A Few Words About A few words about...™ Mary Poppins -- in Blu-ray (2 Viewers)

[KPmusmag]

Everyone of those scans is a treasure. Thanks to Doug!

 

[KPmusmag]

Does anyone know if Mary Poppins was ever blown up to 70mm? The reason I ask is that in October of 1990 I attended a special screening of MP at which Julie Andrews appeared to kick off a British film festival. They offered a tour of the projection booth before the film started, and the film had been threaded into the projector from a reel, it was not a platter system. I could see a few frames of the Buena Vista logo, and I am sure it was 70mm, although after twenty-two and a half years I don't entirely trust my memory.

This is from the Los Angeles Times, October 11, 1990.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Yes, they seriously make me want to watch the damned movie again.

And come to think of it, why shouldn't I ?

I ask you.

In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.

You find the fun and, SNAP, the job's a game!

And every task you undertake becomes a piece of cake...

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Oh. My. Goodness. For the umpteenth time, the question is still out there: Was the animation in **MARY POPPINS** (not 101 Dalmations, not The Sword in the Stone, nor any other film except Mary Poppins) "messed up" for the Blu-ray? We still haven't seen any frame comparisons, have we???

It is obviously tampered with. I picked this up during the recent B&N sale, and sure enough, some fine line animation detail has been digitised out of existence. Quite noticeable especially with the penguins. The rest of the film looks AMAZING.

 

[haineshisway]

Sorry, there are frame grabs from 35mm right here in this thread that shows that not to be the case when contrasted with the Blu-ray grabs.

 

[Jeffrey Nelson]

Sorry, there are frame grabs from 35mm right here in this thread that shows that not to be the case when contrasted with the Blu-ray grabs.

Nope. I just looked at the screen grab of the penguins, and the lines are all smudgy.

 

[Mark Booth]

Because of the extra late stage in this thread I did have second thoughts about posting the identity of the 35mm scans and the print from whence they came.
I guess even after all the ballyhoo regarding scans and their worth, I thought that there might still be a couple of interested parties out there.
So for them here goes.

The 35mm print discussed is missing the last 15 or so minutes. (It ends with Mr.Banks arriving at the Bank)

I had to hand wind and examine nearly 14,000 ft of film, which at my age and condition was not all that easy.
The purpose was to find any lettering, identification numbers, asterisks and symbols.

Our own highly regarded 35mm expert Robert Harris set me in the right direction and was of great help and guidance throughout this project.
I learnt many things that I was totally unaware of even after more than 50 years of 35mm film projection and handling.
Thank you so much for that Robert. (It proves that you are never too old to learn new things)

After much speculation and comments comparing my scans and the adjusted carbon arc image to a British Technicolor print, I can now reveal that the print is most likely a US print struck in 1965.

I say most likely because Reels 5, 6 and 7 are most definitely of US origin.
The codes, asterisks and symbols for = Eastman Kodak - Rochester USA - 1965 were found on these 3 reels.

The delay in my identification was that reels 1, 2, 3 and 4 have no visible edge (black print) markings anywhere. (only original white neg markings which doesn't help to identify the print origin - Robert will correct me if I'm wrong)
While these 4 reels still have their original heads and tails in place, they have been cut down a bit over the years thereby possibly losing the ID markings.

It's only a presumption on my part, but one would imagine that if three of the reels are of US origin, surely the rest of the print would be part of the same.
But then again you never know

Here are the last of my scans, taken from the 35mm print of US origin.

mpus-eastman5.jpg

"Goodbye Mary Poppins, don't stay away too long"

Doug.

Just as a matter of curiosity, I pulled the first frame (of Doug's new 35mm US print scans) from the Blu-ray (in full resolution, click image to get full-size image):

For quick reference, here Doug's image again (35mm US print scan):

Mark

 

[haineshisway]

Nope. I just looked at the screen grab of the penguins, and the lines are all smudgy.

Look at the two frame grabs below your post and then point out all the smudgy lines that I don't see

 

[AnthonyClarke]

I bet you had fun doing that, Doug ... well done.
It's wonderful when you can exploit a passion ... I get the same kick from audio, ranging from the new 'Pure Audio' Blu Ray hi-fi discs (I'm preparing an article on those for 'The Age', to my beloved 78s which I play on a variety of wind-up gramophones .. and added to those this Christmas with a brand-new disc of Al Bowlly singing 'Hang Out the Stars in Indiana' (brand-new means pressed in 1933!) and a complete album of the original Broadway cast of 'Oklahoma!' circa 1943 in perfect condition (12 songs on six discs), all safely sent airmail from the States to Australia..
Long may we continue to indulge ourselves in such wonderful ways!

 

[Yorkshire]

Showed this to the kids yesterday, projected on a 140cm tall screen.

Theo (aged 4) was transfixed for the first two hours before becoming distracted.

Freya (aged 6) sat in silence through most of the film. When Step In Time came on she got up and danced round the room.

I watched the animation carefully, and it looked fine to me.

The only thing, Dick van Dyke's accent just gets worse and worse. Why on earth was there no one there, no voice coach, no advisor, Julie Andrews, no one to say just how bad it was.

Steve W

 

[Robert Crawford]

Showed this to the kids yesterday, projected on a 140cm tall screen.

Theo (aged 4) was transfixed for the first two hours before becoming distracted.

Freya (aged 6) sat in silence through most of the film. When Step In Time came on she got up and danced round the room.

