In a comedy atmosphere, the movie follows a nanny called Mary Poppins who has just received her new job in a sad house among an unhappy family. Mary has magical powers, she utilized this power to make the children happy and make them be closer to their father.
Julie Andrews' first appearance on the screen is a signal triumph and she performs as easily as she sings, displaying a fresh type of beauty nicely adaptable to the color cameras.
Van Dyke and Andrews have great chemistry together, but it's really her interaction with the children and the magic of the story and the visual effects that charm audiences.
One of the great movie musicals and of that rare breed of deathless family entertainment that's guaranteed to transfix children, well beyond this, its fiftieth anniversary. [Blu-ray]
Compared to even 'sophisticated' juvenile fodder, the sheer exuberance of Disney's adaptation of PL Travers' children's classic should tickle the most jaded fancy.
Van Dyke's energy is prodigious (especially when he leaps around with a gang of sooty chimney-sweeps on the London rooftops) and the songs are classics.
The sets are luxuriant, the songs lilting, the scenario witty but impeccably sentimental, and the supporting cast only a pinfeather short of perfection.
