Did you ever see the movie "Mary Poppins"???
I remember seeing it as a kid and loving it... but it made me cry. In our house we used to rate movies by "kleenix boxes". We would say "oh that movie was a "one boxer" or - it was an ok movie - about "half a boxer". Mary Poppins was a one box movie.
On Sunday W and I went off to see "Saving Mr. Banks". I had no idea what to expect. I knew it was based on the making of "Mary Poppins" but that was about it.
We got our box of popcorn and drinks and W got stuck with a huge wad of napkins...... more than he wanted - but hey that's what came out of the dispenser.
We settled down to watch the movie sharing the bag of popcorn and sipping our drinks.
The movie is a mix of past and present (well 1960's present) with some outstanding lines - the one that caught me was "You can worry about the future but you can't do that - there is only today" (or something like that) It touched a nerve inside me - and the tears started. W just quietly started handing me the napkins he had been burdened with ....... one after the other throughout the rest of the movie.
I realized this was a "one box movie". If you get a chance - grab a box of kleenix (or a wad of napkins from the popcorn stand) and go see it..... the story behind Mary Poppins will touch your heart strings - guaranteed.
i sort of teeter on the idea of seeing this, worried that it will take away the magic that Mary Poppins held as a child... maybe i will go and view it.
ReplyDeleteoh saffy - no it won't take the magic away - not in my mind.... it made the story more precious.... did you know P.L. Travers wrote more than one book of Mary Poppins?? I didn't know that - though I never read the book - just saw the movie
ReplyDeleteI've been vacillating on whether to see Finding Mr. Banks. I know enough about PL Travers to know where the film may not have been fair to her (or other characters, IMO). I'm admittedly basing these concerns off reviews, but it's off both positive and negative reviews. I've tried to be balanced in what reviews I read. I was actually initially excited for Saving Mr. Banks because I'd seen things saying that they hadn't removed some of the non-family friendly things (like Disney's drinking). It was disappointing when reviews actually started coming out.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have liked is a recent BBC documentary about Travers called The Secret Life of Mary Poppins. It's mostly not as heartwarming as Saving Mr Banks sounds to be, but it is interesting if you want to know what Travers was really like and more information about her life pre- and post- Mary Poppins. I don't know if I'd call it happy, but it was satisfying. (And I did cry watching it.) If you do want to see it, The Secret Life of Mary Poppins is up on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3sqRDqVEBE
The Mary Poppins books are nothing like the movie, really. They are far darker. I read them as a kid, but after I'd seen the movie. I can't love them both (and I do) without completely separating them out from each other. That is how different the tone is. In my mind, the movie just happened to use the same characters as the books. For me, it's kinda like the Will Smith I, Robot. That really only even had the same title as Asimov's book of short stories because they used the Three Laws of Robotics and decided that meant they needed to get the rights to the title. The actual storyline for the film came from a screen play written with no connection to the book and was called "Hardwired" (the Asimov estate liked the screenplay to "Hardwired", but even that was watered down so much that I have no clue what they thought of the final film). The movie is fun, but if you went into it expecting the book, you'd be disappointed.
alyson - thank you for the information - I am not sure where to find the movie The Secret life of Mary Poppins - but I will try.
ReplyDeleteW had hoped the movie Saving Mr Banks would be more technical - how they made the movie sort of thing. It wasn't at all. There was a heart moving part where Disney shared his childhood with her.... I know very little about either of them (Travers or Disney) and was shocked to hear that Disney's life wasn't all rainbows and sparkles and unicorns.
All I can say is I enjoyed the movie - it was an excellent way to spend a frigid (another frigid!!) afternoon:)