Mary Poppins has always been special for me. I've loved the film and known the songs for as long as I can remember. But back in 1979, I played Jane Banks in the World Stage Premiere of Mary Poppins, which was directed by David Pugh (now a big name in theatre), who also played Bert. I also got to meet Karen Dotrice (the film's Jane Banks) and still look back fondly on those times. (I'll include some photos.)
My kids love the film too, so when the 40th anniversary 2-disc DVD came out, I knew it was one to buy. It is full of extras, so this will definitely be a review of the DVD. I will add a brief outline of the plot for anyone who's unfamiliar with it, but the emphasis will be on the extras. Feel free to skip over anything you're not interested in and read the bits you are. I hope the information below will give you enough information to decide whether this version of the film is worth your money.
WHICH DVD?
There are two different DVDs of Mary Poppins. One (released in 2002) has Julie Andrews on the front, is one disc, has four special features and is available for around £8. The other one has a silhouette of Mary Poppins on the front, was released in March 2005, has two discs, eight special features and costs around £15. It is this second version I am reviewing here.
THE FILM
The basic idea is adapted from the series of books written by P. L. Travers. This film is set in London, where the Banks family live. Mr. Banks (David Tomlinson) works in a bank (!), while his wife (played by Glynis Johns) is active in the Suffragette movement. They have two children - Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber) - who go through several nannies, until the arrival of the magical Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews).
Suddenly, life becomes exciting for the children! They meet the charming Bert (Dick Van Dyke) and are taken on lots of exciting adventures which involve animated lands, tea parties on the ceiling and dancing on the rooftops at night. But Mary also hopes to achieve something more substantial - a shift in the core of the Banks family, which would please the children even more in the long term…
DISC ONE
Disc one has the running time of 134 minutes.
This is where you find the film, but there are extras on here too - Music and More (Disney's Song Selection) and Backstage Disney (Audio Commentary and Pop-Up Fun Facts).
Disney's Song Selection is where you can play eight individual songs and choose whether to have the lyrics on the screen. This is fun for karaoke and my kids love this feature, singing along at the top of their voices. Parents might not be so keen on this though. Certainly, after hearing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ten times in a row, I could happily have strangled Julie Andrews ;-)
The Pop-Up Fun Facts are what you might recognise as Production Notes. Snippets of information pop up in yellow writing inside bright purple-pink boxes at the bottom of the screen. These are obviously designed as child-friendly - brightly coloured, an easy to read font (Comic Sans MS), understandable language and on screen long enough for my nine-year-old to read. But I doubt many kids will stick with them for long. My daughter managed four facts, before she dismissed them as boring and turned them off!
So are these for the adult fans? Well, maybe so, but I found the colour combination rather headache-inducing and although there are some fascinating facts included, there are also plenty I already knew or just had no interest in. So I doubt this feature will be used very often in our household.
The audio commentary is something my children have absolutely no interest in whatsoever, but is one I was delighted to discover. I love the commentaries on DVDs, as I enjoy listening to members of the cast and crew reminiscing about a particular film or TV programme. So I was really looking forward to hearing this one.
The commentary is newly recorded and features three of the cast - Julie Andrews, Karen Dotrice and Dick Van Dyke plus Robert and Richard Sherman who wrote the songs. Unfortunately, the five of them are not together at the same time, which is a shame. Julie and Dick recorded their commentary together, with Karen alongside Richard Sherman.
Robert Sherman adds comments from a studio in London, so his views can seem a bit disjointed. There are also some snippets from some of the others involved with the film, including Walt Disney himself (who died in 1966) and the conductor and music supervisor Irwin Kostal (who died in 1994) which were recorded years ago. All of this gives the commentary a rather confusing, mixed up feeling, but this is only a minor annoyance.
Julie Andrews leads most of the discussion and comes across as lovely, eloquent, beautifully-spoken and has obviously warm feelings for the film. The chemistry between her and Dick Van Dyke is evident and they both seem to genuinely enjoy remembering their time working together. It is also great to discover how the special effects were done and how certain shots were filmed.
Karen Dotrice's commentary adds a different dimension to those of Julie and Dick's, as she was only eight years old at the time of filming and saw things in a different way to her adult co-stars. She also provides some lovely anecdotes and a fascinating insight into the personality of Matthew Garber, who played Michael. He was only twenty-one when he died (of pancreatitis, according to IMDB).
DISC TWO
Disc two has the running time of 162 minutes.
This disc is full of extras. There's a Musical Reunion, the deleted song 'Chimpanzoo', The Making of Mary Poppins documentary, the 'I Love To Laugh' game and an animated Bonus Short.
The deleted song is worth watching at least once. Chimpanzoo only lasts around one-and-a-half minutes and is good fun. The piano and vocals are accompanied by story boards, sketches and paintings, so you get an idea of how it would have been used if it had made the final cut of the film. My daughter watched it once and seemed to enjoy it, but I don't think it'll be a huge favourite.
A Magical Musical Reunion with Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke and Richard Sherman lasts over seventeen minutes. This is the three of them talking and discussing the film, with Richard playing on the piano from time to time. It is interesting to hear Richard explaining how some of the songs came about and the three of them are very interesting and engaging people. There are also some lovely stills in this feature.
A Musical Journey with Richard Sherman lasts over twenty minutes. This is a quick run through of the way the songs developed for Mary Poppins (and for later films). Richard is a good presenter and his love for both his work in general and this film in particular shines through, as you are carried away on his wave of enthusiasm.
