Mary Poppins (1964)

Academy Awards, USA 1965

Winner Oscar	Best Actress in a Leading Role Julie Andrews
	Best Film Editing Cotton Warburton
	Best Effects, Special Visual Effects Peter Ellenshaw Hamilton Luske Eustace Lycett
	Best Music, Original Song Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman For the song "Chim Chim Cher-ee"
	Best Music, Substantially Original Score Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman
Nominee Oscar	Best Picture Walt Disney Bill Walsh
	Best Director Robert Stevenson
	Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium Bill Walsh Don DaGradi
	Best Cinematography, Color Edward Colman
	Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color Carroll Clark William H. Tuntke Emile Kuri Hal Gausman
	Best Costume Design, Color Tony Walton
	Best Sound Robert O. Cook (Walt Disney SSD)
	Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment Irwin Kostal

Buena Vista Distribution
Directed by Robert Stevenson
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(Blu-ray, Walt Disney)

Magical nanny Julie Andrews answers the call of two children in an upscale London household. After literally sweeping away the competition, their skeptical father has no choice but to hire her. After cleaning up the nursery, she takes the kids on a magical animated journey into the chalk drawings of her friend Dick Van Dyke. Later, they visit the house of "Uncle Albert", whose laughing fits have him floating near the ceiling and unable to get down. Poppins' antics have their father concerned that they are not learning discipline, so she arranges for the children to accompany to his job at the bank. They get scared by the elderly bank director (also Van Dyke) and run away, leading to a memorable song and dance number on a London rooftop. Their father gets fired but learns the value of laughter. Sensing she is no longer needed, Poppins leaves as she arrived, via umbrella and a change in the wind. One of Disney's best loved movies is certainly entertaining if overlong by about an hour. The live action special effects using wires are seamless, but some of the background projection is not. The songs by the Sherman brothers are justifiably famous, but I still prefer their work on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and I think that film is better as well.