Mary Poppins is a 1964 American musical fantasy comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney, with songs written and composed by the Sherman Brothers. The screenplay is by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, based on P. L. Travers’s book series Mary Poppins. The film, which combines live-action and animation, stars Julie Andrews in her feature film debut as Mary Poppins, who visits a dysfunctional family in London and employs her unique brand of lifestyle to improve the family’s dynamic. The film was shot entirely at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, using painted London background scenes.
In March 1961, Disney announced that it might cast Hayley Mills and Mary Martin in the film. Julie Harris, Angela Lansbury, and Bette Davis were considered for the role of Mary and Cary Grant was Walt’s favorite choice for the role of Bert; Laurence Harvey and Anthony Newley were also considered for Bert.
Julie Andrews, who was making her feature film acting debut after a successful stage career, was given the prime role of Mary Poppins soon after she was passed over by Jack L. Warner and replaced with Audrey Hepburn for the role of Eliza Doolittle in his screen adaptation of My Fair Lady, even though Andrews originated the role on Broadway. When Disney approached Andrews about playing Poppins, she was three months pregnant. Disney assured her that they were willing to postpone filming until she had given birth so that she could take the part.
Filming took place between May and September 1963; post-production and animation took another eleven months. The scene in which Mary Poppins and Bert interact with a group of animated penguins is noted for its use of the sodium vapor process. Rather than using the more common bluescreen process to insert the actors into the animated footage, the actors were filmed against a white screen lit with sodium vapor lights, which have a yellow hue. A special camera was fitted with a prism that filtered this light to a separate reel of film, creating a highly accurate matte that could be used to isolate the actors from the background. This created a crisp, clean image and even allowed the partially transparent veil of Mary Poppins’s costume to let through light from the background.
Mary Poppins was released on August 27, 1964, to critical acclaim and commercial success, earning $44 million in theatrical rentals in its original run. It became the highest-grossing film of 1964 in the United States, and at the time of its release became Disney’s highest-grossing film. During its theatrical lifetime, it grossed over $103 million worldwide. It received a total of thirteen Academy Award nominations—a record for any film released by Walt Disney Studios—including Best Picture, and won five: Best Actress for Andrews, Best Film Editing, Best Original Music Score, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Song for “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” It is considered Walt Disney’s crowning live-action achievement and is the only one of his films to earn a Best Picture nomination during his lifetime.
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