There is quite a large amount of new things in this extra. You get to hear some of the songs written for the film, but not used for various reasons. You get to see how several songs were staged, to watch some deleted clips and to hear how the soundtrack for Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious was created. So it's well worth watching!
The 'I Love To Laugh' Set Top Game is one my daughter played a couple of times, but wasn't overly enthusiastic about it. The idea is that Uncle Albert needs to be brought back down to the floor by you answering questions correctly. A nice enough idea, but not overly inspiring and I think there should have been more games on here for the little ones.
Backstage Disney contains many extras - The Making of Mary Poppins documentary (which lasts over fifty minutes), Movie Magic (seven minutes), Deconstruction of A Scene - Jolly Holiday (thirteen minutes) and Step In Time (nearly five minutes), Dick Van Dyke's Make-Up Test, The Gala World Premiere (The Red Carpet - seventeen minutes and The Party - six minutes), Publicity and Mary Poppins Still Art Galleries.
Some of these are self-explanatory and I don't want this review to go on forever, but most deserve some kind of comment. The Still Art Galleries, for example, are much more than just a few photos thrown together. They cover eleven different areas - visual development, story development, Peter Ellenshaw paintings, recording sessions, Walt and friends, costumes and make-up, behind-the-scenes, cast photos, the Premiere, publicity and memorabilia.
Although initially confusing to navigate, they are worth the effort. I especially enjoyed seeing the publicity stills in the Cast Photos section, but my favourites are the beautiful paintings by Peter Ellenshaw which were used for the London backdrops in the film and are stunning pieces of artwork in their own right.
The publicity section features the original theatrical trailer, the teaser trailer and Julie Andrews' Premiere Greeting. I enjoy these sorts of extras as they give a taste of what it would have been like in 1964, when the film first came out. Being born in 1969, the film has always been there, so I love this type of historical footage which really sets the scene. There are also two different TV Spot trailers and three re-issue trailers in this section!
Another fascinating extra is the footage shot at the film premiere in August 1964. This has been recovered and re-edited and is great to watch, especially for the glamour of these occasions at the time. Stars of Mary Poppins and other Hollywood names of the time are interviewed by both TV and radio, providing some amazing moments which are a pleasure to watch. It was great to see Cesar Romero too, who would become The Joker in Batman from 1966 and one of the TV characters I was most afraid of!
The scene deconstructions show the processes involved in getting the finished product on screen in the form we recognise. So we have footage of the final scene interspersed with behind-the-scenes film of the dancing and rehearsals, as well as showing some of the scenes before and after the backdrops and other effects were added. This is all shown in one continuous piece without commentary or interviews. They are interesting and worth watching, but personally, I prefer hearing people's opinions on things while watching them.
Things are explained better in the Movie Magic extra, but unfortunately it is narrated by an annoying kid with an irritating accent, which makes me want to scream! Still, if you can get over that, there are things to be learned here. This seems to be directed towards older children who are interested in how the special effects were achieved, but how small is the target audience going to be for something which described audio animatronics as "way cool"? Eek!
The Bonus Short lasts nine-and-a-half minutes and is introduced by Julie Andrews. It is called The Cat That Looked At A King and - like Mary Poppins itself - it deftly combines real-life action with well-made animation that will appeal to most people. After all, who doesn't find a foolish king, a beautiful princess and a talking cat appealing? It remains to be seen whether this will be something my daughter watches over and over though. I think she would prefer to watch the film or just play the songs and sing along.
The Making of Mary Poppins documentary is my favourite of all the extras. At over fifty minutes, you really get to find out a lot about the film, the cast and crew. It includes interviews with Glynis Johns (Mrs. Banks) and Karen Dotrice (Jane Banks).
The documentary explains how the film developed from the books by P. L. Travers. The author wanted to be involved with the film version and had to approve pretty much everything, before it was allowed in the movie. She comes across as rather an old battleaxe, Walt Disney (who seems to have received plenty of criticism since his death) is described as a hard worker and a warm, loving man. Karen Dotrice's memories of him are especially sweet. Her reminiscences of child co-star Matthew Garber are also very poignant.
MY OPINION BY KAREN AGED 35
We all know the film is wonderful, but we expect more than that from a DVD and with this two-disc Special Edition, we have pretty much all we could wish for. There is something for everyone here and all fields of the film are covered, so whichever aspect you are interested in, there will be something for you. Overall, this puts many other DVD releases to shame, with its plethora of extras and special features, which make it a real bargain at £14.99.
As for the film itself, forty years on, it still retains its appeal, charm and magic. Not only do I love it, but so do my daughters (aged 9, 12 and 14), my mother, mother-in-law and grandmothers. It is a real family film for all ages and therein maybe lies its secret. We share things we love with our family, so each generation discovers it for themselves.
MY OPINION BY VIKI AGED 9
Some bits were funny and the end bit was sad, because Mary Poppins had to go away. I like the front cover of the DVD and the songs. My favourites are Step In Time, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Let's Go Fly A Kite. My favourite bits of the film are where they jump into the picture and where all the nannies were outside the door, but they all flew away because of the wind - except for one, which was Mary Poppins!
Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney's pioneering mixture of live action an...
Poppins, and that term was coined by the movie itself: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! Even at 2 hours and 20 minutes, Disney's pioneering mixture of live action an...
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