**SPOILER ALERT**
Mary Poppins (the book) is in SIMILAR to Mary Poppins (the movie) and also SIMILAR to Mary Poppins (the Musical) which is also more like Mary Poppins (the movie) than Mary Poppins (the movie) is SIMILAR to Mary Poppins (the book)…understand? I’ll try to explain….
I LOVE Mary Poppins…there, I’ve said it. Well, actually, I LOVE Mary Poppins as portrayed by Julie Andrews. I love THAT Mary Poppins more than I like the character in P.L. Travers’ book of the same name. Julie Andrews portrayal of the practically perfect in every way nanny is filled with humanity and wit, but I did not get the same “warm fuzzies” from the book as I did the movie.
One major reason is that the movie has been so “Disney-fied” that is bares little resemblance to the actual book penned by Travers, which makes the first that she had with Walt Disney much more understandable.
Walt Disney first attempted to purchase the film rights to Mary Poppins from P.L. Travers as early as 1938, but was denied because Travers did not believe a film version of her books would do justice to her creation and did not want an animated cartoon based on it. Disney finally succeeded in 1961, although Travers demanded and got script approval rights.
Once you get past the movie, the musical, and all the preconceived notions of who Mary Poppins is, you can truly enjoy the book. Filled with amazing characters and situations, you get a sense for how a creative like Walt Disney could have a field day with this material.
I found Mary to be a little more gruff than I expected. Mr. and Mrs. Banks do not seem as overwhelmed with child rearing, as much as just disinterested. They come in and out of their children’s days with regularity, but no mention of truly having a great affect on them. Mary flies in at the beginning of the book, she and the children have some amazing adventures and she leaves. There is no “let’s go fly a kite,” family realization of how important each other are, let’s all smile and hug moment, but then again, there are still SEVERAL Mary Poppins books I still need to read.
Too truly get a real sense of Mary Poppins and fall in love with the original character that Walt Disney brought to life, I wold suggest this book, but be warned, it’s not the movie or the musical…it’s something different, and in some ways…better!
