A Few Words About A few words about...™ Mary Poppins -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Yorkshire]

We aren't bothered?

Really?

http://modvda.blogspot.co.uk/



Steve W

 

[Charles Smith]

Dick Van Dyke's smile, alone, could lift any film ... not to mention his dancing ... today, as easily as in 1964.

I never knew the accent was bad back in the day. Nowadays it sounds as much like a terrible Crocodile Dundee attempt as anything to these ears. But thank God I'm somewhat deaf to accents and not a Brit and can more or less ignore it! (Sorry, Yorkshire!)

 

[David_B_K]

I have to say I am with Steve on the Dick Van Dyke accent. No, it doesn't ruin the film for me, but it is distracting. I certainly don't think a cockney accent has to be unintelligible*, as some are claiming. I think the strange accent Van Dyke came up with makes him sound mush-mouthed and less intelligible. If he was unable to master a convincing accent, I think he should have dispensed with it altogether. Many films have been made in which Americans appeared as British characters and in which they did not affect an accent.

Over all, Dick Van Dyke is great in the film. His physicality has always been amazing. He's always been one of my favorite performers. The Dick Van Dyke Show is IMO the greatest sitcom of all time. I still think his accent in Mary Poppins is pretty bad.

*I was once on a vacation in London about 30 years ago. I was looking at my map in an attempty to find a place, and a Londoner kindly stopped to try to help me. I could not understand anything he said. I understood the odd word or two so as to know he was speaking some some form of English, but that was all. I thanked him and waited until he was out of sight and went back to my map. So, yes I do understand that some dialects can indeed be entirely unintelligble.

 

[babsdude]

Just read this thread with interest, and learned a lot about animation lines and the xerox process. Cool stuff! Also, was unaware of Disney tampering with other Blu-ray animations. Some of the screen grabs for SWORD are obviously different than the original version.

That being said (and not being a Disney expert or an animation aficionado), I find nothing wrong with the MARY POPPINS Blu-ray. To me, it looks gorgeous. And if the animation has been tampered with, it's not effecting my enjoyment of the film, nor standing out as "wrong" to me.

I can see the outrage over Lucas and his updated STAR WARS movies ... missing things that you saw in 1977 that were digitized out in 2007 (or whatever year that was) ..... but to me, this POPPINS Blu-ray is an honest attempt by the studio to put the best version out there. I don't know how anyone in the Blu-ray business could ever deal with people's memories of what color "should" look like, LOL! Especially on a 50+-year-old film.

I run into this kind of topic on other forums I belong to, and part of it (if I may be so bold) is that WE ARE NOT IN CHARGE HERE. It's a Disney film and a Disney Blu-ray .... I feel we can complain if the product is bad, altered, or otherwise sub-par. And you can choose not to buy it. But to me, the POPPINS Blu-ray is VERY nice and I enjoyed watching it 2 nights ago and only noticed how beautiful everything looked.

I have no complaints.

 

[ahollis]

As a person from the South and most of my adult life spent in New Orleans I learn to forgive bad accents. I have even forgiven Dennis Quaid's accent in THE BIG EASY and many other accents right down to some in TREME. I'm just pleased that they try. Right Cherri?

 

[Charles Smith]

As a person from the South and most of my adult life spent in New Orleans I learn to forgive bad accents. I have even forgiven Dennis Quaid's accent in THE BIG EASY and many other accents right down to some in TREME. I'm just pleased that they try. Right Cherri?

Now there's a gracious Southern Gentleman.

Even before I had the vaguest idea of what it was generally supposed to sound like, Dennis Quaid had me cringing in my seat, even as I was totally loving both his character and the film.

 

[moviebuff75]

The accents in Steel Magnolias were pretty bad as well. Dad was a Cajun (Grandma never spoke English) and I stayed down in Louisiana a lot.

 

[Rob_Ray]

I can't think of a movie set in the American South that has ever gotten the accents right. I'm just grateful that in "Gone With the Wind" they erred on the timid side. I just saw a Warner Archive title called "Parachute Jumper" in which Bette Davis plays a character called "Alabama." Ouch! She gives Dick Van Dyke a run for his money in the Bad Accent contest.

 

[moviebuff75]

I was impressed with Vivien Leigh though...she had never even heard a Southern accent before!

 

[Robert Harris]

I trying to come up with the title of a film that I saw in the '60s...

Something like Caged Birds Don't Sing.

Was fully in Cockney, with English sub-titles.

