Discovering a copy of Mary Poppins by PL Travers at a charity book sale sparked my attention largely thanks to SAVING MR BANKS. Seeing the film and the battle that had taken place between the author and Walt Disney made me intrigued to see just how different the two manifestations really were – and what I discovered was surprising, even given what I already knew.
As fans of the film will know, the Disney version of MARY POPPINS is ‘practically perfect in every way’. It’s a fun adventure, magical, bright and colourful and full of cheery song and dance numbers and talking animals. Mary Poppins is endearing and forthright and – thanks to Julie Andrews – someone you just wanted to follow into whatever adventure she might have in mind next.
The book is something entirely different. For one thing, Mary is not really very nice at all. She’s magical and slides up banisters but basically tells the kids they’ve imagined it after every new adventure. There are many more adventures in the story too, with each new chapter taking Mary and the children (there are four in the book!) to some new place.
The book reads like a collection of short stories, connected simply by Mary and the children. They head to the zoo, a magical sweet shop, an uncle who laughs so hard he flies up to the ceiling (remember that one?), and the babies talk to animals while they’re still young enough to know how. When Mary finds Bert and jumps into one of his pictures, it is her day off and the children are at home. How cheeky that Disney sought to bring them along and hijack Mary’s afternoon with her friend!
SAVING MR BANKS really made a big deal of the father character in the story but in reality, he is rarely mentioned in the book and when he is he isn’t all bad. He’s a hard-working man and leaves household tasks to his wife – something no doubt typical of that era – but he does not strike me as mean. It’s easy to see why Travers seems to have taken issue with the uncaring villain Disney turned him into.
What Disney did to Travers’ story is bizarre to say the least but I much prefer his Mary Poppins to the one Travers created. Give me the film any time!
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