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Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Practically Perfect In Every Way
Review: In "Mary Poppins," Julie Andrews floats out of the London skies and into the lives of Michael and Jane, two ornery children who desperately need adult attention. Dick Van Dyke co-stars as Bert, a cheery chimney sweep and good "magical" friend to Mary Poppins.
In Mary Poppins, Robert Stevenson directs a classic musical of creativity and imagination. This film, of both live action and animation, is guaranteed to keep a person of any age mystified through all 139 minutes of fun and music.
This film was the winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Actress (Julie Andrews), Best Song (Chim Chim Cher-ee), and Best Visual Effects.
I give this film five stars because it can be enjoyed by audiences of any age. It is also enjoyed as much today as it was on its original release date of 1964. In a nut shell, this Walt Disney Production is "practically perfect in every way!!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: First time viewing.
Review: As a child, I didn't like seeing movies with children. But as an adult with children, I've changed my heart. My kids love Mary Poppins, especially Burt the Chimbley Sweep. They run around the house singing "Step in Time" (or Stepetime as they sing it) and dancing. Beinging in England my kids start singing in the car everytime they see a chimney on a house. That's much better than seeing children pretending to kill. Mary Poppins is a wonderful story, and unlike many Disney movies...doesn't teach children that it's good to ignore Adult's advise. Mary is a strong Adult role model, not a weak gibbering idiot.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Parents Today Should Watch This...
Review: Most parents today would take a movie like this, pop it into the player, and let the kids immerse themselves in the enchanting adventure Mary Poppins brings with her, while they go and do what they need to do. But in reality, the parents are the ones that should watch it because underneath the world of carousel horses coming to life and tea parties on the ceiling and "Chim Chim Cheree" there is a very important lesson: you should never be too busy for your kids. Both parents, not just the father, were too invloved in their own things..whether it be Mr. Banks' postition at the bank or Mrs. Banks' crusade for women's rights. Mary, like the nannies before, was basically hired to do the parents' job. There are plenty of instances where the parents prove that they know nothing about their kids. I won't give away the ending, but the parent viewers would definitely be reminded that their kids grow up too fast and that there's no substitute for the love of a mother and father.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A spoon full of editing makes the movie move along
Review: We have ranked this at 23 out of 41 of the 41 animated movie Disney movies that we own. I will do my best to explain why it wasn't ranked higher. First is that we liked 22 other movies better. Secondly, if I could edit out about an hour of this movie, it might well end up in the top 10.

These assessments come from my children, who found that while they enjoyed much of the movie, sometimes the theatrical parts were to long and drawn out and just plain boring to children. Watching real people right poorly drawn merry go round horses for 5 minutes sends them out of the room every time. Watching the chimney sweeps dance for 5 minutes does the same. It also seemed like the songs they liked were to short and the songs they didn't like were to long.

We had a lot of fun by gathering the family together to rank the 41 Disney movies we have that include some cartoon work. All the kids, ages 6 to 27, participated along with mother and dad. Lion King was selected number 1 of the 41 as the family favorite, but narrowly. Peter Pan was 2. Pete's Dragon 3, Beauty & the beast 4, Sleeping Beauty 5, Snow White 6, Robin Hood 7, 101 Dalmatians 8, Fox and the hound 9, Cinderella is 10th, Rescuers 11, Hunchback of ND 12, Aladdin 13, Aladdin King of Thieves 14, Jungle Book 15, Little Mermaid 16, Hercules 17, Winnie the Pooh 18, Rescuers Down Under 19, Sword in the Stone 20, Pinocchio 21 and Mulan 22.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Disney's absolute stellar best
Review: This is, without a doubt, Disney's crowning acheivement in film. Even though there are many wonderful Disney films, this particular selection far surpasses most children's and many adult films I have ever seen. Julie Andrew's performance with a superbly chosen supporting cast could not be a more perfect accoutrement to P.L. Traver's book. In many cases, movies made from books are a disappointment; not in this case. I am a younger 'old-school' Disney fan, and like very few of the Disney movies made after the 60's and 70's because I grew up watching films like Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. Children and adults of all ages will marvel and awe at the remarkable story presented here, and find themselves singing the amazing, well-written songs for years to come.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Let's Go Fly A Kite
Review: One of the greatest movie songs ever. I bought this for my toddler but he's not shown any interest in it yet. I loved it when I was a kid and remember seeing it at the movie theater with my whole huge family and my mother crying at the end...I'm sure it was because she wished it was HER taking off with that umbrella!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: "You Are The Father Of Jane And Michael Banks, Are You Not?"
Review: I love the way she introduces herself and i love her confidence.She will not be dominated by anyone and in this magical story Mary Poppins is the greatest childrens character ever.
Dame Julie Andrews IS Mary Poppins, and i thinks its marvellous how Mary runs rings round the stubburn Mr Banks.
What i was surprised to hear was that when P.L.Travers (the author of the Mary Poppins Book) viewed Ms. Andrews performance she classed it "satisfactory." Don't you have eyes you stupid woman! Without Julie's outstanding performance, your character would be boring, nasty and ugly like she was in your books. Although i have to agree with her on Dick Van Dykes performance as she wanted to re cast the character of Bert as she thouht he was nothing like her Bert in her books, she's right.
But really, this movie is a CLASSIC and has hardly any faults. Though did you know that Glynis Johns (Mrs Banks) first thought Walt Disney was to cast her as Mary Poppins and when he told her that was already cast to THE Julie Andrews, she was angry and so only agreed to do the picture if she had a song as she felt Julie Andrews was taking all the songs in the picture, well theres only one thing to say to that and that is JULIE CAN SING, YOU CAN'T!!!!
The DVD has a wonderful little extra of the actual premiere of Mary Poppins which i found very interesting and also gives you a little featurette on the actual special effects. The picture is crisp and clear and the colour is vivid.
So Spit Spot! Buy this DVD to keep Mary Poppins looking "practically perfect in every way" forever!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic
Review: Mary Poppins (along with Snow White and the Swven Dwarves) stands out as the crowning achievements of the Walt Disney Studios. Mary Poppins is the definitive musical fantasy that others tried to imitate. Evet song is a classic from the Oscar winning "Chim Chim Cherrie" to the final tune "Lets go fly a kite". One of the best routine was the chimminy sweep dance number where you had breathtaking view of the London skyline. Both Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke were at their musical best. The part where they were riding on the carousel horses is a pure classic.

I am suprised this did not make AFI's top 100 movies list. This movie is the pinnacle of family entertainment that has entertained children for nearly three generations.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a class all by itself
Review: i saw this film when i was a kid now i have gotten the dvd version for my kids

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: My Kid Loves It
Review: This is more like a play, we don't need much settings. We have fewers characters and a simpler plot than The Sound of Music.
Having said that, this is still a marvelous movie. I like the chimney sweeper and one man band. I like the part of Mary Poppins or even Mr Bank and his woman-liberalizing wife and even the captain next door-- he reminds me of Captain Shotover of Bernard Shaw. Now that Harry Potter, The Worst Witch are so popular, winds are certainly blowing Mary Poppins' way too. I rank this right next to The Sound of Music.


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