Mary Poppins movie post

At the very beginning of the movie, Mary Poppins is still shown as applying makeup and is looking at herself in the mirror. This aspect of her personality is kept the same from the books, she is still vain and cares about her appearance a lot. She is shown throughout the movie looking in mirrors and applying makeup. There is even the iconic scene where her reflection in the mirror sings back at her with an impressive only Julie Andrews would do it, riff. Although Dick Van Dyke is delightful, his accent is absolutely atrocious. I remember not thinking much of it when I was a kid, but now it is very apparent to me. Something that maintains the whimsical feel of the books is all the 4th wall breakage. The most noticeable case of this is Bert at the beginning, who isn’t even that important of a character in the books. I think it is curious that there was a focus on Mrs Banks being a suffrage. Her behavior when she arrives seems to be mocking suffragettes, which is an interesting perspective since this movie was made like 30 years after the suffragette movement. This was just the beginning of the perpetual patriarchal ideals that are manifested in Mr. Banks. Even though she was fighting for women's rights, Mrs. Banks was terrified of Mr. Banks. In the books Mr. Banks was barely present, appearing as more of a goofy character. In the movie meanwhile he does not spend a lot of time with the children and seems to know everything, and do everything better than Mrs. Banks. I wonder if this is because the books were written by a woman, while this movie was made by a man (Disney). The line try not to cloud the situation with facts is hilarious, I laughed out loud at that. The role Admiral Boom plays is interesting since, he is barely mentioned in the books, but is the one aware of the situations in the Banks household, and of the changing wind that brings Mary Poppins. This is likely a narration technique, since books are indeed a different medium than movies and therefore, the narration techniques are not entirely transferrable. It is quite pleasant to be able to see all the whimsies that a Mary Poppins adventure brings visually; in that sense a movie is well suited for it. The colors and animations add nicely to the atmosphere Obviously this seems to come from Disney’s emphasis on animation techniques even in a live action film. All of the animals especially gave out major Disney vibes. Of course in the movie, Mary Poppins is not the same character whatsoever as in the books. This is likely a product of both the Disney standard for kind and lovable characters and Julie Andrews’ own charm. However, she still is beloved by everyone she takes the children to meet, a commonality with the books. Even though Dick van Dyke’s accent is just horrible, his amazing dancing skills almost made up for it. It is really thoughtful that all of the characters on the adventure are animated, to show a difference. I wonder if this is how P.L. Travers would have wanted it though?