My Mother V Mary Poppins

[poliphilo]

My mother says she's never seen Mary Poppins. I pretend to be surprised but I'm not. She sleeps through movies. Always has done. And she can't stand popular music- not even the music of her youth.

 "Oh," she says, reading the opening credits. "Walt Disney!"

"Yes," I say.

"Is it good?"

"It depends on your taste."  Of course I know she'll hate it but I'm in a scratchy mood and tired of wildlife shows and auctions. I'm going to make her watch the first five minutes.

Dick Van Dyke sings a song. Poor man, it was cruel not to get him some help with his accent. Glynis Johns sings a song. David Tomlinson sings a song.

My mother is getting angry. "I don't know what's going on," she says. "Who are these people? It doesn't make any sense."

I take pity. She's suffered enough. "You don't have to watch." I say.

She switches channels. Up comes David Attenborough.

And life returns to normal...

Comments

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

Wanna know what's even MORE cruel? Dick Van Dyke DID get help with his accent. He had an accent coach from the UK.

From Ireland, and who didn't know cockney. But wasn't going to turn down the paycheck.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, that's awful!

I marvel it was allowed to pass.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I loved Mary Poppins. I was 8. I didn't care about Dick Van Dyke's accent.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Well, no...

But it really is a horror. It wanders about all over the place. Also it sounds so laboured- as if the poor man was having to think about every syllable.

I wish they'd used a Brit. It's not as if there was ever a shortage of Cockney song and dance men.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

They made it back in 1964. Hollywood had NO social consciousness back then. If they had a Native American character, they would put a white actor in, put dark makeup on him and a wig, and have him grunt a few monosyllabic words.

My partner commented recently that Van Dyke's accent sounded more Australian to her. I said that maybe they did that on purpose because the original author was actually Australian.

I don't actually believe that. I was being charitable.

The other thing that Disney did back then was they sold plastic shrunken heads in their Adventure Land trading post at Disneyland as well as featuring an "Indian attack" on one of their ride, complete with a burning log cabin and dead white people laying around it. These are things that I remember growing up.

Those things have all been completely erased from the park.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Wow, Adventure Land sounds like fun!

I love old westerns, but it can be hard to overlook the white guys with feathers in their hair.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

It WAS fun! Actually, the Indian Attack was in Frontier Land, not Adventure Land. Sorry. There is a ride in Adventure Land called The Jungle Cruise. It takes you through areas that were inspired by New Guinea, Thailand and the Amazon, and/or Africa, but since there are real people who live in those places, it's pretty politically incorrect to depict them as "head hunters". The whole ride is pretty racist, but it stands, as it was the first ride in the part, and much beloved.

These are all memories on my part, as I haven't been able to afford to go since I was last employed as an application developer, and I don't expect to ever be able to go again. It has gotten OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. I cannot see me spending $90+ dollars per person to go to an amusement part.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

Never did like that film

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings.

[splodgenoodles.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen it.



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