As the title suggests, take this short commentary with a grain of salt. Nothing was meant to be harmful. This is a fun essay on the difference between Saving Mr. Banks and Mary Poppins.
Mary Poppins, Saving Mr. Banks, and Mary Poppins Returns, are three box office movies based on P.L. Travers’ magnificent novels with the same title. The first movie, Mary Poppins, was released in 1964 with the help of P.L. Travers herself. It easily became the biggest hit in the box office and was praised for its fresh and charming plot. It was explained by Saving Mr. Banks, which was released in 2013, that it was not easy to produce Mary Poppins due to troubles in getting in touch with P.L. Travers and issues within. Although some sources had said that Saving Mr. Banks was not accurate because it is slightly biased towards Disney, it is still heavily based on true events that occurred during the making of Mary Poppins. The latest to the trilogy is Mary Poppins Returns, It was based on P.L. Travers’ sequel of Mary Poppins with a faintly different title, Mary Poppins Comes Back. Mary Poppins Returns was brought to the audience in 2018 and it was a success. No one seems to mind the change in the casts, the majority of the audiences even praised Emily Blunt’s depiction of Mary Poppins.
The first movie, Mary Poppins, is telling a story about a somewhat difficult family which consists of a strict father, a busy mother, and two naughty children. Honestly, at first look, Mary Poppins is only a fun movie for a family to enjoy with some morals that could lighten up your life. However, I am afraid that my mind goes around thinking about impossible things. Well, everything is possible even the impossible after all right? In the first few minutes where they are singing the ‘spoonful of sugar’ song, it seems like they are having drugs. They do not experience any magic or crazy things at all before they do a ‘spoonful of sugar’. It looks like the world in Mary Poppins is not very close to magic hence the reaction of the children when they see the ‘magic’ that happened after Mary Poppins came. I am not necessarily referencing actual drugs that cause hallucination although that is a possible scenario. The drug, in this case, is a metaphor in which the drug is a distraction. To make the kids follow what Mary Poppins wants them to do, she makes distractions from time to time. They are singing and dancing and before they realize it, their room is as clean as new. Maybe the lesson in Mary Poppins was to never be too serious especially in stressful times. It is okay to distract yourself as long as you have the work done.
The sequel of Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Returns, is giving me the same idea. Although I do not enjoy the whole premise of Mary Poppins Returns. In Mary Poppins, it is obvious that Mr. Banks needs to get some help because he has a cruel personality that hurts his family and himself. That is why Mary Poppins is there. To save his character. In Mary Poppins Returns, I can not see any dangerous problem that needs Mary Poppins to save the day. In Mary Poppins, the kids are difficult to control, and they are not that smart either. With George Banks as a father, it became a whole mess. On the other hand, Mary Poppins Returns tells a story about miserable Michael Banks that is going through a money crisis. Sure, he is miserable because he lost his smart wife but is that all? Michael Banks as a person is kind and understanding. It is shown from how he talks to his kids, calm and collected. He even apologizes when he raised his voice out of stress. To solve his money problem, he could just sell the expensive-looking displays. With a history of being rich, I believe any valuables in the house can be sold at a high price. What was holding him? Because it was his late mother’s? If you are in crisis, that is sure the key to your problem. The displays are not even used as anything but display. The scene where Mary Poppins sabotage Big Ben is disturbing. Think about it, she is messing with everybody’s time just to help one family? If that is not selfish and ignorant, I do not know what else.
Finally, we get to a movie that connects with Mary Poppins in a more personal matter, Saving Mr. Banks. To be clear, it is a great film to give you insights into the process of producing art. However, it was rather disturbing if you watch it before Mary Poppins. When you know the context, you can not see something any other way. It is a movie that changes your perspective on Mary Poppins whether as a movie or novel. When something or someone made you limit your perspective, it is a danger. It is harsh to put it that way but I could not find any better expression.
The three movies have different values as it is directed, produced, and made by different generations. Each has its own thing to deliver. It is fun to compare those three but at the end of the day, they are all different movies that happened to be in the same category.