Mary Poppins is a series of books, a Disney film and a stage musical.
The series of children's books by P.L. Travers consists of 8 books written 1934-1988. Mary Poppins is a magical nanny who takes the Banks children on adventures.
Upside
There are 8 of them
If you know the movie, there is still plenty of new adventures in the books
Downside
They are darker than the Disney film, Mary Poppins' magic isn't so whimsical
There are 5 Banks children by the end of the series, including twins, which can make remembering characters difficult-especially if you are used to Jane and Michael from the film
The Disney film Mary Poppins was released in 1964 and received 13 Academy award nominations. The film is based most on the first book of the Mary Poppins series. It is a musical with songs written by the Sherman brothers.
Upside
Bert-the books have a few minor characters instead
The music!
dancing animated penguins - a new system of filming with a yellow background (like greenscreen) allowed this to work
Downside
Accents - Bert's accent is listed as one of film's all time worst (because it changes throughout the film)
Random magic - the moment on the roof when Bert gets swung out off the edge has always bothered me because he isn't magical so it doesn't make sense that it would happen that way
The stage musical is based more directly on the series of books than the film. It includes dancing with statues in the park which happens in the books but not the film. As a musical it uses some of the songs from the film but also changes them. Verses are changed to be more accessible to the stage story. Listen to the difference between Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious in film and stage(at 3 minutes).
Upside
Live entertainment
Mary Poppins actually flies! (at least in the production I saw)
The clean up song was so cool to watch with the props in the kitchen tidying themselves up
Miss Andrews, Mr Banks' childhood nanny is a great antagonist
Downside
Different music
More characters
Mary Poppins is one of my favorite films so I also recommend Saving Mr. Banks. Although not entirely accurate, Saving Mr. Banks is a biopic about P.L. Travers during the making of the film.
