WIKI Although P.L Travers was an adviser to the Disney production, she disapproved of the dilution of the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins’ character, felt ambivalent about the music, and so hated the use of animation that she ruled out any further adaptations of the later Mary Poppins novels.[12]
At the film’s star-studded première (to which she was not invited, but had to ask Walt Disney for permission to attend), she reportedly approached Disney and told him that the animated sequence had to go.[13] Disney responded by walking away, saying as he did, “Pamela, the ship has sailed.”[13]
Enraged at what she considered shabby treatment at Disney’s hands, Travers would never again agree to another Poppins/Disney adaptation, though Disney made several attempts to persuade her to change her mind.
So fervent was Travers’ dislike of the Disney adaptation and of the way she felt she had been treated during the production, that when producer Cameron Mackintosh approached her about the stage musical when she was into her 90s, she acquiesced on the condition that only English-born writers and no one from the film production were to be directly involved with creating the stage musical.
This specifically excluded the Sherman Brothers from writing additional songs for the production, even though they were still very prolific. However, original songs and other aspects from the 1964 film were allowed to be incorporated into the production. These points were stipulated in her last will and testament.
Oh, do quote some of the other, more salacious, details of Travers’ life from Wiki. She was a very odd woman whose life was airbrushed in the film.
Liz: did you know that Barnes & Noble stores will not sell PL Travers? This is because the returns of the books are enormous. Parents buy them thinking that they are just like the movie and then discover how unpleasant Ms. Poppins is! My parents bought me the books after I saw the movie - and I hated them, lol!