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Film 1047: Mary Poppins

Trivia: One of Julie Andrews' favorite songs was "Stay Awake". When she heard that there were plans to delete it, she wrote a letter of concern to P.L. Travers who instantly insisted that the song remain in the film.

The film makers didn't inform Karen Dotrice or Matthew Garber about some "surprises" that were going to show up in the movie. Karen's dumbfounded look when Mary Poppins takes out item after item from the carpet bag and her little scream when Mary Poppins gave them medicines of different colors were genuine. They also didn't tell the children who was acting as Mr. Dawes Sr., and were worried that the horrible old man was going to fall down and die at any moment.

Not only was "Feed the Birds" Walt Disney's favorite song in the film, but it is said that anytime he visited the Sherman brothers (Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman) during the rest of his life, all he would have to do was say, "Play it," and they knew he wanted to hear "Feed the Birds".

With five wins out of 13 nominations in total, this film marked Walt Disney's single most successful night at the Academy Awards. Never before or since, as of 2006, has a single Disney film won as many Oscars in one evening.

When Dick Van Dyke read the script, he'd already been cast in the role of Bert but found the part of the Mr. Dawes, Sr. so hysterical he lobbied Walt Disney for the role, even offering to play it for free. Disney not only made Van Dyke audition for the part, but forced the actor to make a substantial donation to CalArts, Disney's own pet-project film school.

The "Step in Time" sequence had to be filmed twice because of a scratch on the film from the first take. The entire sequence took a week to film.

The Disney studios' first DVD release.

P.L. Travers wanted the animated chalk-drawing sequence removed from the film, but Walt Disney refused.

Julie Andrews wore a wig in the movie.

"Feeding the birds" at Saint Paul's Cathedral, seen as a charitable act of kindness in the film, became forbidden by law in the 21st century, having resulted in excessive defecation from the expanding avian population.

Reportedly, P.L. Travers so detested this film adaptation of her novel (though she did approve of the casting of Julie Andrews), that she left the premiere in tears. Reportedly, she most objected to the altering of Mary Poppins' character from cold and intimidating in the novel to warm and cheery in the film. She also took issue with the film's perceived anti-feminist ending, in which Mrs. Banks gives up her campaigning for women's rights to stay at home as a housewife.

Walt Disney regarded Mary Poppins (1964) as one of the crowning achievements of his career.

This Disney film, as of 2006, holds the record of having the longest in-print status on video. The film was released on video in 1981, and has been re-released several times, managing to stay in video stores since then. Not once has the film been out of print on video.

The scene where Mr. Dawes, Sr. (Dick Van Dyke) has trouble negotiating the step in the bank's meeting room was not originally in the script. While viewing a make-up test for Dick Van Dyke in the projection room, Walt Disney saw Van Dyke entertaining crew members on the test film between between takes with some comic routines, among them the "stepping down" routine of an old man trying to step off a curb without hurting himself. The test film not only convinced Disney to cast Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Dawes, Sr., but Walt specifically requested that crew members "build a six-inch riser on the board room set so Dick can do that stepping-down routine".

In the beginning, George W. Banks sings "it's grand to be an Englishman in 1910, King Edward's on the throne..." King Edward VII died in May 1910 and his son, King George V, became king. So we shall assume the movie is set in the spring of 1910 just before King Edward died.

Over 100 glass and matte paintings were used to recreate the London skyline of 1910.

Although Dick Van Dyke considers this the best film he has appeared in, he nevertheless maintains to this day that he was somewhat miscast as Bert. He has suggested that either Jim Dale or Ron Moody would have played the part better.

The Sherman brothers originally planned to use the song 'Chim-Chim-Cheree' for all the music in the rooftop finale. But when special effects supervisor Peter Ellenshaw brought the English pub song 'Knees Up Mother Brown' to their attention, they decided to make their own variation, resulting in 'Step In Time'.

Voted number three in Channel 4's (UK) "Greatest Family Films".