Holden, Stephen. "Nanny McPhee (2005) Using Her Own Kind of Magic to Keep the Children in Line." New York Times. 27 January 2006. Published Jan 27 2006. 4 April 2008. <http://movies.nytimes.com/2006/01/27/movies/27nann.html>.

    This movie review about Nanny McPhee compares Nanny McPhee to Mary Poppins.  Nanny McPhee is played by scriptwriter and renowned British actress, Emma Thompson, who has been compared to Julie Andrews before.  The film is directed by Kirk Jones.  Nanny McPhee’s character is reminiscent of the original Mary Poppins created by P.L. Travers.  Before Disney adapted Mary Poppins for the big screen, she was a tight-lipped and forbidding disciplinarian, much like Nanny McPhee who dresses in black and rarely cracks a smile.  Additionally, Nanny McPhee and the original Mary Poppins would never be caught breaking into song, especially about a Jolly Holiday.  The review of the movie is positive, although it suggests that it could never compare to a classic like Mary Poppins.
    Like Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee enters into a household where the children are out of control and the patriarch has lost control of the family.  Nanny McPhee also uses magic to teach the children the lessons of life.  In this film, she conjures up spells so that they cannot stop what they’ve started.  Nanny McPhee is a modern spin off of Mary Poppins with striking similarities to the original classic and original character.  Thirty years after the release of Mary Poppins and despite all of the changes in Hollywood, films are still emulating and using ideas from this timeless classic.

Leff, Leonard. "Review of The Spoken Scene: Film and the Romantic Imagination by Frank McConnell." Educational Theatre Journal. Vol. 28, No. 3. October 1976. Pg 440. 3 April 2008. <http://proxy.library.upenn.edu:5549/action/showArticle?doi=10.2307/3206452&Search=yes&term=poppins&term=mary&item=24&returnArticleService=showArticle&ttl=155&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DMary%2BPoppins;x%3D0;y%3D0>

    This article reviews Frank McConnell’s book, The Spoken Seen: Film and the Romantic Imagination.  The book covers many subjects under the umbrella of the problems of post-romantic writing in terms of reality, perception, meaning and consciousness.  McConnell cites film as the most meaningful and influential medium of post-romanticism.  He specifically discusses how film weaves dreams into reality to become a sort of counter-reality.  Film helps us to rediscover our world of reality, which somehow seems less real than the world of film.  Americans are on a constant quest for process and permanence, dreams and realities.
    Mary Poppins does exactly what McConnell speaks of by combining live action with animation.  This mixes the dream or fantasy world with reality.  Even though Mary Poppins, Bert and the children spend their “Jolly Holiday” in a chalk painting and riding animated horses, we feel as if what we are seeing is really taking place.  This method is similar to that used in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari where human beings walk around in front of painted scenery for dramatic effect.  In an ironic way, the combination of animation and live action in Mary Poppins makes the film more believable.  It also makes the film more enjoyable and adds to the timelessness of the film and its unique ability to use conventional and modern techniques. 

Hopper, Hedda. "The Other Side of Julie Andrews." Los Angelos Times. 1 November 1964. ProQuest Historical Newspapers Los Angelos Times (1881-1986). pg. N4. 2 April 2008. <http://proxy.library.upenn.edu:5608/pqdweb?index=2&did=472123082&SrchMode=1&sid=3&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1207611766&clientId=3748>
 

    In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Hedda Hopper describes Julie Andrews as a “young star of great loveliness, sensitivity and heart…an incomparable artist.”  She goes on to praise Julie Andrews and her humbleness despite her unprecedented success of Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music within the same five years.  Through the interview, Julie Andrews reveals that she enjoys living in Hollywood and working for Disney, which she describes as a big family.  She speaks highly and lovingly of her husband Tony Walton, a set and costume designer, and young daughter.  Andrews reveals that she likes having people watch rehearsals on the set because of her background in theatre.  She rarely loses her temper (just like Mary Poppins) and despite her success, she tries to live a quiet and humble life.
    This interview, which did attempt to probe into the “dark” side of Julie Andrews, reveals that no such thing exists! In an industry where the diva is the norm, Andrews is a role model on and off the stage.  This undoubtedly adds to the timelessness of Mary Poppins.  Julie Andrews is a talented, beautiful and personable actress; she was as a young star in Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music, and she still is whether on the stage or in recent films.  The talent, charisma, intelligence and poise that Julie Andrews possesses does not come around Hollywood often, and it has created an aura of timelessness around her films, especially Mary Poppins.

