DVD Review: Mary Poppins 45th Anniversary
Disney Film Stars Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, Ed Wynn
Feb 10, 2009
Want to turn a hard-bitten movie review into a giggling kid within 5 minutes? Drop a copy of Mary Poppins into the DVD player. The 1964 musical, which turned Broadway actress Julie Andrews into a movie star, still casts its spell nearly 50 years after it was made.
Now Disney has released a 2-disc 45th Anniversary Edition on DVD, which celebrates Uncle Walt's most perfectly realized live-action film. A blend of vaudeville comedy, animation and surprising special effects (not to mention that essential element, heart) makes Mary Poppins a must for any movie lover's collection.
Walt Disney's Mary Poppins Stars Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke
There's no need to restate the tale of a magical nanny who teaches an upper class family the important things in life. If you haven't seen the film, then you know what to do. If you have seen it, then rest assured that time hasn't been too cruel to this movie. Yes, the special effects look primitive to 21st Century eyes, but the "Jolly Holiday" sequence – which features Andrews and Van Dyke interacting with animated characters rendered by several of Disney's Nine Old Men – is alternately stunning and side-splittingly funny.
Julie Andrews, in her feature film debut, totally inhabits the title role so completely that it's not surprising that, until recently, no one has dared try for a remake. In fact, the one-two punch of this and 1965's The Sound of Music so indelibly marked Andrews' career that she spent many years trying to shake that image: dropping her top in 1981's S.O.B. and cross-dressing in Victor Victoria (both directed by her 2nd husband, Blake Edwards).
Dick Van Dyke's performance as Bert is marred by possibly the worst Cockney accent ever printed on film. However, he more than redeems himself with his physical comedy and fancy footwork, despite the fact that he wasn't a trained dancer. His tap-dancing with the penguins and the "Step in Time" sequences are both mind-blowing.
Extra Features
Befitting this film's iconic status, Disney packed a ton of features into 2 discs. Disc One features a great commentary with Andrews, Van Dyke, Karen Dotrice (who played Jane Banks) and the Sherman Brothers, who wrote the songs. Unlike many commentaries, the inevitable butt-kissing feels genuine: there's a lot of affection between the performers, and Dotrice is quick to thank Andrews for her vocal coaching. There's also a "pop-up facts" feature which is fine for the kiddies, but can get distracting after a while.
Disc 2 has several featurettes, including a 2004 documentary about the film hosted by Van Dyke. There's also a rather patronizing doc about the special effects used in the film, and several art galleries.
Much more fascinating is a couple of featurettes about the Mary Poppins musical that opened on Broadway, featuring interviews with the leads, the producers, and certain members of the crew. Songwriter Robert B. Sherman also weighs in, talking shop with the play's songwriters George Stiles and Anthony Drewe.
The bonus live-action plus animation short "The Cat Who Looked at a King" is definitely substandard for the Mouse House: the animation looks cheap and the scriptwriters all but belt the audience over the head telling you that Andrews (who stars in the short) was Mary Poppins. Andrews' use of certain Maryisms during the short (especially when stepping over the chalk paintings) is a nice touch, though.
The Final Analysis
Cynics and misanthropes will find a lot to criticize in Mary Poppins: the primitive special effects, its patronizing view of the Suffragette movement, the simplistic attitudes towards class and gender relationships, not to mention Van Dyke's wretched Cockney accent.
But those people need to remove the pickle from their posterior and just watch the fraggin' movie. It isn't perfect, but Mary Poppins has a lot of charm, and tons of heart, and that's why it's still considered a classic. The copious bonus features are merely the icing on a very tasty cake.
The Mary Poppins 45th Anniversary DVD gets a 9/10.
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