get it right!”. Perhaps she would be ap- palled to see so many inaccuracies in this biopic. After the screening of the film, Travers is
reported to have approached Disney and exclaimed how the animation sequences (the now much-loved penguins, farmyard and horse race scenes) be omitted. His reply was simply, “Pamela, that ship has sailed”.
Te Award When the film released on 27th August
steps. Tis doesn’t prevent the keenest fans from popping into the local Marks & Spencer and emerging with a baguette to tear up and scatter on the ground.
Te Fim If you re-watch the film, you will see the opening credits say “Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins”. Tat is a very important credit, and something that helps explain why Travers disliked the film. Reading the books and comparing the film, you can see that Mary is different. She is not the character that Ms Travers wrote, and for the rest of her life she would have to ex- plain this important point. In the books, Mary Poppins is vain, direct and even rude. We don’t see this in the Julie Andrews interpretation. Te film Saving Mr Banks, released in
2013 and starring Emma Tompson as Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, is a look into how Disney convinced Travers to sign over the film rights and help write the screenplay. Viewers should enjoy this film, but note that it leaves out many in- teresting and important facts about their collaboration process. However, one poignant moment is the ending credits, when there is an old audio playing of a conversation between Travers and the other writers. Tis is real. She insisted that all of their meetings be recorded, “so they
1964, it was in the running for many awards including Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture for Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by a lead Actor in Musical or Comedy (for Dick Van Dyke) and Best Original Score. Julie Andrews won Best Performance by a lead Actress in Musical or Comedy. At the Academy Awards in April 1965, the rival film was My Fair Lady, a role that Andrews played on Broadway but was passed over for Audrey Hepburn by Jack Warner. Andrews won Best Actress and accepted the Oscar award with a lovely comment, “I’d like to thank the man who made this possible, Jack Warner”. In total the film was nomi- nated for 13 awards and won Best Actress, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song for Chim-Chim-Cher-ee. It also received Best Recording for
Children and Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television show from the Grammy Awards in April 1965.
Te Music Te brother team of Richard and Robert
Sherman are the powerhouse behind Mary Poppins music. Teir talents have given us memorable songs like It’s a Small World, Te Jungle Book’s I Wanna be Like You and the entire soundtrack to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Tey drew inspiration from their own lives. Robert’s son received an oral vaccination at school one day and de- scribed how the school nurse disguised the
18 FOCUS The Magazine November/December 2018
taste by dropping the medicine on a cube of sugar. Richard had a tune in his head that he couldn’t shake for weeks, a rabble- rouser that ended up becoming Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. One of the songs that was deleted was entitled “Trough the eyes of love”, a romantic bal- lad that was meant to be Mary’s signature song. Julie Andrews felt that there should be more pizzazz, so Spoonful of Sugar was the replacement. One of the most memorable, and in
2018 one of the most recited, songs from the film is Sister Suffragette. It is the key song for Mrs Banks, a character who was not meant to have more than a few lines in the film. When Glynis Johns received a call from her agent saying, “Disney wants to see you about Mary Poppins”, there was some confusion. She thought she was going in for the role of Mary Poppins, but Disney had her in mind for the mother. Distraught, Johns then said: “Well, it’s a musical, isn’t it?” When Mr Disney replied, “Yes” and she asked, “Well, do I get a song?” Disney replied that she would, so Johns left the office happy and accepted the role. Disney then ran down the hall and exclaimed, “You’ve gotta write a song for Mrs Banks!” Te Sherman Brothers were perplexed as they hadn’t planned to do this, so they did some research. With the film being set in 1910, and with the idea that Mrs. Bank’s had to have “some- thing to do”, they made her a Suffragette. Her song about fighting for women’s right to vote is arguably one of the most power- ful songs in the film.
Te Sequl After the success of Mary Poppins, there
was talk of a sequel but due to Travers’ dis- like of the first film, the project never hap- pened. In 2015, a sequel was reported to be in the works. Emily Blunt was cast as
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