julie andrews

She is the best.

Aries

Taurus

Gemini

Cancer

Leo

Virgo

Libra

Scorpio

Sagittarius

Capricorn

Aquarius

Pisces

Damn, I’m seized by the desire to watch Victor/Victoria (for the millionth time). I’m at work and up to my elbows in tedious tasks, so it will have to wait.

I loved Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, and I was a teen when I saw V/V. I was floored by her role, the entire concept. I loved James Garner’s hetero confusion over his attraction to the female impersonator who fascinated him, and his eventual “aw fuck it” attitude. I just love off beat movies, and I adore musicals.

You’re not going to top Julie!! You’re not going to come anywhere close to Julie!!!! Stop trying!! I can accept the Live TSOM remake but only because 1.) They weren’t doing the movie they were doing the broadway play and 2.) It was what introduced me to Julie and TSOM so i can’t hate it or dislike it i can only be grateful for it. But!!!! It wasn’t a full hollywood movie! They’re changing Mary Poppins and trying to play it off as canon. No. I understand the desire to make a movie more accurate to P.L. Travers’ books but if you insist on that at least don’t tell me this is what happened to my Mary Poppins, just make a new movie! But they weren’t creative enough for that were they?

From what I’ve seen in the trailers, they’ve ruined it. And i don’t know how the movie is going to fix it. They’ve ruined it with the word ‘imagine’ showing up about 183818284683864 times in the little we’ve seen so far.

Walt Disney knew how to make a movie. He didn’t need to tell the audience if the magic was real or not. For the kids, Mary Poppins is a fun movie where you see a magic nanny and her friend who talks funny sing with little kids for a while. The adults watching see the meaning and messages in it, Mary Poppins came to save the father and she did it. Maybe the magic wasn’t real. Maybe it was. (I’m at the age where i can see the meaning but still believe the magic too lol)

Walt didn’t have to spoon feed us everything!!

In the trailer Jane mentions imagining the things they did with Mary Poppins. There’s a song about imagining. They keep mentioning imagining. I didn’t want to get too much of an opinion on the movie off the trailers but i just can’t see how they can redeem themselves with that word coming up all the time. They’re almost definitely going to have to confirm the magic as being real or fake. Either Mary Poppins is going to remind Jane and Michael that it was real, or tell the new kids that it is all in their heads but that’s fine because they’re having fun. Maybe so! But we don’t need to hear that! The original had the scene where Michael was talking about the chalk drawing scene and Mary Poppins was saying that she didn’t know what he was talking about. That could hint at the magic being the kids’ imaginations. But it doesn’t confirm anything, especially since the “magic” shows up again later.

I think Mary Poppins was just the right amount of harsh in the original. She came to the Banks’ home with a job to do and she did it. She never coddled the kids. She did end up getting attached to them but she still had the strength to leave. And once again, Walt didn’t have the need to shove it down our throats that she was saving the father. It’s obvious if you pay attention. But it doesn’t have to be so obvious for the kids watching.

In the trailer, Mary Poppins says “I’ve come to save the Banks children.” While i like that even though she’s still technically saving the father (and the aunt), Jane and Michael get their chance to be saved by Mary Poppins too, what i don’t like is that she says it as soon as she walks in the door so it’s like the movie is like “hey audience! Do you get it? Do you understand what she’s here for?!?!” I also don’t like that when one of Michael’s children follows up with “us?” she goes “oh yes, you too” and just brushes the girl off. I’m sure Mary Poppins will end up getting attached to these children too, but Julie’s Mary Poppins wasn’t unnecessarily harsh to the kids, even though they weren’t her mission. And again the movie is saying “you do get it, right? The children aren’t important, we promise!1!1!1!” even though they almost definitely will be.

They’ve also made the mistake of eliminating the One and Only Fun Uncle Bert. I’m glad Dick van Dyke is still in it at least. I’m also glad Julie’s staying away. I see both sides for their respective choices of being in it or not.

And i swear!! If a character calls her just “Mary” and not “Mary Poppins” even once!!! P.L. Travers said you can’t do that!! (And Walt listened to her on that one. I think Walt knew when to respect her wishes and when not to for the sake of his movie.)

Stage Door Julie

Julie Andrews exiting the Marquis Theatre following a performance of Victor/Victoria, New York City, June 1996. 

HOLLYWOOD!!!!!

Hey, Hollywood! Listen up! I’m talking to you!

STOP TRYING TO REMAKE JULIE ANDREWS MOVIES!!!!!

There was, is, and only ever shall be ONE Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews DBE.

Get that through your sorry-ass heads. She CANNOT be copied. Not ever. 

For one, the number of people with her vocal range (back in her heyday) is FRAKKING SMALL. The odds your sorry asses will EVER get your hands on someone like that again are ASTRONOMICAL.

Two, the movies she was in that you’ve attempted to remake - to whit Sound of Music and Mary Poppins, are fucking CLASSICS. Damn near every man, woman, and child on the PLANET who has access to those movies by whatever means has seen them and loved them, then proceeded to introduce the next generation to them. Which means anyone attempting to take either role of hers will be compared to her - and found seriously wanting.

Third - both movies were cinematic masterpieces. ESPECIALLY Sound of Music. There IS no remaking either (but, again, ESPECIALLY not Sound of Music) in equal or greater quality. 

This is so wonderful.