"People who get their feet wet, must take their medicine"

I first purchased Mary Poppins when my son was an infant. At that time, I thought it was important to have a nice children's video library and book library-Ok, Ok, he was my first and I wanted everything to be perfect.

Well, 8 years later, we still watch Mary Poppins on a regular basis. Both children love the music and the scenes that go from video to cartoon. Truly, this movie was ahead of it's time in cinematography.

I believe the movie is set in the early 1900's. One of the historical factors is that the mother is an active participant in the "Women's Sufferage Movement which I believe was in the 1920's-the woman's right to vote. (hope Mr Elmore is not reading this-my high school History teacher-lol).

The beginning: The parents are advertising for a nanny. The last nanny has left suddenly, we find out that the children are tyrants-due to lack of attention from the parents-I suspect. Through the use of magic, Mary Poppins instantly becomes the only candidate, and instead of the Banks hiring her-She hires them. Interesting twist of a woman's role at this time.

The magic begins when Mary begins unpacking her things in her room. Mary sets her carpetbag on a table and proceeds to unpack from it a plant, a standing lamp, and an assortment of other items that in no way could have fit into the bag. There are no tell tale string marks or slipping of the film as if that scene had been dubbed in. It looks very genuine.

Mary meets the children at this time. She pulls from her magic bag a measuring tape and uses this to measure the children with. Instead of number measurements, it instead gives off personality measurements. Mischievous and laziness, etc. while Mary is 'Practically Perfect in every way". I would hate to have to live up to that standard even now as an adult.

When Mary begins her duties, the presence of the parents are hardly evident. The story continues with the wonderful adventures that the nanny and the children have on a day to day basis.

It is at this point, that the presence of the parents becomes minimal. It is obvious that the parents are not active in the children's lives which reflects on the children's behaviour problems.

Mr. Banks is VP of a bank. He is stingy with his money in the respect that he does not believe in buying anything frivolous and instead chooses to invest or save his money.

This coincides with his love for his children. Although he loves his children, he appears to save his affection towards them, or be stingy with his affections.

Mrs Banks is so involved with the Women's Sufferage Movement that she is hardly aware of the children. She does give them the dutiful peck on the cheek but she seems quite content to allow someone else to instill morals and ethics on her children.

At the end, we realize that Mary's role is not to 'raise the children' but to 'raise the parents'. To enlighten them and teach them to not be stingy with their affections towards the children and each other.

Mr and Mrs Banks begin to act like parents and take more of an interest in their children. When this begins to happen, Mary tells the children 'good-bye'. This is a sad scene because the children really want Mary to stay-but she is off to help some other family.

The Cinematography

The children are walking to the park with Mary. They run into Dick Van Dyke's character-a chimney sweep. At this time, he is a chalk artist. He is drawing chalk scenes on the sidewalk. By holding hands and wishing, all particapants are taken from a video scene to a cartoon scene. The participants are still in video but everything else is a cartoon. Both video and cartoon fit perfectly together and there is no way to tell the split.

I just think this is amazing and places the movie way before it's time in special features.

This is a really good story, appropriate for the whole family, non violent-yet still magical and will really hold your attention.

It is also, I think, one of Dick Van Dyke's first major film roles.