Hi, everyone. And welcome back to your favorite segment Sound of Musicals. 欢迎回来, 你们最喜欢的【曲外之音】. Hi, Oliver.

Hello again.

So last time we talked about The Sound of Music, 【音乐之声】. And today can I also propose another also feel-good happy musical?

That sounds good to me. Yeah.

So you remember in The Sound of Music, we talked about the main character Maria was a governess是一个家庭教师, but you know you said governess is kind of like a tutor and a nanny.

But if I say to you the quintessential English nanny, who do you think of?

I think we might be talking about Mary Poppins.

Yes. Mary Poppins.

Yes.

Now Mary Poppins, this character is so well known and so popular. I think sometimes it also is used almost as a synonym as something British, when Americans make jokes and is like “you're such a Mary Poppins.” It's like you're so English.

I've never heard that one before, but definitely Mary Poppins is very well known for kind of the British nurse and the English nurse of the time.

And in this, I think it's again, it is a musical, but it's also a musical film. And in this one, unlike The Sound of Music where the musical was first and then the musical film, Mary Poppins is actually musical film first. And then much much later they made a musical like on stage musical.

Ah. Did they? I didn't know that.

Yeah. The musical film, I think most people probably just remember the Disney version of the musical film made in 1964. But the West End production of the actual Mary Poppins musical was not until 2004.

Wow, so much later.

Yeah. It's again, based on a book, based on a series of books, and you know, these two, there's something in common between Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music.

Is there?

Think about the main character, the main star of the film.

Oh yes. It's Julie Andrews. She plays Maria and Mary Poppins.

Yes.

Oh. Yeah.

So basically she won an Oscar for one of them and she won Golden Globe for the other.

She won all the awards. Haha.

Yeah. For these two Julie Andrews is amazing, like amazing musical actress. This actress, in general, she sings, she has such a beautiful voice.

She does definitely. I talked us through The Sound of Music last time. Would you like to talk us through Mary Poppins now?

Sure. And actually, before we get into the storyline, which is not complex at all, do you know that Mary Poppins, the translation, the translated name in Chinese, it has nothing to do with Mary Poppins. It's actually called欢乐满人间, which is a direct translation of like the world is filled with joy and laughter.

I like that name. That's a very good title, hahaha. What a great translation.

It's got joy and laughter in the title.

Yeah.

Ok. So the reason why in a lot of the American film or movie reference, this is seen as quintessentially English is because this film the story is set in London in 1910. So there's this family, Banks, Mr. and Mrs. Banks. So Mr. Banks actually works in a bank in finance a bit on the nose.

Yeah, very much.

Yeah. And like this Sound of Music, von Trapp, Mr. Banks is also very much, I would say, without any joy, very much hapless, very much focused on discipline, and it's basically a workaholic. And so Mr. And Mrs. Banks they come home to discover that their children's nanny has quit once again after the children Michael and Jane run away to find their missing kite.

They have two kids, not seven. But these two kids, they're also not really unruly, but they just didn't really like the fact that they didn't really like these old timey, traditional nannies who are just all about discipline and no fun.

So basically now Mr. Banks needed to find another nanny. While Mr. Banks wants a strict, no nonsense nanny, who can just basically teaches the kids discipline controls the kid. The children ask for like a kind sympathetic nice nanny.

So the kids rode up like an advert, but it was torn apart by the parents and then thrown into the fireplace. Now the wind then blows the pieces up into the sky and guess who fell from the sky.

I remember this part as well. Does she comes down with an umbrella?

Yes.

Yeah. With the advert in her hand, she kind of glides down with an umbrella, very magical entrance.

Yeah. Very like fantastical entrance. It's Mary Poppins.

It’s really. Yeah.

They never really did that much of a origin story or background explanation for Mary Poppins. It almost like she is the fairy godmother, 像灰姑娘里面仙女教母一样.

So basically, Mary Poppins was just fantastical nanny who is kind and full of joy and full of magic.

Yeah. I like the fact they don't go too much into her back story. The children need her, they make an advert. She magically finds it and comes to change everything and make everybody happy and full of joy. It's just a nice story.

Yeah, exactly.

And Mary Poppins starts to take care. Basically, she volunteered to be the nanny, starts taking care of the children. And then she also convinced Mr. Banks, it's a good idea to hire her as a nanny and convinced him that it was his idea to hire her.

Haha.

She's good. She's good.

So, there are many details in this, but it's basically that she took the kids out. She took the kids to meet all sorts of really interesting friends, interesting people, they were singing, they were playing out. Yeah, they experienced a lot of magical almost like magical scenes. For example, they entered one of the paintings. They took part in horse races.

Yes, I remember is that the part with the penguins, I remember there is a part with some cartoon penguins as waiters on serving tea.

Yeah. There's lots of cartoon in this as well. It's like a blend of real world and like this magical kingdom, and meanwhile Mr. Banks instead of feeling happy about the fact that kids like the new nanny he gets annoyed was the atmosphere in the house, because he feels like what his kids really need are discipline not this all these strange magical things, all these laughter.

So he threatens to fire Mary Poppins and then lots of things happen. Gradually, Mr. Banks, he was running into some difficulty at the bank, but under the influence of his kids, he eventually got over the difficulties and was rewarded. And then that was also when he started to realize that, look, work is not everything. And he felt inspired by the kids and also by Mary Poppins, so he quits the bank and goes home to fly a kite with his kids to actually spend quality time with his family.

And this is when Mary Poppins decides my work is done and she flies away.

Leaving as she entered with an umbrella into the sky. It's great.

Exactly like a fairy godmother.

Exactly, yeah, it's brilliant, it is a really nice feel good movie for sure.

Is it one of those things that kids in the UK actually would watch growing up?

I know I did for sure I watched it many times growing up. I still remember the penguins which was one of my favorite parts. Ah, hahaha.

But it's really good. It's kind of one of those classic kid’s films that I don't think really has gone out of date. There are some other movies which I saw that probably today nobody really knows. But Mary Poppins has such a good story that is kind of doesn't matter when it's set or when the movie was made. Anyone can really connect with it.

Yeah, because it's about almost like magical characters and magical kingdoms, that would never go out of fashion.

Exactly. Yeah.

All right, I think we're gonna wrap up this episode here. In the next episode, we're gonna explore the themes of Mary Poppins and also share with you some wonderful pieces of music.

Fantastic.

And on that note. Thank you, Oliver for coming to the studio. We'll see you next time.

Thank you. See you soon.