Toon Talk: Mary Poppins DVD
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Van Dyke, the only American in the main cast, was then at the height of his TV sitcom popularity and had just starred in the big screen adaptation of his Broadway hit Bye-Bye Birdie; his character, Bert, was a minor one in the original Travers’ books, but was re-imagined for the film as a composite of several of the books’ characters, thus his Jack-of-all-trades status. Young Dotrice and her onscreen brother, Matthew Garber, had already co-starred in another Disney film, The Three Lives of Thomasina, and would go on to another one with The Gnome-Mobile. Sadly, Garber died at a young age, with only these three films to his credit; a touching tribute to him is offered here.

Rounding out the cast was Johns as the mother (the song “Sister Suffragette�? was quickly written by the Shermans to help entice her to commit), David Tomlinson as the father (he would go on to further fame in Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Love Bug) and Disney fave Ed Wynn (who voiced the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, among other roles for the studio) as the boisterously buoyant Uncle Albert.

Moving on to the actual making of the film, the featurette focuses on director Robert Stevenson, who had already directed such hits for the studio as Old Yeller, Darby O’Gill and the Little People and The Absent-Minded Professor. Post-Poppins, he helmed such other favorites as That Darn Cat!, Blackbeard’s Ghost, The Love Bug and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, a run that made him one of the most profitable directors of all time. Also making invaluable contributions to the film were story artist Don DaGradi, screenwriter/co-producer Bill Walsh, orchestrator/conductor Irwin Kostal and choreographers Marc Breaux and Dee Dee Wood (seen here in early test footage of “Jolly Holiday�?). But through it all, Walt was always hands on (unlike other film productions at the time, as his interest had drifted toward television and Disneyland at that time); it was he who came up with the idea of casting a quartet of penguins as the waiters. And in addition to its innovations with combining animation with live action, Poppins was the first film to use audio-animatronics, specifically with the robins during “A Spoonful of Sugar�? (one of the robins ended up in the Carousel of Progress at the 1964 Worlds Fair).

(c) Disney

Upon opening in 1964, the film went on to become the biggest hit in Disney’s history up to that time. But it wasn’t just audiences who loved it, the critics lined up to heap praises on the film as well; at the Golden Globe ceremony the following year, Andrews beat out Hepburn for Best Actress; seen here is her wonderfully witty acceptance speech, where she gets away with a nice (if risky) dig at Jack Warner. Poppins would go on to win a record 13 Academy Award nominations (see sidebar), including a first for the studio: Best Picture. It ended up winning five awards, but not the big one, which went to My Fair Lady (a fact that I’ve never forgiven that perpetually overrated movie for); Andrews did win Best Actress here as well (Hepburn wasn’t even nominated, which caused another scandal), but her acceptance speech at the Oscars (where she famously quipped “I know you Americans are famous for your hospitality, but this is really ridiculous�?) is unfortunately not included here. (Subsequent film historians have often referred to her Oscar win as a ‘consolation prize’ for not getting the My Fair Lady film, which is preposterous. All one has to do is watch Andrews’ slyly subtle turn here to see why she won … its easy to see that, in this film, its Mary Poppins’ world and all the other characters merely live in it, and that’s all Andrews’ doing; the role could have very easily crossed the line into brusque haughtiness, but Andrews keeps that all firmly in check, spit spot!)

The featurette ends on a bittersweet note that harkens back to the Shermans’ oft-repeated story of how much Walt loved the song “Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)�?, a post-script to that tale that will leave tears in your eyes.