Posts
...had a big time crush on the mysterious and magical Nanny, comes from Son #1 watching the movie DAILY when he was wee... thanks to my affection for the young Miss Andrews and for the clown girl from Big Comfy Couch, he and I probably watched waaaay too much tv... but it's all part of the father/son bonding process, right?
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
Ah, but this Mary, this Original Nannsta, is old school and quite different from Disney's version: she's sassy and rude, looks down her not-so-adorable nose, and is very fond of admiring herself and how cool she is... this Poppins doesn't take any crap, and no silly, syrupy songs either...
A curious point -- I have a 1981 copyright "revised edition" and there actually is a chapter titled Bad Tuesday (revised version). What's that all about? The chapter is mainly Michael's bad day where he goes around kicking and abusing the house staff... maybe he felt up the cook or smoked a doobie (or whatever they were called in the 1930's) behind the tool shed... anyone know why it was edited/altered/rewritten?
2 comments:
Copied from Wikipedia:
The original 1934 printing of Mary Poppins contained a version of the chapter Bad Tuesday in which Mary and the children use a compass to visit places all over the world in a remarkably short period of time. Because it contained a variety of cultural and racial stereotypes of the Chinese, Eskimos, Africans, and Native Americans, Travers responded to criticism by revising the chapter in 1981 to include animal representatives instead of people. At the same time, original illustrator Mary Shepard altered the accompanying drawing of the compass to show a Polar Bear at the north, a Macaw at the south, a Panda at the east, and a Dolphin at the west.
Thank you! I figured it was something like that; I know other classics, like Dr. Doolittle, got the same treatment... it's better than having the stories disappear from the shelves altogether...
Post a Comment