Mary Poppins 45th Anniversary DVD Review

Posted by Joseph Lee on 02.07.2009

Even after 45 years, Mary Poppins is still practically perfect in every way.

Winds in the east, mist coming in, / Like somethin' is brewin' and bout to begin. / Can't put me finger on what lies in store, / But I fear what's to happen all happened before.



Starring:
Julie Andrews as Mary Poppins
Dick Van Dyke as Bert and Mr. Dawes, Sr.
David Tomlinson as George Banks
Glynis Johns as Winifred Banks
Karen Dotrice as Jane Banks
Matthew Garber as Michael Banks

Story: A magic nanny comes to work for a cold banker's unhappy family.

Fun Trivia: Julie Andrews initially hesitated in taking on the part of Mary Poppins as she was hoping that Jack L. Warner would ask her to star as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady (1964). That call never came, prompting Andrews to cheekily thank Warner in her Golden Globe acceptance speech. My Fair Lady won the Academy Award for Best Picture that year, but Julie Andrews won Best Actress for her role in Mary Poppins.

Where do you begin with Mary Poppins(1964)? It's a classic that everyone has seen. This Disney film was one of the first films I ever watched and I grew up watching it multiple times along with other modern classics like Aladdin and The Lion King. As a child, I was enamored with Mary Poppins, a nanny who took children on exciting adventures and used magic. Now as an adult, I can reflect on the hard work that went into making this film and appreciate it for what it is. Does Mary Poppins hold up after fourty-five years? I think it goes without saying that the answer is yes.

The reason for this is because the film is timeless. It's set in early 20th century England, but it's a different sort of England. It's an England where an old Navy captain fires a cannon at the same time every day. It's an England where chimney sweeps can go dancing on the rooftops and no one will blink an eye. It's almost a fantasy world to begin with, and so when Mary Poppins arrives, she simply adds her own brand of magic to the surroundings. The only place that isn't magical is the Banks home, in which the mother is too busy campaigning for "votes for women" and the father is cold and calculated. When we meet the Banks children, they have run off another nanny (Elsa Lanchester, The Bride of Frankenstein). George decides that he should handle the nanny-hiring process, even tearing their request up. Luckily, Mary Poppins is just the nanny that they all need.

Even after all of these years, one can only be amazed at the performance of Julie Andrews. The second she appears on the screen she takes the movie into her own hands and takes command. She plays a full range of emotions, wearing them on her sleeve or being subtle as the occasion calls for. She just simply makes this her movie, and her performance was more than deserving of the Academy Award she won in 1965. In addition to her acting, she has a wonderful singing voice. This is perfect as her role requires a lot of singing. She gets all of the memorable songs: "A Spoonful of Sugar", "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "Chim Chim Cher-ee". She also has fantastic chemistry with the rest of the cast, even the minor characters. However her chemistry with co-star Dick Van Dyke is the strongest.

The acting from everyone else is strong as they try to hold their own in the shadow of Andrews. Van Dyke does the best, even with his wavering Cockney accent. He also has a great knack for physical comedy that he gets to show here, as well as his comedic timing and great choreography in regards to dancing. He also gets some songs of his own, such as "Step in Time" and his duet with Andrews, "Jolly Holiday". The children, played by Karen Dotrice and the late Matthew Garber, are some of the best child actors I've ever seen, and the casting director did a great job of choosing children who looked like the people who played their parents.

What else is there to rave about? The entire soundtrack is memorable and all of the songs are ones that are likely to be stuck in your head after hearing them. It's a lot of credit that is owed to songwriters Richard and Robert Sherman. The special effects are remarkable for their time, blending animation with live action, using camera trickery, wire-work and even animatronics. Something I've noticed is that in the animated world, when the live action characters hit the ground, they kick up animated dirt. That's just the sort of attention to detail that makes this film a classic, even today.

So it goes without saying that Mary Poppins easily holds up all of these years later. It's still a perfect film to show to kids, especially compared to today's films. There's no adult-oriented jokes or lack of quality to worry about here. If you're not a child, you can appreciate the hard work and performances that went into the creation of this film. It gives one a feeling of regained youth. Simply put, they just don't make movies like this anymore.

Film: 10.0

This film is presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1:66.1, but has been enhanced for 16x9 televisions. It's still the digitally remastered version that was released five years ago and as such it looks amazing. There is hardly any film grain, and while it doesn't look like it could have come out today, it's some of the best remastering I've seen for a film of this age. It's not picture-perfect, but it's still very great to look at.

Video: 9.0

The audio is likewise great-sounding. It's crisp and clear, and is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. If you choose, you also have French and Spanish tracks, or original theatrical 2.0 mix. The songs and dialogue don't differ in volume, which is a problem with older films. Just like the video, it sounds wonderful.

Audio: 9.0

Disc 1 Special Features

On Disc 1, you get a few extras.

Audio Commentary: This is a fantastic commentary with Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice, Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman. It's actually split in half between two groups. The first group is Van Dyke, Andrews and Richard Sherman, and the other group is Dotrice and Robert Sherman. You wouldn't be able to tell it's split because it flows seamlessly. The only pauses are typically for moments in the songs that the actors enjoyed. Lots of interesting facts and it's great to listen to the reunited cast talk about their fond memories.