RAH

 

[JohnMor]

Being a Southern boy myself, it's only fair to point out that there are MANY different Southern accents and dialects, not just one. Not even everyone in Natchitoches LA is going to have a Cajun accent (although I agree that the accents were bad and very "Hollywood" in SM.) Someone from Mississippi is not going to sound like someone from Georgia, who won't sound like someone from Dallas.

Also, as a rule, most American actors seem to not have the same capacity for accents that the British have. They can nail an American accent for more accurately than we can theirs. I know a lot of it has to do with training (having attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), but as a rule I find that most American actors are lacking when it comes to their "ear" for dialects and accents when compared to their British counterparts.

 

[ahollis]

Being a Southern boy myself, it's only fair to point out that there are MANY different Southern accents and dialects, not just one. Not even everyone in Natchitoches LA is going to have a Cajun accent (although I agree that the accents were bad and very "Hollywood" in SM.) Someone from Mississippi is not going to sound like someone from Georgia, who won't sound like someone from Dallas.Also, as a rule, most American actors seem to not have the same capacity for accents that the British have. They can nail an American accent for more accurately than we can theirs. I know a lot of it has to do with training (having attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), but as a rule I find that most American actors are lacking when it comes to their "ear" for dialects and accents when compared to their British counterparts.

Those accents on TRUE BLOOD have to be forgiven also.

 

[moviebuff75]

I will say that Dad LOVED "Southern Comfort" so that accents must not have been too bad in that one!

 

[Charles Smith]

Also, as a rule, most American actors seem to not have the same capacity for accents that the British have. They can nail an American accent for more accurately than we can theirs. I know a lot of it has to do with training (having attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts), but as a rule I find that most American actors are lacking when it comes to their "ear" for dialects and accents when compared to their British counterparts.

This is true, and quite remarkable. I am constantly bowled over by the incredibly perfect American accents by British actors.

 

[Reed Grele]

I trying to come up with the title of a film that I saw in the '60s...

Something like Caged Birds Don't Sing.

Was fully in Cockney, with English sub-titles.

RAH

According to the Cockney translator, your message would look like this:

I'm tryin' ter come up wif the bleedin' title of a film that I Bear's Paw in the '60s... somethin' loike caged birds daan't sin'. was fully in cockney, wif english sub-titles.

 

[TravisR]

I'll go against the grain and say that I don't think the British have any more particular talent for accents than American actors have. Unless they're playing the South or the Bronx, most Brits use their standard American accent in their roles (and most American actors have their standard British accent too). That being said, there's no doubt exceptions.

 

[AnthonyClarke]

It's not just the English ...very many British actors seem to have that knack with accents.
It's always a delight to me to hear that very fine actor David Tennant using a perfect English accent wtih great aplomb, then slipping back to his 'normal' accent so seamlessly.
And outside of Britain, the Australian actor Peter Finch seemed to have the same gift. Others though -- it always amuses me to hear the wonderful Errol Flynn sound so Australian as Robin Hood .. and as Peter Blood for that matter.

 

[Doug Bull]

Spare a thought for Australians.

We have been given cringe worthy Cockney accents by American actors ever since sound films first commenced.
Even English actors get the accent wrong.

The only American actor I can remember to get it anywhere near right was Robert Mitchum in "The Sundowners"
British actress Deborah Kerr got it very wrong as did Michael Anderson jnr., in the same film.

"Cor Blimey Guv" is not Australian.

Endless exposure to American TV and Movies is creating a brand new accent among the Australian youth of today.
I think this is why such a large number of young Australians are landing lead roles in US Movies and TV.

Award winning Australian actors such as Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Nicole Kidman, Guy Pearce, Hugh Jackman and others seem to be accepted on the screen as Americans.
Maybe this new Aussie accent has made it easier for them to adapt.

Dick Van Dyke? yes the accent is terrible, maybe he thinks he's an Australian cockney. (after all the author is an Australian)
But at the end of the day I still treasure him warts and all, plus the wonderful, wonderful movie itself.

Doug.

 

[Brian McP]

Absolutely Doug -- many consider Robert Mitchum's accent in "The Sundowners" the best Australian one done by an overseas actor.

And yes, they are usually very cockney, especially in movies and tv made in the 50s and 60s -- even though Ernest Borgnine in "Summer of the 17th Doll" gets the rap for his accent in that movie, Anne Baxter must have been tutored by Dick Van Dyke's dialect coach if you hear her in that picture.

And while some things change, plenty stay the same -- the guy who played the Australian in last year's "Pacific Rim" didn't exactly get it right either .

 

[David_B_K]

Even the great Olivier had trouble doing a convincing American accent. I think a lot of British actors do a pretty good job sounding American these days.