I watched the animation carefully, and it looked fine to me.

The only thing, Dick van Dyke's accent just gets worse and worse. Why on earth was there no one there, no voice coach, no advisor, Julie Andrews, no one to say just how bad it was.

Steve W

Since, it's consider one of the greatest films of all-time, that flaw didn't hurt it very much.

 

[TravisR]

The only thing, Dick van Dyke's accent just gets worse and worse. Why on earth was there no one there, no voice coach, no advisor, Julie Andrews, no one to say just how bad it was.

So that's not what English people really sound like?

Everything else that Van Dyke brings to his performance makes up for the accent in my mind.

 

[Reed Grele]

So that's not what English people really sound like?

Everything else that Van Dyke brings to his performance makes up for the accent in my mind.

Maybe the incorrect accent was a good thing. At least I could understand what Mr. Van Dyke was saying.

 

[rsmithjr]

Hmm.

Here we have a film in which people are walking on clouds, floating on the ceiling, and dancing with cartoon penguins. And folks are worried about an accent?

Everything Dick Van Dyke does in this movie is perfectly charming. I understand the British love him as well and are not bothered by the accent.

 

[Cineman]

I want my Dick Van Dyke to sound like Dick Van Dyke, not like an authentic Cockney.

Here we go:

How To Do a Cockney Accent


The fellow on that video clip is fine. But imagine the damage Dick Van Dyke would have done to the movie if he had sounded so much as 80% like that in it? It would have been an absolute horror. Not one in 50 kids (other than Cockney kids, I suppose) would have understood one sentence coming out of his mouth. And I assure you the criticism of his ill conceived decision to do greater justice to a Cockney accent throughout this charming family musical movie would have been 1000 times more vociferous than what it has been for his far more (imo) judicious decision to give 1964 audiences the voice they'd come to know and love as Dick Van Dyke's.

 

[Malcolm Bmoor]

My Panasonic Plasma has a child lock that I've tried unsuccessfully to kill so have to put in the code (Sshhhhh ..... very secret ..... it's 0000) to watch lots of programmes recorded on the external drive. Not having seen Mary Poppins since she & I were both rather younger I set it to record from BBC4 HD in 5.1 last week.

And ... yes ..... it needed the child lock code. After all that I only lasted for half an hour before leaving it to its intended audience - of children with the code. It looked and sounded miraculous and I once recorded Richard Sherman, during Chitty Chitty Bang Bang London stage rehearsals, talking about it.

I'm sure this story is in the SAVING MR BANKS film and Emma Thomson told it in a documenatary about P L Travers. After the huge First Night occasion she went to Disney and told him that some of it was quite good but, of course, all the animation would have to go.

He replied: 'That ship has sailed'.

 

[FoxyMulder]

My Panasonic Plasma has a child lock that I've tried unsuccessfully to kill so have to put in the code (Sshhhhh ..... very secret ..... it's 0000) to watch lots of programmes recorded on the external drive. Not having seen Mary Poppins since she & I were both rather younger I set it to record from BBC4 HD in 5.1 last week.

And ... yes ..... it needed the child lock code. After all that I only lasted for half an hour before leaving it to its intended audience - of children with the code. It looked and sounded miraculous and I once recorded Richard Sherman, during Chitty Chitty Bang Bang London stage rehearsals, talking about it.

I'm sure this story is in the SAVING MR BANKS film and Emma Thomson told it in a documenatary about P L Travers. After the huge First Night occasion she went to Disney and told him that some of it was quite good but, of course, all the animation would have to go.

He replied: 'That ship has sailed'.

I also saw some of that BBC showing of Mary Poppins, it did not look like this new blu ray, indeed compared to a good blu ray it looked poor to me, no surprise though as the BBC love their lower bitrates, i prefer Channel 4 for film recording.

 

[Malcolm Bmoor]

Thank you. Current film transfer/restoration technology is so vastly superior to the average cinema and tv experience of the past that I was impressed. Despite believing you that the Blu-ray is superior to the BBC4 HD showing I've had enough of a reminder of a childrens film not to want to see anymore.

 

[FoxyMulder]

Thank you. Current film transfer/restoration technology is so vastly superior to the average cinema and tv experience of the past that I was impressed. Despite believing you that the Blu-ray is superior to the BBC4 HD showing I've had enough of a reminder of a childrens film not to want to see anymore.

It was far superior to the old SD showings that's for sure, so you don't like Mary Poppins. ?

 

[Yorkshire]

Hmm.

Here we have a film in which people are walking on clouds, floating on the ceiling, and dancing with cartoon penguins. And folks are worried about an accent?

Everything Dick Van Dyke does in this movie is perfectly charming. I understand the British love him as well and are not bothered by the accent.

You know, there have been plenty of good, iffy, and poor accents in the history of cinema.

If I were to list all the other poor accents I've heard on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being not quite perfect and 10 being the worst I'd head other than DvD in MP, I'd score the one in MP about 36. It really is truly abysmal.

If you've heard us Brits were not bothered about the accent you've been badly misinformed. It's still something joked about on a regular basis, to this day.

But RC is right, it doesn't ruin the film. What's good about the film is absolutely fantastic, and it'd be virtually impossible to spoil it.

But that accent, I'll go out on a limb, is one of the worst, perhaps the worst single aspect of any film I've ever seen.

It really is that bad.

But when he dances...for me, he can be forgiven just about anything.

Steve W