am2xAnimated Movies was launched by Olivier Mouroux in 1999. In addition to a daily news report, he also created a database of information about past, current, and upcoming films. In 2003, he took a job in the industry and had to give up his work on the site. Several fans of Animated Movies decided to take on the task of keeping the news portion of his site going, and founded what is now Animated Views.

As AV turns 15, let's take a look back at the site we descended from. Below you can explore the database Olivier compiled at Animated Movies during its existence, as it last appeared online in October 2003.

Cast * Interesting Facts * Production Details


What a jolly holiday with Mary!Directed by: Robert Stevenson
Written by: P.L. Travers (books) & Bill Walsh
Music by: Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman

Released on: August 26, 1964
Running Time: 140 minutes

Budget: $
Box-Office: $102.3 in the U.S., $ million worldwide ($44M in its first U.S. release and $45 million in rentals)
 

CAST

Jane Banks, Mary Poppins and Michael BanksMary Poppins... Julie Andrews
Bert/Mr. Dawes Sr... Dick Van Dyke
George Banks... David Tomlinson
Winifred Banks... Glynis Johns
Jane Banks... Karen Dotrice
Michael Banks... Matthew Garber
Katie Nanna... Elsa Lanchester
Ellen... Hermione Baddeley
Mrs. Brill... Reta Shaw
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

  The opening shot of Mary Poppins sitting on a cloud contains a gag originally used in Disney's Dumbo. While Poppins checks her make-up, her carpetbag slides "through" the cloud. She catches it repeatedly just before it falls to oblivion. The stork delivering Dumbo does the same thing with his bundle.

  The film was shot entirely indoors.

  During one particularly long camera set up, Julie Andrews was left hanging in mid-air. The stagehands unwittingly lowered her wire harness rather rapidly. "Is she down yet?" called a grip. "You bloody well better believe she is!" fumed Andrews.

Matthew Garber (1956-1977)The adorable Matthew Garber (7-year old Michael Banks) died tragically of pancreatitis at the age of 21, in 1977.

  The twins, John and Barbara Banks, from P.L. Travers' books, do not feature at all in Disney's version of Mary Poppins.

  The animated "Jolly Holiday" sequence was directed by Disney veteran Hamilton S. Luske and boasted the talents of five of Walt Disney's legendary "Nine Old Men" -- Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston, John Lounsbery, Frank Thomas, Ward Kimball, and Eric Larson.

  Young stars Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber delighted in the magical carousel horse ride, which took a week to film, but Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke relied on motion sickness medication to help them cope with the constant up-and-down movement of the merry-go-round steeds.

  Storyman Bill Peet recalled in the late '90s that Walt Disney "always held up Disneyland and, later, Mary Poppins as being great. It was something tangible that he could see; the cameras filming, the sets being built and the special effects. Everything happening right then and there. Animation took too long. Walt would have to wait forever to see the results, and then you don't dare watch it because if there's a mistake there's nothing you can do about it because you've spent the money. You can't just cut out pieces because it costs so much. Live action, you just shoot again tomorrow and you can tell the actors what to do. Walt could control live action, too. He always wanted to compete with the big shots and make a Gone With the Wind or something.  [Mary Poppins] is about a wealthy British family that no one can identify with, let alone a nanny. I thought Mary Poppins was an icky, sweet nothing.  [Mrs. Travers, the author], came to the studio and was tougher than hell. She tried to oversee it and insisted that she be involved in some advisory role. They wouldn't let her do it because she would have raised hell every day. She was a witch of a woman and a real pain in the ass."

  One reason "Mary Poppins" has been described as Walt Disney's greatest film achievement is that Walt employed all his resources in its production, including the newly developed Audio-Animatronics technology. That's right, the robin that whistles along with Mary Poppins in the "Spoonful of Sugar" number is an Audio-Animatronic figure.

Julie Andrews (1935) at the 2001 Academy Awards ceremony  The set for the Banks family's neighborhood on Cherry Tree Lane filled an entire sound stage at the Disney Studios and featured four full-scale Georgian-style houses, including the Banks home at No. 17 and Admiral Boom's ship-shape house. What would spring be on Cherry Tree Lane without cherry blossoms? Each of the blooms, made from materials imported from France and Portugal, was hand-mounted to the set's tree branches.

  Julie Andrews' airborne scenes in Mary Poppins were accomplished with the aid of a wired harness beneath her costume--which snapped during one scene, letting her crash to the stage below. "I let loose with some very un-Poppins Anglo-Saxon verbs!"

  The Grammy Award-winning original soundtrack album of Mary Poppins was the best-selling LP of 1965, outdistancing even the immensely popular "Beatles 65" album. The "Mary Poppins" soundtrack LP was awarded two gold records and became one of the top-selling albums in history.

