|
Year
: 1964
Director:
Robert Stephenson
Starring:
Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke,
David Tomlinson. |
Mary Poppins
Christmas
day without fail Mary Poppins will be on TV (usually
before the Queens speech - i.e. the time when everyone
has a post dinner snooze).
The
film is set in London in 1910. Two young children
(Jane and Michael) live in large house in the city
looking over the park. The parents are both too
busy to pay attention to the children - their mother
is a suffragette and the father is a city banker.
When their nanny resigns a new nanny is sought
and Mary Poppins is installed as the new nanny.
Mary Poppins is no ordinary nanny though
- oh no she has magical powers and she ain't afraid
to use them. Everyday tasks are transformed - i.e.
putting toys away can be done by clicking
her fingers, and trips to the park turn into magical
adventures on steam horses, and if they ever get
bored they can just pass the time trying to place
Bert's accent. But soon the wind changes direction
and so does life in the household.
Probably
the best Disney live action film it combines a
super story with some great songs and some stunning
special effects (the mixing of the live action
and the animation still looks absolutely superb).
The cast is pretty near perfect Julie Andrews,
David Tomlinson etc, even Dick Van Dyke finds the
right level (in spite of his accent) - thankfully
even the kids are not too annoying (not always
a given in Disney films). Where it leaves most
other Disney films behind is that the film has
not been allowed to go over board with sweetness,
all be it that the original books had
Mary Poppins as a very stern and forthright nanny,
and Disney have skilfully found the common ground
between the two. An all round great family movie
and a very welcome Christmas tradition.
By
the way the advice given to young Michael to frugally,
fruitfully, prudently etc etc invest his tuppence
in the bank rather than buying a bag of bird food
has turned out to be rather prudent. Had
Michael invested his two pennies in the bank in
1910 the resultant added interest (after decimilisation,
taking inflation into account and assuming no Tax
would have to be declared on the initial savings
interest) would have seen his investment grow,
in real terms, to a hefty £2.32 by 2007.
The price of a bag of bird food in London in 2008
is £1.50 leaving the now 104 year old Michael a
net benefit of £0.82 pence after purchasing the
bird food. A profit not to to be sneezed at. That's
good business.
Mary
Poppins has
flown into place at December 11th on our Films
guaranteed to make you feel Christmassy (UK edition).
Buy
this film and more from our Christmas
DVD Store in association
with Amazon.co.uk
