Some characters, most notably an impudent jackdaw seen in the first two books, call her "The Great Exception", meaning, among other things, that she is the only human being who has retained the magical secrets infants possess (such as the power to communicate with animals) until they grow up and forget about them.
In the Disney version Mary Poppins is more like a fairy godmother than a witch, and her task is to restore the absentee Banks parents to their children, to create a conventionally happy family, one in which children are not raised by servants.
Mary Poppins is the main character of the books, a magical nanny who sweeps into the Banks home of Cherry Tree Lane and takes charge of the Banks children. She never openly acknowledges her strange and magical powers, and feigns insult when one of the children refers to her previous adventures.
She is shown to possess various magical abilities including the ability to speak to animals, telekinesis, the transport herself and others to various places and manipulate reality (including sidewalk pictures), animation, as well as flight with her umbrella (similar to Peter Pan, just without Tinker Bell's pixie dust).
The most likely possibility is that Mary Poppins is a witch of some sort. That could explain her ageless exterior, her ability to fly through the sky (with an umbrella in place of a broomstick), her enchanted bag, and other peculiarities like flying up the stairwell bannister or attracting animals.
The True Story That Inspired Mary Poppins | Absolute History
Why can Mary Poppins fly?
One of Mary Poppins's mysterious and fascinating qualities is her ability to fly using her parrot-handled umbrella. There are many theatrical ways to achieve this that do not require hiring flying specialists, rigging wires, or breaking the budget.
According to the books, all infants have magical powers but Mary Poppins is the only one who retains these powers into adulthood. Hence she is referred to as "The Great Exception" by a jackdaw.
Where is Cherry Tree Lane? In the Mary Poppins books and films, the Banks family home is at number 17 Cherry Tree Lane. There is no Cherry Tree Lane in central London, but there are plenty of streets of Georgian houses which look like the Banks' – particularly in the affluent areas of Chelsea and Kensington.
Travers based the beloved character on her austere great-aunt. Mary Poppins first appeared in the pages of Australian author P.L. Travers's eight-book series of the same name, published in 1934. The character is inspired by Travers's real-life great aunt, Helen Morehead.
"Jack is a lamplighter. He apprenticed under Bert from the original films so he knows all about Mary," said Miranda. "So it's really nice to play the Bert position in this film. You kind of get to go on all the fun adventures with the Banks family."
Mary Poppins is a story of redemption. We see how a bad parent, caught by the trappings of his work and the stress of everyday life loses sight of the one thing that matters, his family. It's a great character arc.
At a time when 'Disney princesses' were shown to the world as people who were almost always dependent on the presence of a 'prince' to rescue them, 'Mary Poppins' appeared, slowly descending from the heights in her umbrella to make it clear that a woman does not have to depend on anyone to shape her life.
Though the state of Mary and Bert's relationship has always been a little fuzzy, a popular theory has recently resurfaced ahead of Mary Poppins Returns explaining their interesting bond: Mary Poppins (played by Julie Andrews in the original and Emily Blunt in the sequel) was actually Bert's nanny when he was a kid.
They Are Both "Blue Bloods:" There is also a lyric from the song Jolly Holiday that Mary sings which goes, "Though you're just a diamond/ In the rough, Bert/ Underneath your blood is blue!" The term 'blue blood', as defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary, is "membership in a royal or socially important family."
The parents (David Tomlinson and Glynnis Johns) don't take much notice of their children Jane and Michael, and it is only until a mysterious woman named Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews) appears from the sky that things begin to change.
The awe Mary Poppins inspires is actually inspired by the characters' own imaginations. That's why she denies that they ever participated in a horse race in a magical cartoon universe, when Michael reminds her that this happened—she's trying to make Michael look to his own imagination for amazement, not to magic.
By the end of the movie, her actions (and manipulations) have made this upper-crust family a family again. She has taught them the power of love. And yet, at the moment the Bankses joyfully reunite, Mary Poppins can only look on from a distance. She's shut out, no thought given to her by her charges or her employers.
With her work done, Mary then opens her umbrella, and it carries her away on the wind. Bert notices her umbrella carrying her away, smiles, and tells Mary Poppins not to stay away too long. Clutching her opened umbrella and holding her carpet bag, Mary Poppins flies away in the distance.
Is There a Love Connection between Mary Poppins and Bert the Match-Man? The 1964 Disney movie Mary Poppins certainly suggests such an interpretation. However, Mary Poppins's author P.L. Travers had a different opinion and denied any romantic relationship between these two fictional characters.
The film was set in In Edwardian London in 1910 but was entirely filmed at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. They using painted London background scenes to mock up London but they were based on actual places.
The Banks children—Jane, Michael, and the twins, John and Barbara—live at 17 Cherry-Tree Lane in London with their parents. When their nanny leaves, her replacement arrives one evening borne on the east wind. Mary Poppins is vain and often irritable, but within her stern exterior lurk all kinds of delightful wonder.
Mary Poppins in Travers' books is strict and no-nonsense, asserting her unusual brand of discipline over the four (later five) Banks children in her charge. Mary is very vain and is always admiring herself in the mirror and other reflections.
Dawes Sr. is the main antagonist of the 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins and the overarching antagonist of its 2018 sequel Mary Poppins Returns. He was the former director of Fiduciary Fidelity Bank who served as George Banks's former boss until his death.
