Liesl’s dad gave Miranda a copy of Mary Poppins for Christmas. And it’s great! I was starting to suspect that I might be a Julie Andrews fan, but now I’m sure of it (and should really go out and watch other movies of hers). I had no idea how good Dick van Dyke was, though, and for that matter I’d never considered the possibility that he might have been young once.

The other big surprise is the songs. I was, of course, aware of some of them: “A Spoonful of Sugar,” “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, “Let’s Go Fly a Kite”, “Chim Chim Cher-ee”. (I’m honestly not sure if I would have identified the source of the last two, though.) But they’re singing all the time in the movie: looking through the list of scenes, there are 13 songs in the movie! It’s a long movie for a kid’s movie, but that’s still one every 10 minutes or so. And they songs are all at least pleasant; there’s a reason why I was aware of the ones I mentioned above, but the others are far from shabby, and Miranda and I quite enjoy dancing around to “Step in Time”.

And it has a good story, good politics, and I really like the way the Dick van Dyke character (and his mix of jobs) are presented. Good thing I have a daughter with a grandfather with good taste in movies!

(Incidentally, Miranda has recently been asking to watch a DVD of The Marriage of Figaro. I really do think she could have a good career in musical theater ahead of her, if she so choses…)

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