Disney Mary Poppins Response

The Disney version of Mary Poppins keep much of the original story by Pamela Travers, yet the Disneyfication of the story was inevitable from the moment the tale of Mary Poppins made it to Disney's drawing board. While the movie is similar to the novel; enough is different where I feel a short recap of the story is necessary. A father, George Banks, advertises for a nanny in the newspaper after their children have chased away another nanny. The next morning, Mary Poppins glides down from the sky blowing away all the other nannies, literally. After a series of adventures that culminates in shenanigans at the banks, Mr. Banks is fired. As banks leave from being fired the formerly serious and money oriented man tells his boss a joke he learned from his son, then leaves to take his children to fly kites. Dawes, Banks's boss, who has not laughed in 90 years, is truck by the joke and begins to laugh. Consequently, Banks is offered a position on the board instead of being fired. After this smooth feeling that her job is complete, Mary Poppins opens her umbrella and flies away in a scene that mirrors the closing scene of the original Mary Poppins novel. The Disney movie focuses on a disorganized family with a father whose only goal is the accruement of money, a mother fixated on women's rights and children who have run through one nanny after another. Just as in the book Mary Poppins is a figure of supernatural power. She is equally mysterious though Disney seems to have taken out many of the references to the origin of her power and hints to its cultural source. Additionally as is the steadfast Disney tradition there is a lesson, and it is no surprise that lesson is strongly intertwined with the idea of family, to be learned from the story. The two messages that while subtle is strongly portrayed in the movie are the ideas that a father should not sacrifice his family to his work and that a mother should attend to the home. Both of these ideas may have sexist connotation that would not be acceptable today, however, in much the same way as other older Disney movies these messages that could have been offensive were instead simply tailored to the time and seen as heartwarming rather than rude. Not only was this movie ironically Disney, but it was additionally an amalgamation of cinematic skills and techniques, this is due to the many departments that were set to work creating the seemingly impossible movie. On an interesting side note in looking into the ideas, I had about the source of Mary Poppin 's powers an interesting bit of evidence emerged that supported my idea that Mary Poppins is a witch. This takes place in the form of the addition of music. Many people believe that, at least in the Disney version, the reason for the songs is that they are the source of Mary's power. The songs function as a spell and just like traditional witches they evoke and channel power from another source.