Mary Poppins [DVD] [1964]

Inventive and enthused with quality all thru it, Mary Poppins holds up well over forty years since its release. The story is based on the Mary Poppins books written by Pamela Travers, and what a crackerjack story this adaptation turns out to be.Mother & Father Banks advertise for a nanny to tend their rowdy children. The children, after being less than impressed with previous holders of the post, decide to write their own advertisement. But Father Banks tears it up and puts it on the fire place ready for burning. The torn paper mysteriously floats up the chimney and finds its way to Mary Poppins who glides down from the sky with her umbrella to fill the vacancy. It's evident from this point that Mary is no ordinary nanny, and all she comes into contact with will have their lives changed for ever.Mary takes the children on a series of delightful journeys that take in meeting an array of interesting people and animals, and it's thru these wonderful escapades that we the audience live vicariously thru. The film has all the hallmarks of a Disney classic, wonderful songs from Richard & Robert Sherman, animation fusing delightfully with live action, colour to dazzle the eyes, and of course a charming and career making performance from Julie Andrews. Much has been made of Dick van Dyke's woeful cockney accent, and in truth it's almost cringe inducing, but his performance is so brim full of gusto and effervescent fun, we should surely let it go in the name of splendid entertainment values.The restoration job done on the 40th anniversary DVD does the film proud, and it's hopefully opened up the film to be seen more by the modern day audience, because Mary Poppins is an ode to joy, an ode to good behaviour, and basically an ode to being practically perfect--just like Mary herself actually.Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious 9/10

Great classic movie on DVD

It's one of the best Julie Andrews performances, with talented supporting cast of famous faces (esp Glynis Johns and Ed Wynn). It is not as dark as the books and difference on the stage but I've seen it more times than I can count.

My grandchildren love this.

I bought this version after reading the reviews on all the other versions and deciding there was probably not much in it, but at least this was a later version and at a good price. We haven't watched disc 2 yet so can't comment on that, but the movie quality is as good as we expected. I won't comment on the plot as this is either a story you know or not. If you don't know it there are plenty of other people who comment on how lovely/innocent it is, or alternatively how unrealistic/naive it is. That's just personal taste - but I don't get the people who criticise it for being unrealistic - it's meant to be. Anyway, the only thing about the disc is that volume is a little low. We had to put our TV up to 12 to get anything decent in terms of volume - but that's hardly a problem is it?

Happy with purchase

Brilliant film. My daughter absolutely loved it. She is Frozen obsessed so we are trying to introduce her to other things. Mary Poppins was a great start. She tells everyone about it!

And it is still brilliant now. It is so upbeat, yet with so many important lessons. Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke will always be the legendary 2 actors who made the leads in this movie, and David Tomlinson shines as well. A much loved movie to be enjoyed always, along with the extras, which are really something special