Travers, P.L. "Where Did She Come From? Why Did She Go?" Saturday Evening Post. Vol. 237, Issue 39. 7 November, 1964. pp 76-78. 2 April 2008. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=keh&AN=18051349&site=ehost-live>.

    This article is by the creator and author of the original Mary Poppins book series, P.L. Travers.  She discusses the creation of Mary Poppins as an uncontrollable force that took her by storm and she had no choice but to follow along.  Travers stressed that Mary Poppins was always a part of her, so much so, that she could not even cite the time when the idea of Mary Poppins came to her.  As Travers herself put it, “all I know is that without a word of explanation, a character with a familiar name came in search of an author.”
    There is an underlying assumption throughout the Mary Poppins’ stories that children know more than adults do, especially about truth and observation.  This is evident through the poignant and deeply insightful responses Travers often received from children who have read her books.  Despite this, Travers does not write for children who she claims to be a universal but unreachable audience.  Travers, like many children’s writers, writes for herself, and out of her own experiences.  For example, the story of the “park in the park” where Jane creates a little imaginary park within the park on Cherry Tree Lane was something Travers did as a child in her garden.  In addition, Mary Poppins’ friends and animals were Travers pets and neighbors.
    Travers sought to merge the worlds of experience, memory and imagination – worlds which she insists are real and intertwined, worlds which can only best be interconnected and recognized by children.  Mary Poppins merges these worlds and brings the reality of this interconnection to life through Travers work.  In many ways, Travers and Walt Disney sought out to do the same thing.  They were both conservative in many ways, but also creative and modern in their foresight into the world of children.  Both were crucial figures in putting their stamps on popular culture of children in the mid-1960s.

McLeer, Anne. "Practical Perfection? The Nanny Negotiates Gender, Class, and Family Contradictions in 1960s Popular Culture." National Women's Studies Association Journal. Vol. 14, No. 2. pp. 80-101. 31 March 2008 <http://proxy.library.upenn.edu:2239/journals/nwsa_journal/v014/14.2mcleer.html>.

 

    This article argues that Mary Poppins and Sound of Music, both released in the mid-1960s, belong to the canon of American popular culture despite being set in overseas locations and featuring well known English actors.  These films spoke to what is known as the “Hollywood Imaginary,” which addressed the anxieties and concerns that surrounded the notion of changing gender roles and the family in the 1960s.
    The mid-1960s were known as a time where women began to challenge their traditional domestic roles in society.  This was bolstered by increasing numbers of women entering the work place the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Mary Poppins can be understood as an oppositional response to this new feminism.  Mary Poppins represented a return to the ideal family of the 1950s, an idealism, which had never really been achieved but was considered lost by the 1960s.  As a nanny, Mary Poppins bridged the distinction between the private and public sphere by existing in both spheres.  She returned the family to its nuclear structure with the father, Mr. Banks, as the patriarch.  When Mary Poppins entered the scene, the Banks family was severely dysfunctional, suggesting that the lack of a father figure was the root of the Banks’ nuclear problems.  Mary Poppins instilled the idea that motherhood should be and is a full time and fulfilling job.  Her nurturing and disciplinary skills mirrored those that Dr. Spock posited at the time, and differed significantly from Jane and Michael’s mother who was too concerned with the feminist movement to be a good mother.  The message, however, is not that women should hire nannies; it is that they should emulate Mary Poppins to return the family to an ideal nuclear structure with the father as the dominant patriarch. 
    Clearly, this message was accepted by the American public as the movie proved to be such a success.  Julie Andrews won best actress in 1965 for her portrayal as the perfect mother figure.  Despite this opposition to the emerging feminist movement and Walt Disney’s conservatism that is apparent throughout the film, Mary Poppins was also a cutting edge film because some of the characteristics of liberated women were apparent.  Mary Poppins was opinionated, unconventional, challenged authority and self-possessed, all characteristics that represented the newly liberated and modern woman.  Mary Poppins embodies these new-age characteristics of modernity while still representing and calling for a return to a conservative and patriarchal family structure.

