Mary Poppins

• Mary Poppins never tries to replace Winifred, but nor does she ever call her out for her neglect of her children. Instead, Mary Poppins' sole aim is to restore the patriarchy.
• She shows Mr. Banks that in his eagerness to promote capitalism and country has overlooked his primary responsibility: his role as the head of his family.
• When George Banks takes up this role as a family man, he also gets his job back at the bank.
• This symbolizes a call from Disney to men to return to what really matters: "the warm fuzzies of family life, of flying kites, of filial affection, laughter, and merry-go-rounds, of national pride and the triumph of justice." (Cuomo 216)
• This message was perfectly timed to address the changing gender roles of both the early 1900's and the mid 60's.

class conflict!

family and patriarchy!

• The film just barely touches on the conflict of English Imperialism in the "Jolly Holiday"/"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" scene, they rescue an Irish fox, who is also Catholic, from red-coated English gentry.
• The film romanticizes the lower class characters and glosses over the negatives of poverty.
• Mary Poppins introduces the children to people they wouldn't normally be allowed to consort with: Bert, the Bird Woman, "race-horse persons," and the chimney sweeps.
• The Bank's servants seem content to spend their lives serving the family.
• Mary Poppins is always very lady-like, but it is her actions rather than her monetary status that make her one.

Works Cited

thefineartdiner.blogspot.com

• Bert takes has four low-class jobs in the movie: one-man-band, chalk artist, chimney sweep, and kite maker.
• In all of these jobs he is excessively happy: "Now as the ladder of life has been strung,you make think a sweep's on the bottom-most rung. Though I spend me time in the ashes and smoke, In this 'ole wide world there's no 'appier bloke."
• This is pretty typical of Disney's fantasies, which assert that family, rather than money, is the key to happiness.

• Though Mrs. Banks comes waltzing through the door singing "Sister Suffragettes," she resumes her passive manner when Mr. Banks comes home - "You know how the cause infuriates Mr. Banks."

• Mary Poppins herself exemplifies feminist ideals more than Mrs. Banks does.

• In the end, Mary Poppins' quiet feminism is far more effective than Mrs. Banks' (the latter symbolically uses her suffragette sash as a tale for her children's kite) - suggesting that it is more effective to point out social issues rather than to try to change them outright.

www.rankopedia.com

feminism!

a spoonful of sugar

The overall message of the film is simple: "Just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down."

• A little bit of fantasy goes a long way toward repairing reality and making it bearable.
• through fantasy, Mary Poppins introduces the children to the world around them.
• By using magic to disrupt and call attention to the societal issues of the time, she causes the adults to readjust accordingly and restore order and happiness.

Fantasy that addresses reality

The role of fantasy, like the role of Mary Poppins herself, is to upset the status quo without altering it directly: by calling attention to the issue, it is resolved.

IN THE FILM: Mary Poppins and fantasy address social issues of English society

AS A FILM: the fantasy of Mary Poppins addresses social issues of 1960's, which happen to still be relevant today

tardistopia.net

what makes this film significant?

reimaginingdisney.blogspot.com

ourownocean.wordpress.com

• It was considered the pinnacle of Walt Disney's career.
• It represented significant advancement in film-making technology.
• It eared thirteen Academy Award nominations, and won five: Best Actress, Film Editing, Original Score, Song (Chim-Chim-Cheree), and Special Visual Effects.

It has remained important (it holds the record for the longest in print status for video) because it makes an important statement about the role of fantasy in dealing with reality!

Mary Poppins

cluelessfarmer.wordpress.com

Production Info

blog.wdwinfo.com

• Released by Buena Vista, October 1964
• Director: Robert Stevenson
• Screenplay by Bill Walsh and Donald Da Gradi based on P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins books
• Songs by Richard and Robert Sherman
• Starring Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson, Glynis Johns, Ed Wynn, Karen Dotrice, Matthew Garber, Hermione Baddeley
• Budget of about 6 million
• Grossed 44 million worldwide in 1964, total gross about 115 million

brief summary: Despite appearances, the Banks household is running amok. Though Mr. Banks enters the house singing about his orderly life and the joys of being a king in his castle, his wife is an inattentive suffragette and his children have driven away six nannies in four months.

Enter Mary Poppins, the "practically perfect" nanny who saves the family with the help of her friend Bert and a little bit of magic.

taocurrents.org

Mary Poppins

Jordan Alexander October 7 2014