Mary Poppins Book/Movie Review

Rating...3.5

When it comes to children's literature, I have to remember that story lines and characters won't be as fleshed as YA or other adult novels.  With that in mind, Mary Poppins was a bit different than what I expected.

The book is a bunch of daily encounters with Mary, Michael and John.  There are younger twins, but they are excluded from the film.  As a child, I think the adventures and stories Mary tells the Banks' children are fun and exciting.  Being an adult, however, they are weird.  I wish I could snap my fingers and get all my chores done, but that isn't going to happen.  I also didn't like that the parents have pretty much nothing to do with their children.   As stated, I had a hard time figuring out Miss Poppins. She is an older woman who is very, very stern and honestly, doesn't seem the least bit likeable.  At least with the film, Julie Andrews would smile which gave the appearance that she did care for the children and was a loving woman despite her discipline.  Frankly I still can't figure out why kids love Mary aside from the strange, crazy adventures.

That being said, Michael and Jane have some incredible moments!  One of my favorite parts (and it is really quite small) is reading about all the things coming out of Mary's empty bag.  Seeing it on the screen really made me wish I had my own magic back.  Talk about making travel easy!  I have a strong feeling my children will love this book when they are a bit older.

I loved this movie as a child and wanted to be Mary Poppins riding her carousel horse while singing and dancing.  Walt Disney and his crew also took a very short snippet about the bird lady and turned it into a very tender scene.  I think he and his writers picked some very good moments from the book, which I am sure was very difficult to do considering there were so many adventures to choose.

Now as much as I did enjoy the film, it doesn't have much substance and lessons learned are pretty much meaningless.  That's why I have to enjoy it for what it is through a  child's eye and not as a logical, responsible adult.  it's a strange relationship I have with this book/film.