Van Dyke strongly supported the possibility, while Andrews felt that it wouldn't work, as the film's effects seemed hard to recreate on-stage. Both have seen the stage production at least 40 years later.
When the children first see Mary Poppins arrive, Michael thinks she's a witch, and Jane says that she's not because witches have brooms. Seven years later, Disney released a Creator-Driven Successor to this film with a witch who rides a broomstick as an Expy of Mary.
Memetic Badass: Mr. Dawes Sr. became this among Italian Youtube Poopers, it all started with this (title roughly translates in 'Old Man Dawes will kick your ass!').
Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: Though there exist a handful of Brits don't care for this "Americanized" version of English culture, especially Dick Van Dyke's accent, it was and remains hugely popular in England by those who do, especiallyfor Dick Van Dyke's accent.
Narm Charm: Dick Van Dyke's accent.Dick Van Dyke's accent was the result of his trying, and failing, repeatedly, to do a good Cockney accent. When it turned out he could only do a bad Cockney accent, he decided to make it hilariously bad. But it's part of what makes his character charming, hence Lin-Manuel Miranda giving his character Jack (Bert's Expy) a similar exaggerated accent in Mary Poppins Returns.
If there is one character everyone remembers fondly, it's the Bird Woman.
"Seinfeld" Is Unfunny: The visual effects were jaw-dropping back in 1964, with several scenes clearly devoted to just showing them off. Now, see everything in Special Effect Failure.
Signature Scene: The twenty-minute long animated sequence is probably the most famous part of the film. Ironically, P.L. Travers hated that scene and ordered Walt Disney to remove it after the film's premiere.
Many of the whimsical elements such as Mary and the children cleaning the room during "A Spoonful of Sugar" and Uncle Albert floating during "I Love to Laugh" are clearly done via blue screen.
The robin Mary Poppins holds looks unbelievably fake.
As pointed out in this video, during the animated segments, Julie Andrews' eye direction never properly matches up with those of the animated characters, which makes it look fake and unconvincing compared to the later Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
Winifred mentions the Sufragettes engaging in acts that, while not violent, would probably be seen as hideously disruptive, especially given violent protests in The New '10s. Some members of the suffragette movement were in fact violent terrorists, who committed acts of bombing and arson.
With all the talk about climate change and pollution, it would seem to be quite weird to see Bert proud at the London Skyline.
Admiral Boom uses the then-contemporary term "Hottentots" for the Khoi peoples of Namibia, which has since become recognized as a racial slur. Doesn't help that he's saying this about a group of chimney sweeps dancing around in Ash Face.
In one verse of "It's a Jolly Holiday", Mary Poppins appears to praise Bert for being a perfect gentleman—because he's not likely to get inappropriately intimate with her. Needless to say, attitudes about consent were very different in 1964 than they are today. Nowadays, most people would consider that to be a mark of basic decency, and not the sort of thing that would warrant praising a person in song.
"You'd never think of pressing your advantage, Forbearance is the hallmark of your creed, A lady needn't fear when you are near, Your sweet gentility is crystal clear!"
Of course, if you watch Bert's face, it becomes obvious that she's shutting him down as gently as she can. Like the old gag of a woman telling a man she feels so very safe when she's with him, Mary has just landed him squarely in the Friend Zone, and doing anything to try and get out of it would be (and feel) horrible.
Values Resonance: Bert's speech to the children about Mr. Banks having no one to turn to for help with his own troubles rings even truer in modern times where men's mental health is given greater consideration and the idea that the man must be the calm steady rock that must support the others in a household is seen as increasingly toxic.
Visual Effects of Awesome: A retroactive example, as the makeup used to make Dick Van Dyke's character look like an old man ended up being accurate to how he looks when he's actually an old man in Mary Poppins Returns.
Wangst: Really, Uncle Albert, feeling upset about your guests having to leave soon is one thing, but having a crying fit about it is another thing altogether. Then again, it's not like he's entirely right in the head.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?: Some critics and academics have argued that the film encapsulates the societal shift of its time, with Mr. Banks representing the passing of the stuffy 1950s and Mary Poppins representing the arrival of the carefree 1960s.
The stage musical
Award Snub: The show was nominated for seven Tony Awards in 2007, but only won a single award for its set design. Gavin Lee was nominated for his role as Bert, but lost to David Hyde Pierce in Curtains. note Lee was nominated for an Olivier Award in the same role two years earlier, but also lost. Conversely, Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins) was snubbed by the Tonys entirely.
on the radio talk show Hollywood Spotlight Microphone over the possibility of Mary Poppins getting a Broadway adaptation. Van Dyke strongly supported the possibility, while Andrews felt that it wouldn't work, as the film's effects seemed hard to recreate on-stage. Both have seen the stage production at least 40 years later.
