Mary Poppins (1964)
Director: Robert Stevenson
Writers: Bill Walsh (screenplay), Don DaGradi (screenplay) (as Don Da Gradi)
Stars: Julie Andrews, Dick Van Dyke, David Tomlinson
Who doesn’t love Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964)? But how does she fly? Is it because of her always being in good spirits or the duck umbrella which has magical powers like her bag of wonders? Zack Seemayer writes on the Disney classic, “She’s a magical demi-god who can bend reality to her whim. It feels like a person who can turn clouds of smoke into solid steps to travel around the rooftops of London and can fly with an umbrella might be able to make herself look perpetually young.” (Seemayer) I agree with Stevenson: Mary Poppins is a magical being and when people interact with her, strange things start to happen. For instance, when Mr. Dawes, Sr. (Dick Van Dyke, Navckid Keyd) sings, “I Love to Laugh,” he begins to float from laughing and singing. According to Seemayer, “only people who have encountered Mary Poppins float when they laugh. This has clearly been a recurring problem for Uncle Albert (Dick Van Dyke) since they met in the past. Bert says, “Last time it took us three days to get him down.” (Seemayer) The freedom of magical flight comes in many forms and does not have to stick to the rules of physics. It lets people explore ideas of the imagination, and use many mechanisms, such as laughing to float or fly.