To me this one will never get old. It's such a classic and I'll never forget it as long as I live. I must question those who thought negatively of this wonderful film. How can you not at least like it?! One summer I rented the DVD and watched it over and over again and I never got tired of it!

Being a musical lover of course I'd love this film automatically. I admire Julie Andrews and her singing. And Van Dyke is such a comical person just like his character. I have lots of fun keeping in touch with my inner-kid. Just can't resist singing along and annoying friends with them too.

It's a great film for the entire family so watch it!

For me, the acid test for this movie is that I saw it when it came out. Well, ok, not quite. I was probably less than 1 when it came out - but I must have seen it on its second run, because my mum worked at the pictures, and I remember seeing 'Yellow Submarine', 'You Only Live Twice', 'Jungle Book' and 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang'around the same time.

And I haven't seen it since, so what right do I have to review it? About as much right as some of the clots who come on here and give 4 stars to some piece of junk, just because they want to boost its average score,

Really, though, I saw it several times when I was about 4, and I thought it was pretty boring. That may not be much of a review, but at least it's truthful.

By this time, Disney was overlooking the animation departments less and less, becoming generally less interested in animation by itself. By 1964, he had already gotten many live-action films under his belt, theme parks to run and television programs on the air. However one can forgive Disney for spending less and less time in and around the animation studios while he was making live-action films of this quality. Certainly he was a story-man at heart and knew the workings of a good tale and the mechanics of the processes involved.

A heartfelt story about a broken family whose lives are turned upside down when the newest nanny appears literary from the blue. Well made with a great number of songs and performances all round, Julie Andrew’s Oscar winning performance (at a time when that meant something) is to quote “Practically Perfect in Every way.” Van Dyke’s Bert is a lovable, roguish fellow, in spite of the accent (more on that later). And David Tomlinson is wonderfully realised as the man struck in the metaphoric cage of a bank. All of them seem to have enjoyed themselves and their roles immensely and bring that enjoyment into their acting.

The soundstages are impressive, you would never guess that the whole of this film was shot in them; wonderfully detailed matt paintings help to create a wholly impressive illusion of being outside. The animated scenes have a certain silly symphony style to them, and are of high Disney quality, if not quite up there with the best of the best.

The songs are some of the most memorable ones that the Sherman brothers had made, certainly “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” stands as one of their most energetic numbers, along with “Chim Chim Cheree.” Both are coupled nicely with melodic numbers like “Stay Awake” and “Feed the birds” on the other end of the emotional spectrum.

There are a very few minor problems, some scenes just go on too long (like Inkwolf, I find Jolly Holiday a bit tedious). Some of the incidental characters are a bit too two-dimensional and some scenes do seem a bit on the pointless, something to distract you, side. yes the animatronics are dated, but this was the sixties and Jim Henson’s creature shop wasn’t yet around, so that’s excusable.

Less excusable is Dick Van Dyke, well not him personally, but the fact that he is sporting the worst cockney accent of anyone who has ever attempted one in the history of film, ever. It is so bad that it is a source of constant amusement here in Britain; I personally find it hilariously bad. Of cause the real problem is that he may have invariably taught a lot of Americans that that is how Cockney’s speak. Someone must of told him this at some point; because for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang he would use his natural, American accented voice; and because we’ll so use to hearing these American accents, unless they really strong, we find them more or less invisible.

Still accent aside… This is still one of the greats. A timeless classic that manages to outdo most hybrids, apart of course the almightily Roger…

EDIT: The tedius parts have got to me, half-star down.

I always enjoyed this film. It's colorful, the songs and acting are great, and so is the story. The animation, as usual, is very good. The characters are all pretty interesting and there isn't one I can recall that I didn't like. A great Disney classic and one that should not be missed.

Mary Poppins, Walt Disney's most famous live action/ animated combination is still a great movie!

Jane and Michael have a cold, distant father and a cheery activist mother, both of whom are too busy to be involved with their childen. Worse yet, nannies keep quitting left and right. While Mr. Banks drafts a newspaper ad for a tough, no-nonsense, disciplinarian nanny, Jane and Michael make their own list of requirements. This falls into the hands of Mary Poppins, who shows up and blows away the competition, and proceeds to set right everything that's messed-up about the Banks household.

Mary Poppins has the power to take the children on magical adventures, some of which are animated in the height of the classic Disney style. But the songs--among Disney's most famous--are the real draw to Mary Poppins. It must have the greatest number of memorable songs of any Disney movie. It also stands up well to the test of time, as its setting is Edwardian England, and its themes are timeless.

Mary Poppins was based on a childrens' series of books, which were (and are) charming...but they would have been forgotten by now if not for the movie. In the scene where Bert the chimneysweep is playing his one-man-band, several members of the audience are actually minor characters from the books. Disney's Mary is more sympathetic and less vain than the book version, who is completely self-absorbed. All in all, the movie did a good enough job of sticking to the books, and in my opinion improved on them. (I might have felt differently if I had been devoted to the books before seeing the movie, though.)

There's not much that can be fairly criticized in this film. The clumsy animatronic robin was the best the special effects of the age could manage. Maybe one or two scenes got a tiny bit too silly...and one or two scenes could have been shorter or even dispensed with. (A Jolly Holiday with Mary--is it just me, or was that tedious?) And though I can't tell, I am reliably informed that Dick Van Dyke's phony cockney accent was execrated throughout the British Isles.

Still, this movie is a true classic. See it!