You’re probably familiar with Mary Poppins, the 1964 Disney movie starring Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews. For that matter, you might have that movie’s hit songs (like “Chim Chim Cher-ee” and “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”) embedded in your memory. The Mary Poppins flick only happened after slow and challenging negotiations between Walt Disney (the legendary producer) and P.L. Travers (the children’s author who created the Poppins character). The story of the negotiations proved interesting enough to warrant a movie of its own. In turn, the Disney studio would deliver 2013’s Saving Mr. Banks, which respectively starred Tom Hanks as Disney and Emma Thompson as Travers.
Mary Poppins is the all-time biggest connection of chimney sweeps to the public. At Midtown Chimney Sweeps, we believe in what the nanny character Mary Poppins stands for. Every family needs a little of her strength and determination to combine a workplace’s ethic with a home’s warmth. As chimney sweeps, we are more often asked about whether we sing and dance on rooftops than about safety issues related to fireplaces or chimneys. Or so it seems to us… When discussing a weighty matter with someone, remember the principle that “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.” And never forget that shaking hands with a chimney sweep is good luck!
This coming Christmas, director Rob Marshall and the Disney studio will give us a follow-up movie that’s titled Mary Poppins Returns. It will be an adaptation of the magical nanny’s other stories as written by P.L. Travers. The author penned a total of 8 Poppins books, the final one getting published in 1988. Travers was a fan of Peter and Wendy, the 1911 children’s book by J. M. Barrie. This might explain the similarities between Peter Pan and Mary Poppins; both are ageless and timeless characters who can fly and who resonate with the little kid inside all of us.
Travers’s first Mary Poppins book was published in 1934, which means that the classic movie was released 30 years thereafter. A whopping 54 years after the classic movie, we will receive the sequel. British actress Emily Blunt plays the whimsical and dedicated nanny who returns to Cherry Tree Lane and saves the day again. This time, her mission will be to aid a now grown-up Michael Banks and his family as he copes with a personal loss. We at Midtown Chimney Sweeps look forward to all that will be revealed. Thank you, Disney, for keeping the magic alive!
Here’s a link to an interview with Emily Blunt and Rob Marshall about the sequel Mary Poppins Returns, which will be released on December 25, 2018.
