Mary Poppins, the character herself, is very charming and wonderfully entertaining. She may seem typically nice or just too perfect in goodness, but her wonderful, magical, and magnificent talents along with her enjoyable personality, and along with Julie Andrews' terrific performance, Poppins is simply a great character from beginning to end. She's wise, witty, quick, magical, and charming as any human can be, you simply just either want to have a conversation or spend a day with her she is just that enjoyable to watch. Bert is also very likeable and almost has that same amount of charm that Poppins does. His kindness and charm is enough that it does not get annoying to the point that makes you groan or deem the character or the film itself silly by standards. And all of this is thanks to Dick Van Dyke's performance, because he does have that right amount of charm and charisma to play the role. The children sadly for me are pretty dull. If you know me it is very hard to please me with kid characters, and while there are a handful that are very good, a lot of the times for most films I've seen they are dull because they are either played too obnoxiously cute or too obnoxiously adult for their age and these two are no exception. But what is surprising is that acting too cute or too adult is not the problem with these two, it is just the fact they are too boring. There is nothing that intrigues me about them, both the performances and the characters are as dry as wheat bread. But to be fair they are children, and too they are playing children, the characters are in no way disgustingly mean-spirited, cruel, and unlikeable and they are not a bad example for children either, they are just not very interesting for my taste, and for me that is a crime if these two are suppose to be the focus or everyday kids who are suppose to be the blank slate that observes everything around them and what is going on. But back to the really good stuff, Mr. Banks is a great character who if you would just look at him you would be intimidated by his strictness and just his gruff facial expressions. But not only is the appearance is what the makes the character so good, but is that he is not really played up as a villain but just somebody who needed to be pushed the right direction and can in the end have a change of heart no matter how strict and misunderstanding he can be and David Tomlinson plays both the strict and vulnerable side of this character perfectly.
The songs, you know them, are very catchy and very fun to listen to. Chim Chim Cher-ee, A Spoonful of Sugar, Let's Fly a Kite, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, and many others are very memorable and just by thinking of their names you immediately play the song in your head. My favorite of course is Supercalifragilisticexpialidocius, because it is very energetic, fun, funny, fast while at the same time easy to catch up with, and mostly because it is a nonsensical yet genius of a song. The songs are are one of the reasons this film is as popular as many of Disney's animated films which are musicals because the songs are just as memorable and has the same amount of charm and fun as many other songs from the Disney animated films, which is no wonder because Sherman Brothers, the composers for the music of this film, also did The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The Sherman Brothers are considered to be songwriting geniuses and this film proves it. The music makes a simple plot about a nanny changing a set of children's lives an enjoyable, entertaining, and fun experience.
The story of Mary Poppins is again simple, yet very enjoyable because it has so much more to offer that what makes the film special. The great and memorable characters and songs is what makes the film very active and enjoyable to make on watch it over and over again, and to its advantage it seemed to had work over the years ever since it was released. Many people saw it and many people seem to really enjoy it, and I can say that I am definitely part of that crowd. The children characters aside, the wonderful and colorful characters and music totally overshadow them and yes as much as the film does need to have the two for a reasonable purpose, they are not forced and not enough to entirely kill this film. The film is enjoyable nonetheless and it will always be a timeless classic that is sure to have millions of other viewings by millions of other audiences in every generation. If Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious had a clear definition, it would definitely be this film!
GRADE: P+
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