Mary Poppins – Musical Genius
It is in my opinion the musical responsible for making Julie Andrews a household name. The musical movie was made in 1964, was one of the greatest achievements in Walt Disney's career.
It was Walt first film that used real people with animated characters. At the time, this was pioneering hip stuff. To make the movie perfect Walt went all out. He did this by hiring leading songwriters such as the Sherman brothers, Robert and Richard.
The movie was nominated for 13 Oscars. It won 5 of those nominations, Best Musical Score, and Best Song, "Chim Chim Cher-ee" and Best Actress for Julie Andrews. There was more to Mary Poppins then the music and animation it was a story of two children longing for the love of their father. Mary Poppins helped the father to realize this; it wasn’t her the children needed but their father. As the movie goes on we see the fathers characters change from a man with no time for his children to a loving father who takes his children out and has fun with them!
This film has several musical highlights!. There is of the classic "Spoonful Of Sugar" which Mary Poppins sings to the children so that they take their medicine. Then there is the popular "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" which gets sung for the animated horse race scene that Poppins, the children and Bert the chimney sweep are in. Of course you can't forget about the Oscar winning tune "Chim Chim Cher-ee" which was sung during Poppins', Bert's and the children's night time walk along the top of the buildings in the city.
In this musical there isn’t one bad song. For the finale you have "Fly A Kite" where the father and children start doing something together as a family.
