"Jolly Holiday" and the dancing during "Chim Chim Cheree" are the highlights. The chalk painting is stunning; blue skies rippling like cascades, green fields smudged in the background; dancing animals flatly interacting with the stars. The penguin sequence especially delights in physical humor, the animators enjoying dancing with Van Dyke. The scorn for Van Dyke's accent aside, his physical performance in this is magnificent. His facial expressions, his dancing, his walk, it's all neatly comedically timed, shifting easily into sympathy and compassion (and his elderly doppelganger has some great moments, too). The filmmakers also indulged repeatedly in flight and floating, delighting in human beings adrift, swirling through the air, flitting about. Every bit of whimsy they could find was stuffed…

All I can say is, that Mary Poppins sure has a nerve being hurt that the kids run off with their dad without saying goodbye to her, after she just spent half an hour packing while shrugging off their pleas for her to stay: "Yeah, I know you don't want me to go. So sad for you. Ciao."

Okay, that isn't all I can say. I hadn't watched this one since childhood, but after Saving Mr. Banks hit me with a sucker punch in the emotions, I had to revisit it. It's a different experience as an adult: I can see the blatant flaws in the special effects, and the 40-minute fantasy sequence (among others) kinda drags, and Dick Van…

”Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!”

Robert Stevenson’s 1964 elating and legendary musical Mary Poppins magically turns an incredibly simple story into a sweet, stirring, mellifluous and extremely goodhearted piece of cinema, it is a celebration of simplicity, honesty and innocence which with its pleasant sense of humor and addictive songs easily connects with everybody, young or old, stern or easygoing. It mixes fantasy, magical realism, live action and animation to create something unforgettable and utterly amusing, it’s hard to watch Julie Andrews singing and dancing on the rooftops and not get delighted. If I have watched this when I was 6 or 7 I would have said that it is the best film ever made, such is the charm and enchantment of Mary Poppins.…

"Jolly Holiday" and the dancing during "Chim Chim Cheree" are the highlights. The chalk painting is stunning; blue skies rippling like cascades, green fields smudged in the background; dancing animals flatly interacting with the stars. The penguin sequence especially delights in physical humor, the animators enjoying dancing with Van Dyke. The scorn for Van Dyke's accent aside, his physical performance in this is magnificent. His facial expressions, his dancing, his walk, it's all neatly comedically timed, shifting easily into sympathy and compassion (and his elderly doppelganger has some great moments, too). The filmmakers also indulged repeatedly in flight and floating, delighting in human beings adrift, swirling through the air, flitting about. Every bit of whimsy they could find was stuffed…