Mary Poppins is one of my favorite (Disney) movies, and I consider it to be perhaps the greatest film Walt Disney has ever made. I didn't always feel that way. When I was much younger ( 14 or 15 years old) I found the film to be too long and to drag too much, and I could hardly sit still --and this was when I was 15 years old already (and I don't have ADD)!
But I learned to fully appreciate the movie when I bought the 2-disc dvd a year or two ago. What makes it so great, is that it appeals to both children and adults alike. It's clear that it aims at children; adults are not the targeted group. For that, the jokes are too obvious, the acting is too over-the-top and the story is too fantasy-like (not even counting the animated sequences). Yet, an adult never has to bore him/herself when watching the film, because it specifically invites him/her to be a child again and enjoy the world through the eyes of a kid. You have to be a pretty cynical person to be able to resist this film --which I *am*, and I still can't resist!
Three things are crucial to its appeal: the music, the acting and the staging. Starting with the music: roughly 95% of it is pure genius. (The other 5% consisting of songs that are dragging the film down, like 'I love to laugh' and 'Step in time'.) You've got the 'Jolly holiday', 'Supercali etc.', 'Chim chim cheree', 'Feed the birds' and a whole bucnh of other songs that get into your mind and won't go away for days. You'll catch yourself humming them at the strangest of moments, and it never annoys you. The Sherman Brothers could make a memorable song out of almost nothing. For example, when you take a look at the lyrics of 'Chim chim cheree', what does it say? Nothing much. A lot of it is nonsense. But the way it's phrased and the way the song is structured, it becomes an all-time favorite of mine. The simplicity is deceiving, I think.
Then there's the acting. It's hard to believe this is only Julie Andrews' first role in a movie. When you look at her performance, it looks like she's never done anything else her whole life, but act. Dick van Dyke makes the character of Bert funny, but not too over-the-top or childish. There's a fine line there, and it coud've been easily overstepped. When he's singing 'Jolly Holiday' and hitting himself with his cane, that could've easily turn out too childish or corny, but he manages to stay just right on the good side of the line. I love the chemistry between the two of them, especially during 'Supercali etc.' I don't think I've ever seen such chemistry matched in any other film.
I conclude with the staging. With that I mean the sets, the matte paintings etc. Some people on the dvd said that they made it look like the real London, but I disagree. You can see clearly they're on a set. But that's okay with me; that's ultimately the charm of the film. It's not hyper-realistic. In the animated sequences, you can see how the actors and the animated characters don't go together very well, unlike in
Who framed Roger Rabbit, which came much later. To me, this revealing of the stage doesn't get me 'out' of the film. It just immerses me even more into the fantasy-world of Mary Poppins.