  Robert Sherman (born on December 19, 1925) and Richard Sherman have created some of the most memorable Disney music: they wrote music for The Jungle Book (1967), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971), The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) and The Tigger Movie (2000), just to name a few. Richard Sherman reported during Walt Disney's 100th birthday ceremony, on December 5, 2001, that one decision that Walt made, to replace live human waiters with animated penguins, was an example of how the producer made everything extraordinary. Sherman said that, over the years, he and his brother would visit Walt's office each Friday to talk about what they were currently working on. Walt would ask them to play "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins, and then send them on their way for the weekend. After Walt passed away, Sherman said while fighting off tears, he would still visit Walt's office on Fridays to play the all-time favorite song for him.

  According to Robert Sherman, P.L. Travers was demanding near-complete creative control on the film. She and Walt had many fights over her frequent nitpicking during production. Among other things, she tried to insist that the costumers purchase the material for Mary's skirt from a specific dress shop in the Kensington Road in London. Given the amount of trouble she caused, Walt bought Bedknobs and Broomsticks in case she pulled the rights.

  British-born special-effects artist Peter Ellenshaw provided the inspiration for the spectacular chimney-sweep dance. When co-producer Bill Walsh mentioned his search for a suitable theme to inspire the rooftop number, Peter recalled "Knees Up, Mother Brown," an old English knockabout. Peter showed Bill and the songwriters, Richard and Robert Sherman, how to link elbows and dance across the room as the rowdy song was sung. They eventually demonstrated it for Walt Disney, who liked the dance so much he joined in himself. The concept was approved and the Sherman brothers composed their own version of the song, "Step in Time."

  In the end credit cast list, the actor playing Mr. Dawes Sr. is initially shown as NACKVID KEYD, then the letters unscramble themselves to show that this is a second role played by Dick Van Dyke.

2000 PosterMary Poppins was nominated for 13 Academy Awards in 1965, and won for Best Actress (Julie Andrews), Best Song (Chim-Chim-Cher-ee), Best Music Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Special Visual Effects.  It is interesting to note that 7 of the 8 other nominations were lost to George Cukor's My Fair Lady, a movie that Julie Andrews originally wanted to make instead of Mary Poppins!
 
  Best Actress: Julie Andrews   Won
  Best Effects, Special Visual Effects: Peter Ellenshaw, Hamilton Luske & Eustace Lycett    Won
  Best Film Editing: Cotton Warburton   Won
  Best Music, Score - Substantially Original: Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman    Won
  Best Music, Song: Richard M. Sherman & Robert B. Sherman for "Chim Chim Cher-ee"   Won
  Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color: Carroll Clark, Hal Gausman, Emile Kuri & William H. Tuntke   Nominated, lost to "My Fair Lady"
  Best Cinematography, Color: Edward Colman    Nominated, lost to "My Fair Lady"
  Best Costume Design, Color: Tony Walton    Nominated, lost to "My Fair Lady"
  Best Director: Robert Stevenson   Nominated, lost to George Cukor for "My Fair Lady"
  Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment: Irwin Kostal   Nominated, lost to Andre Previn for "My Fair Lady"
  Best Picture: Walt Disney & Bill Walsh   Nominated, lost to "My Fair Lady"
  Best Sound: Robert O. Cook (Walt Disney SSD)   Nominated, lost to  "My Fair Lady"
  Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium: Don DaGradi & Bill Walsh   Nominated, lost to Edward Anhalt for "Becket"

When developing its made-for-TV project Gepetto in the late '90s, with music by Stephen Schwartz, Disney originally wanted to cast Dick Van Dyke as Geppetto and Julie Andrews as the Blue Fairy. Sadly, the stars of Mary Poppins could not be reunited some 35 years after the fact, since the Mouse offered this role to Andrews just months after she had had that surgery that had so badly damaged her vocal cords. So Julie reluctantly had to take a pass on the project. Dick Van Dyke, however, was supposedly very interested in playing the part of Geppetto, but the deal (for some reason or another) fell through.

Julie Andrews at the 2001 'Princess Diaries' premiere The Princess Diaries (2001), Julie Andrews' first Disney movie since Mary Poppins, was shot, in part, on the same soundstage upon which Poppins was filmed nearly forty years ago. "Of course the studio is so different now. Back then it was a little smaller and more charming. Back then you also walked everywhere, now it's so huge." Born Julie Wells in 1935, Andrews recalls "kind of being born into" being a singer. "My mother and stepfather were in vaudeville, and to keep me occupied during the war years, as I was out of school, I took singing lessons." She and her parents thus "discovered, to everyone's amazement, that I had this freak voice, a child protege." So suddenly, Andrews explains, "I was launched, at age 12, into this career, because I could sing the hell out of an Aria. And had a four octave range.''

