CLASSIC MOVIE CORNER: 'Mary Poppins' (1964)

“Mary Poppins” (1964)

MPAA Rating: G

Directed by: Robert Stevenson

Starring: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber

The Gist: Act your age? Sounds like a recipe for premature fuddy-duddyism.

The Story: The Banks family is dysfunctional. Mr. Banks (Tomlinson) is an emotionally distant father, consumed by his job. Mrs. Banks (Johns) is a politically active socialite, who’s also too distracted to mind the kids. Jane (Dotrice) and Michael (Garber) are a pair of brats who drive off a series frazzled nannies. They meet their match in Mary Poppins (Andrews). She woos the children by displaying cool magic tricks, but she also teaches them how to be kind and responsible. Most importantly, she showers the kids with love and attention. Mr. Banks feels threatened, but after he loses everything he thought was important, Poppins’ message finally lands on receptive ears.

The Review: In its nearly 70-year history of making movies, Disney has produced more than a few timeless classics. If you could boil them all down to one film that best expresses what Disney excels at, it would be “Mary Poppins.” Disney movies often adapt existing material, in this case a series of books by Pamela Lyndon Travers, an Australian-born author and herself the daughter of a bank manager. The performances are uniformly solid. Andrews plays Poppins with a mischievous gleam in her eye, and possesses an amazing singing voice. The songs are unforgettably infectious. The Oscar-winning visual effects are still enchanting, even to the sometimes jaded kids of today.

The Classic Quote: Jane: “Mary Poppins taught us the most wonderful word!” Michael: “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!” Mr. Banks: “What on Earth are you talking about? Supercal— Superca— or whatever the infernal thing is.”

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)