    This chapter of Searching for Mary Poppins about nannies in the 21st century called the “Nanny Conundrum” examines the difficulties that the new family structure has encountered by a firsthand anecdote.  As many mothers re-enter the workforce after having children, the demand for daycare has increased and has largely been met by nannies.  These nannies often come from poor countries, sometimes illegally, and leave their own children in order to support them with money they make by looking after other people’s children (A nanny’s salary in New York or Los Angeles is about equivalent to the salary of a doctor in the Philippines, for example).
    As Cheever points out, a nanny is not an ordinary employee but the most important person in a mother’s life because she, with parents, is responsible for the upbringing of a family’s children.  This makes the relationship between mothers and nannies almost more complicated than that of a marriage.  The anguish and guilt a mother feels at leaving her children inevitably carries over the relationship with the nanny in some form of resentment.  Issues of salary, vacation and free reign of the house are complicated because of this as well.  To deal with this, women who employ nannies create a sort of mythology where they imagine their nannies are their friends and confidants.  It is easier for women to view nannies not just employees, but as women who do not work for the money, who work because they love these children as much as the parents.  Women are more similar to their nannies than they think; both leave their children to work in the hopes of giving them better lives and are both torn between the demands of money and love.
    While Mary Poppins does not directly address the complicated relationship between Jane and Michael’s mother and Mary Poppins, the movie does depict how Mary Poppins becomes a surrogate mother to the children.  In fact, Mary Poppins is more of a mother to Jane and Michael than Winifred herself is.  This film highlights how accurate the tension between mothers and nannies can be, especially because we see how Mary Poppins almost replaces Winifred as the key mother figure to the Banks children.

 Shortsleeve, Kevin. "The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930s. Or, Why Disney Scares Us." The Lion and the Unicorn, Johns Hopkins University Vol. 28, No. 12004 pp 1-30. 2 April 2008 <http://proxy.library.upenn.edu:2239/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v028/28.1shortsleeve.html>.

    In this article, Kevin Shortsleeve discusses the tension between Walt Disney’s messages and his actual organization.  Shortsleeve finds that on the one hand Disney is committed to a utopian fantasy and a sentimental longing for monarchy in the messages of films.  However, on the other hand, he also finds that the level of efficiency and production that has been achieved in Disney could not have happened in a democratically run system and that Disney is in fact run exactly like a cutthroat and semi-fascist U.S. corporation.  Because of the disparities in the way Disney runs its organization and its posture as a representative of American ideals, there is a level of mistrust and paranoia surrounding the Disney enterprise.
    Critiques of Disney range and vary depending on its opposition.  Some authors critique the “dumbing down” and simplification of fairy tales for film adaptation.  They despise the moral simplification and appeal to sentimental aesthetics, which result in the elimination of more thought-provoking and complex outcomes.  P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books, expressed many of these sentiments during the making of Mary Poppins.  In addition, some political critics argue that many of the films, like Aladdin for example, further U.S. imperialist aims and stereotype minorities.  Feminists critique the depictions of women as Barbie-like and unrealistic.  Other critiques of Disney posit that many of the films peddle false innocence and brainwash children and its employees.  Conspiracy theories cite the immense autonomy Disney World enjoys in Florida and totalitarian working conditions in the Disney Corporation.  This paranoia is apparent in Godzilla (1972), for example, where cartoonists who are designing a theme park turn out to be alien cockroaches with an evil plan to take over the world. 
    Just like in Mary Poppins, the tensions between Walt Disney’s conservatism and modernism is exhibited.  Ex-employees have referred to working for Disney as ‘Waltarianism’ where collaboration and camaraderie between colleagues is prohibited and the executives rule with an iron fist.  The working environment has been compared to Nazism or Big Brother, where someone is always watching and any wrong move is punished.  At the same though, the corporation has maintained a rare unity in all aspects since its rise to fame in the 1930s.  Disney helped ordinary Americans define themselves in a time of trauma and uncertainty throughout the Great Depression, World War II and the Cold War.  Disney’s essence is a set of beliefs about good, evil and human aspiration where films are imbued with a sense of optimism.  Shortsleeve identifies this rift between Disney’s idealistic message and its inner workings, which has fueled paranoia, and critique of Disney.  This rift can be likened to the tension of ideas in Mary Poppins where a strong patriarchal family structure and strong outspoken woman are advocated at the same time.
 