It was confirmed officially in May 2002 that discussions for a stage version of Mary Poppins were underway. The project will be a joint venture between Disney Theatricals (who holds the rights to the songs from the 1964 film) and producer Cameron Mackintosh (Cats, Les Misérables, who has the rights to the original P.L. Travers story). Both were officially mulling options for a creative team as of October 2002, with an eye toward the 2004-05 season at the earliest. No firmer details are available, except that Mary Poppins will land in London before packing her umbrella for Broadway.

Jim Hill comments that "way back in 1994, when then-Chairman of  Disney Theme Parks and Resorts Dick Nunis was being interviewed at the Beauty & the Beast cast party, he was asked 'What's Disney going to do next on Broadway?' Nunis' response: 'I'm really not at liberty to say right now. But I can tell you that--if all goes according to plan--it will make for one Supercalifraglisticexpialidocious evening at the theater.' You see, Olivier? Disney's been trying to get the stage version of Poppins off the ground for over eight years now. The smart money right now is on Disney trying to get the show up and running on Broadway by Fall of 2004 (So that they can capitalize on the film's 40th anniversary)."

However, following the announcement that Thomas Schumacher might leave Disney in June 2003, sources close to the project deem it "highly unlikely" and "almost inconceivable" that British producer Cameron Mackintosh would proceed on Mary Poppins as a stage musical without Mr. Schumacher at the Disney helm. Variety reports that the two men have been in talks for several months regarding a stage version of the P.L. Travers classic, and adds on a related note that the Mary Poppins film boasts 14 original songs, not requiring any new number to be written for a full-size stage production.

Broadway.com announced officially in March 2003 that renowned director Richard Eyre (Guys and Dolls) would helm the highly anticipated Mary Poppins stage musical, Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) would write the book and songwriting team George Stiles and Anthony Drewe would supplement the film's score with new material.
 
 

PRODUCTION DETAILS

P.L. Travers (1899-1996)The story of Mary Poppins was written by P.L. Travers and was published in 1934. It was already a very popular book in England. Walt Disney's interest in the story dated back to 1939, and in 1944 his brother, Roy Disney, began negotiations with P.L. Travers whilst she was living in New York to escape the Nazi bombings of London. It was to be a long wait for Disney.  Mary Poppins was originally conceived as an animated feature, but the author (Australian P.L. Travers) refused to sell the rights to her books in these conditions, stating that she "could not conceive of Mary Poppins as a cartoon character." The tenacious author finally released the film rights to them in 1961, more than fifteen years after discussions first began.

A middle-aged Mary Poppins?P.L. Travers had portrayed Mary Poppins as a middle-aged woman, and Walt Disney first considered Bette Davis for the role. But as the score by the Sherman brothers was developed, it appeared that the role would require singing. Mary Martin was a candidate, but she decided against a return to films. Walt began thinking that Mary Poppins could be played by a younger actress, and he was receptive when his secretary, Tommie Wilck, suggested Julie Andrews, who had starred in the musical "My Fair Lady" and was then appearing in Broadway in "Camelot".

Bert, Jane and Mary on the roofs of London!Mrs. Travers approved heartily of the casting of Julie Andrews after hearing her only on the telephone. Andrews granted the interview from her bed after the delivery of her daughter, Emma Walton.  Julie Andrews' agreement with the studio stipulated that she would be released from the film if Warner Brothers should cast her as Eliza Doolittle in the movie version of My Fair Lady. Jack L. Warner, who was producing the film, chose Audrey Hepburn instead.  It is interesting to note that while My Fair Lady won the Oscar for Best Film that year, Audrey Hepburn was not even nominated in the Best Actress category.

Dick Van Dyke dancing on Chim Chim Cher-eeIn the early stages of production, Dick Van Dike (who Disney had never heard of until then) was being tested in various makeups for later sequences. To relieve the boredom, he delivered snatches of comedy routines. One of them was his impression of an aged man desperately striving to step down from a sideway curb without an injury. When Walt viewed the test in a projection room, he decided immediately to cast Van Dyke as the antediluvian Mr. Dawes, board chairman of the bank. He instructed that a 6-inch miser be built on the board-room set, so that Dick could do the stepping-down routine.

Walt Disney instructed director Robert Stevenson not to concern himself about the animation; that would be filled in later. "Don't worry, whatever the action is, my animators will top it."

An animated sequenceTravers was a pill about details in the script, driving many of the Disney writers to distraction about Poppins minutiae. After seeing the final film, she devised a list of changes she wanted. Her requests went unheeded after Walt himself pointed out that although she had SCRIPT approval, she didn't have FINAL DRAFT approval. Among the things that Travers disliked was the Sherman Brothers score. She wanted the only music in the movie to be period pieces such as "Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay."
 
 
 



Animated Movies original content © Olivier Mouroux