Time for another of my all time favourite films, both in visual effects technique and in sheer timeless entertainment value. “MARY POPPINS” as everyone in the known world will be aware was the sensational box office super hit that Walt Disney always knew it was going to be. Everything falls into place with this ageless film – wonderful casting especially of a pretty much unknown Julie Andrews and the multi talented Dick Van Dyke (if we look past his ‘Cockney dialect’ which even he chuckles about to this day). The pitch perfect score by Disney music maestros the Sherman brothers stands alone as one of the best of it’s type and contributed so much to the films success over the decades with millions of people both young and old, it’s hard to picture the film having half the popularity without the Sherman score.
I’ve always had fond memories of this picture, even from when I first saw it in the mid 60’s when my dear old Grandad took me to see it (at the Starlight theatre in Papatoetoe) – though there was just one hinderence. My Grandad had only one failing in his entire being, and sadly that was his propensity to walk out of movies before they had finished!! It’s not that he didn’t like them, but he always felt that once he’d seen enough of the film, whatever it happened to be, he had gotten the general ‘gist’ of it, so why bother staying around!! So MARY POPPINS was an unfinished symphony to this small boy I’m afraid. It took years to catch the full movie for this writer, though it was worth the wait…
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A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX
Please Note: Now that I am all caught up with Matte & Effects Films Celebrated, I am going further back into the archives of Matte Shot – A Tribute to Golden Era Special FX to feature even more great articles from this great site.
This blog is intended primarily as a tribute to the inventiveness and ingenuity of the craft of the matte painter during Hollywoods’ Golden Era. Some of the shots will amaze in their grandeur and epic quality while others will surprise in their ‘invisibility’ to even the sophisticated viewer. I hope this collection will serve as an appreciation of the artform and both casual visitors and those with a specialist interest may benefit, enjoy and be amazed at skills largely unknown today.