   Wright, Jon. "Leaders in Marketing."Journal of Marketing. Vol. 32, No. 1, (1968), pp. 62-63. 2 April 2008.       <http://proxy.library.upenn.edu:5549/stable/view/1249199?seq=2>

    As shorter workdays and lengthened vacations started to become the norm in the mid-1960s for middle and upper class families, leisure time became a subject worthy of study.  Once businesses starting to realize the implications of this new leisure culture, the need for leisure and recreation marketing increased.  E. Cardon Walker was the Vice President of marketing for Walt Disney, Inc. and was largely responsible for revolutionizing marketing in this era.
    Walker rose through the ranks of Disney starting as a messenger after graduating from UCLA in 1938 and eventually moving to the advertising/publicity department in 1949.  He was promoted to head of the department in 1950 and by 1960 became part of the three-man executive committee including Walt Disney himself that served as the top policy-making body.  Walker was in charge of sales, advertising, publicity and promotion.  In 1966 under his direction, Disney’s sales were $116.5 million and their profits reached over $12 million. 
     The marketing philosophy that Walker built for Disney in the 1960s has not changed much over the past half decade.  Walker’s philosophy is grounded in sound marketing policies.  Walker wanted to keep Disney limited to family entertainment and specifically film to maintain complete control of marketing from within the corporation.  Approximately half of the corporation was devoted to films and the other half focused on ancillary products such as sound tracks, merchandise and toys, all of which reinforced the advertising of the films themselves.  During this time, Disney was able to transition successfully from cartoon shorts to feature length animated films, to feature length live action films and eventually to television.  These smooth transitions show Disney’s flexibility and ability to maintain control over its market.  For example, when television emerged as a new means of entertainment, Disney embraced it instead of fighting this new technology and starting to produce television programs.  Again, Disney’s conservative but modern approach is apparent.  Disney did not expand its markets beyond the entertainment and film industry, and when it did, do so slowly and cautiously to avoid risk.  In addition, its marketing techniques have not changed significantly over the years.  At the same time, they were one of the first to jump on the television bandwagon and utilize marketing techniques to enhance their sales.

  "'Mary Poppins' Combines Live Action and Animation." Los Angeles Times. Dec 24, 1964. ProQuest Historical newspapers Los Angeles Times (1881-1986). pg. C6

    This article discusses the unique use of live-action and animation on the same screen in Mary Poppins.  Disney employed this technique to make the story of Mary Poppins more believable and fantastical at the same time.  The technique was pioneered by Walt Disney in an earlier series called Alice in Cartoonland.  The combination of live-action and animation is most noticeable in the “Jolly Holiday” scene where Mary Poppins, Jane, Michael and Bert jump into a chalk-drawn picture.  They enter a fantasy world of painted backgrounds amidst cartoon characters filled with horse racing, carousels, and of course, Bert’s (Dick Van Dyke) rendition of “Jolly Holiday” complete with singing and dancing cartoon penguins.
    This article was published in the same year that Mary Poppins was released, and although the technique was entirely new at the time, it was still considered to be edgy and innovative.  The use of this technique shows the conservatism of Walt Disney on the one hand and his desire to create an idyllic world, but on the other hand it show cases new technologies and embraces modernity.  The combination of live-action and animation was a creative and unique use of technology to increase the believability of the story.
 

Mary Poppins, released by Walt Disney in 1964, is a timeless film that reflects Walt Disney's conservative idealism and at the same time reflects the changes taking place in the American family structure. It is this sense of timelessness and modernity in addition to the star performances of Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke that has sustained this film as a classic for close to a half decade.