Poppins Pop-Up Fun Facts: Facts about the making of the film and general trivia pop up during the film. Not very distracting, and informative, so if you feel like watching the film with it on you'll enjoy it.

Disney Song Selection: Like other classic Disney films, you have the option of watching the songs only, with lyrics if you choose. One of the reasons Disney's DVD offerings are usually better than other movies of this type.

There are also sneak peeks for Oliver & Company, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Bolt, Monsters Inc, Tinkerbell, Pinocchio, Up, Space Buddies, The Secret of the Magic Gourd. There are also ads for Disney on Blu-Ray, Disney Movie Rewards and Disney Parks.

Disc 2 Special Features

This is where the DVD is even more loaded. Some of the features are carried over from the 40th Anniversary edition, but there are some new ones as well.

Mary Poppins: From Page to Stage: This feature is a nearly fifty-minute documentary discussing the translation of Mary Poppins from the books to a Broadway production. Yes, this is another adaptation of the books rather than a straight adaptation of the film. This is good, in my opinion, because if you try to bring the film to Broadway, people are going to be expecting the film. Broadway is a completely different medium than film. It discusses making a new production based on the books, including using some songs from the film but making new songs to suit a Broadway audience (such as a song based on the line "practically perfect in every way"). It's a long feature, and if you don't care about Broadway you're probably not going to be interested in this. I watched it because I was curious about how a Broadway production would differ. I'm glad that it's longer and actually works as a documentary, because features are usually very short these days.

Step In Time: This is a musical number from the Broadway show, just to give you an example. It's a worthy tribute. In fact, it's a lot different from the film version so it would be unfair to compare the two. A neat addition, although I still prefer the film version (I know, I just said I shouldn't compare the two). You can also download the mp3 for this using the DVD.

Bob Crowley's Design Gallery: Bob Crowley is the set and costume designer of the Broadway version of Mary Poppins It is what it says it is: a gallery of Crowley's designs for costumes, sets and concept art.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: The Making of Mary Poppins: Now we're talking! This is a fifty-minute feature on the making of the film. This was also on the 40th Anniversary DVD, but I'm glad they included it again. Dick Van Dyke hosts as this discusses every aspect you could ever hope to have when discussing the making of the film. In fact, with the commentary and pop-up facts on Disc 1, I'm pretty sure you could know just about everything that had to do with putting Mary Poppins together. A wonderful feature that I loved.

Movie Magic: This is a feature, of course, about the special effects in the film. I really appreciated, even though it's not hard to tell how these were done if you've seen a movie these days. It's very short, and is mostly a fluff piece.

The Gala World Premiere: The premiere of the film was broadcast live on Los Angeles television, and this is the surviving film clips. You never see anything like this on other DVD's.

Dick Van Dyke Make-Up Test: Dick Van Dyke puts on makeup to play the senior Mr. Dawes.

Publicity: It's about what you think it is. Five trailers, two TV spots and a greeting from Julie Andrews before the premiere.

A Magical Musical Reunion: You may think that this feature would be Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke singing classic songs from the film. You would be mistaken. The only time the two perform is a brief reprise of "Chim Chim Cher-ee" towards the end (complete with Van Dyke dancing just as well as he does in the film!). This is probably due to the fact Julie Andrews lost her singing voice many years ago to botched vocal surgery. I would imagine she can't hit the same notes she once could. Even so, it's a nice little moment seeing Julie and Dick together again, along with Richard Sherman, discussing the songs. Richard gets to sing a bit, which is fine because he wrote them.

A Musical Journey with Richard Sherman: A twenty minute feature, in which songwriter Richard Sherman discusses everything that went into the creation of the songs. They even discussed songs that didn't make it into the film.

Deleted Song "Chimpanzoo": Richard Sherman sings a song that didn't make it into the film (one of many). I can see why it didn't make it, as it would have interrupted the flow of the film. A nice little song but unmemorable.

Bonus Short: The Cat That Looked At A King: This is from "Mary Poppins Opens the Door" by P.L. Travers. I remember this being hyped for the 40th Anniversary release so if you have that it's nothing new here. I didn't, so I watched this for the first time. Two kids stand outside in London in the same area that Bert used to draw his paintings on. That's when Mary Poppins (again played by Julie Andrews) comes up and takes them into the painting where a cat challenges a king to a duel of intelligence. It's never actually said that Andrews is Mary Poppins, but it's implied. Even in her later years, she still has a lot of charm and she feels like Mary Poppins, even repeating lines from the film. A nice little addition for children.

There is also a Still Art Gallery.

What can I say? Disney knows how to go all out for their big releases, and this was no exception. There is a ton of material for fans of the film to enjoy and it's all very entertaining.

Special Features: 10.0

The 411: It's easy to dismiss Mary Poppins was just a "kid's movie" or a musical, but it's more than that. This is true because of the way it's endured and entertained multiple generations. The film is still as perfect as it's always been and Disney's DVD treatment is top notch. The film looks amazing all of these years later. The special features are numerous and entertaining. As the tagline says, Mary Poppins is still practically perfect in every way, even after all of this time.

Final Score:  9.5   [  Amazing ]