FEATURE ARTICLE The Legacy of "Mary Poppins" Excerpted from Brian Sibley's 'Walt Disney and Mary Poppins' The critical response to “Mary Poppins” was immediate and overwhelming: Hollis Alpert, in “The Saturday Review,” spoke for many in calling the film ”one of the most magnificent pieces of entertainment ever to come from Hollywood.”  There were a few negative reviews: one dismissed the film as 'a great marshmallow-covered cream-puff', another thought it would have been better named Lollipoppins -- but most critics sided with Judith Crist who described it as ”a charming, imaginative and technically superb movie musical, sparkling with originality, melody and magical performances.” “Mary Poppins” author P. L. Travers was less enchanted but, for many years, would only speak privately of her reservations about the film.  In 1972, when I was writing a biography of Walt Disney (to date unpublished), I asked Mrs. Travers if I could interview her about the filming of “Mary Poppins.”  Although, at the time, she declined to discuss the subject, she wrote me a statement in which she explained her views.  Here is part of what she wrote:   …..I am well aware that books have to undergo some sort of sea-change when they are translated to the screen. Magic, conveyed in a book by words and the silence between words, inevitably, in a film, becomes trick... The ways of film-makers are strange. It is though they took a sausage, threw away the contents but kept the skin, and filled that skin with their own ideas, very far from the original substance. They try to "improve" upon what is, no matter how much or for how long that "What is" has already been tried and tested. And, it must be admitted, that along their own lines, they often succeed. The film of “Mary Poppins”, with all its glamour and splendours and the devoted energy of its cast, has been a tremendous success. But if we are comparing book and film, the sea-change is also tremendous…..   With the passing years, Pamela Travers' mellowed in her attitude towards the film.  In the late 1980s, when she and I were about to embark on writing a film sequel to “Mary Poppins” for the Disney Studio, I organized a screening of the original picture for the author, who did not own a video-recorder - or even a television.  Apart from the two of us, the preview theater was deserted and, as the lights went down, I asked when she had last seen the film.  She looked surprised.  ”Why,” she replied, ”at the premiere, of course.”  I shuddered to think what she would make of it now, some  25 years later. True to character, my companion treated me to a running critique  -- there were still things of which she clearly disapproved, it seemed that there were many moments where she felt the film had captured the magic of her stories and which she suggested we should pick up on, or develop, in the sequel.  Sadly, as often happens in Hollywood, our film was never made; but then perhaps that's as it should be, for “Mary Poppins” is a unique, unrepeatable movie. It is estimated that, on its first release, “Mary Poppins” played to an audience of 200 million and earned $45,000,000 in worldwide rentals.  The film picked up numerous awards and citations, including no less than 13 Academy Award® nominations.  “Mary Poppins” eventually collected five Oscars, one of which went to Julie Andrews for Best Actress.  ”I know where to start,” said Julie in accepting her Award, ”Mr Walt Disney gets the biggest thanks...”  More important than all the awards, was the universal affection which the film engendered in people.  It was a remarkable legacy. From “Steamboat Willie” onwards, Walt had recognized the importance of music to his films and songs had played a vital role in many of the 'Silly Symphony' series and all the animated features.  However, with the exception of their clumsy film version of Victor Herbert's operetta, “Babes in Toyland,” the Studio had no reputation for producing film musicals.  To have created -- with such sureness of touch - a movie musical so filled with tuneful charm, animated antics and honest sentimentality, is little short of miraculous. Nor did the studio ever fully recapture the formula: not with Walt's last movie, the star-laden musical, “The Happiest Millionaire” -- and not, after his death, with “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”  Even those copy-cat movies of other studios - such as “Doctor Dolittle” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” -- failed to catch anything more than the palest shadow of the “Poppins” formula. “Mary Poppins” was Walt's last, and perhaps greatest, cinematic triumph -- and one song, ”Feed the Birds,” became his personal favorite.  A deeply emotional song, it came to mean even more to him than the company's unofficial ”anthem” from “Pinocchio,” ”When You Wish Upon a Star.” During Walt's last days, the Sherman brothers were regularly called in to Walt's office for a chat at the end of the day. Walt would often ask Dick Sherman to play the piano for him and Dick knew exactly which song he wanted to hear.  As Walt listened to the music, he would gaze out of his office window across the vista of the Studio he had built, and would grow a little misty-eyed.  He was thinking, perhaps, of all the plans he still had in mind for his company, but which he might never see fulfilled. Following Walt's death, in December 1966, Dick Sherman used to go to Walt's empty office every once in a while,  sit at the piano and play ‘”'Feed the Birds” in memory of the extraordinary man who gave the world what will surely live for ever as a classic fantasy film and a masterpiece of musical cinema.