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No wonder Mary Poppins needed a spoonful of sugar. The forthcoming Saving Mr. Banks is a dark film that tells the heart-breaking true story behind one of the great characters in children’s movie history. P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the nanny’s formidable creator, is pitted against Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), who promised his daughters that he’d bring Poppins to the big screen. The thing is, that pledge goes against the author’s wishes. Saving Mr. Banks goes behind the scenes of the ferocious battle to make what was to become the famous 1964 musical adaptation. For 20 years, Travers refused to grant...

Songwriter Robert Sherman, best known for penning the infectious Disney tunes “It’s a Small World After All” and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious," died Monday, March 5 in London.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic

Contemporary parents are dazed and confused, and their children are suffering, writes Miranda Devine. It is clear from the extraordinary success of Channel Nine's Monday-night program Supernanny that Australian parents are suffering a crisis of confidence in their child-rearing skills. And judging by a study released this week by the Australian Childhood Foundation, insecure mums and dads are crying out for guidance on how to control the brats who rule their lives. The study revealed that 38 per cent of parents surveyed say parenting does not come naturally and 63 per cent are "concerned about their level of confidence as...

Can Mary Poppins be supercalifragilistic for Sir Cameron? KAREN MCVEIGH IT HAS taken 70 years to bring Mary Poppins to the stage - and the fact it has finally made it is largely down to Sir Cameron Mackintosh using his charm to persuade the book’s ageing author, PL Travers, that he could stay true to her original. She hated the 1964 Disney film, starring Julie Andrews, which taught generations of children to sing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and A Spoonful of Sugar.

Children banned from scary Mary Poppins play A London theatre is warning that its new play based on the novel behind the international film classic Mary Poppins is too scary for young children. The version showing at the Prince Edward Theatre is much closer to the original sombre story by Pamela Travers (1899-1996) than to the sugary Walt Disney film of 1964. The theatre is barring parents from bringing children under the age of three and advising them not to take those under seven, as there are upsetting scenes, including one with toys coming to life in the children's nursery....

NO NURSERY FOR ENGLISH-SPEAKING BABY Jun 29 2004 By Richard Smith A BOY of three had a full-time nursery place taken away partly because he speaks English and has a garden, says his mum. Christopher Townsend was due to start in September but he no longer qualifies for a place under the council-run school's new admissions policy. Mum Nicki, 39, said yesterday: "I was told he did not fit the criteria as he had English as his first language and that he came from a home with a garden." Nicki, an occupational therapist, has lived in the catchment area for...