"Becoming Mary Poppins"

The first film I ever saw was MARY POPPINS, and it remains my favorite live-action Disney film.

I also loved the books by P.L. Travers, though the "book Mary" was quite different from the "movie Mary" I'd met first. I've always felt that somehow the film caught the essence of Travers' books, even with pretty Julie Andrews in the place of the cranky Mary of the books.

The New Yorker has published a lengthy article on Travers and the film, subtitled "P. L. Travers, Walt Disney, and the Making of a Myth." The article is unfortunately rather dismissive of the film and Walt Disney -- when reading the article I couldn't help but think there are two sides to every story -- but it contains a number of interesting tidbits and is worth a read.

I highly recommend last year's 40th anniversary DVD, which is filled with extras (I haven't had time yet to watch them all!), as well as the Special Edition of the soundtrack.