What's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here: http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx
Mary Poppins is on the following AFI lists:
100 Greatest Film Songs (#36 - "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious")
25 Greatest Movie Musicals (#6)
What can I say about Mary Poppins? The biased part of me thinks the film should have made the all-time greatest lists rather than just the greatest musicals list, but that is truly bias speaking because the film is not perfect. Still, Mary Poppins is my all-time favorite Disney film and a truly great musical film, and I think it definitely deserves to be #6 on that musicals list if nothing else. (PS, If you're wondering, I copied and pasted Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious here and above. No sense in straining my brain that long and hard on that one).
I think it gets points first for story: even though it's an amalgamation of several stories by P. L. Travers, I still think the fantasy of jumping into chalk pavement pictures and having tea parties on the ceiling is a winning one. I mean, wouldn't Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) be the most fun babysitter ever? She answers the torn up advertisement of the two "impossible" Banks children, Jane and Michael, who get the attention of their no-nonsense, career-driven father George by terrorizing every other nanny they have ever had. When he advertises for a nanny by conventional means, Mary Poppins floats from the clouds using her umbrella with the taped-together version composed by the children in her magically bottomless carpetbag. She is practically perfect in every way; has a singable answer for all of life's little quirks, trials, and tribulations; and finagles the circumstances so that Mr. Banks (David Tomlinson) realizes that time with his children is short, precious, and to make the most of it. She makes a few mistakes herself along the way and after all, in part thanks to her weakness for friend and man-about-town Bert (Dick Van Dyke), but it all works out in the end. And the children get no help from their mother Winnifred (Glynis Johns), since she's out fighting the cause of votes for women while simultaneously playing the doting wife of conservative Mr. Banks.
Mary Poppins works because it's, in many ways, the ultimate children's fantasy, balancing the ordinary with the extraordinary and philosophizing the mundane through unusual adventures and excitement. The songs are also fantastic and easily recognizable, and the movie is quotable in its own right. ("I know a man with a wooden leg Smith...Really? What's the name of his other leg?") It's one of those Disney films and films in general that have permutated the pop culture lexicon, and the very word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious has been debated ad nauseum regarding spelling, forward and backward. In terms of its well-knownness, it has its place as an American great.
My favorite song, and probably one of my top five musical songs, is "Feed the Birds," and it was reportedly Walt Disney's favorite song too. In fact, this is the last movie he personally oversaw, and it shows. This film has all of his warmth and heart, which is helped in no small part by the unparalleled Julie Andrews and the affable Dick Van Dyke. I also like the film because it's set in London and has some of those decidedly English characteristics, even if they're set turn of the century, and even if the film was produced by an American company.
Mary Poppins is one of those enjoyable movies from beginning to end, though it has its flaws. For example, the trip to the bank and the song the bankers sing about tuppence and the bank is slow and awkward, though it sets the scene for Mr. Banks' termination from his job after Michael's ensuing demand for his money back appropriately. Pacing is a problem, and some of the visual effects are awkward (it was made in 1964 after all), but it's still an enjoyable film in every way.
I own Mary Poppins, naturally, and pull it out every so often, usually at holidays, though I find the need to watch it other times too. It reminds me of childhood and those times when I let my imagination run as free as Mary Poppins would allow and make come to life. I think Mary Poppins can be rated a 9 for being perfectly entertaining. I adore it, and I am glad the AFI gave it a nod or two in the end.