Mary Poppins (film) Banks as a junior partner. With her work done, Mary Poppins flies away, with Bert bidding her farewell, telling her not to stay away too long. The first novel in the "Mary Poppins" series was the film's main basis. According to the 40th Anniversary DVD release of the film in 2004, Disney's daughters fell in love with the "Mary Poppins" books and made him promise to make a film based on them. Disney first attempted to purchase the film rights to "Mary Poppins" from P. L. Travers as early as 1938 but was rebuffed because Travers did not believe a
Mary Poppins Banks household, and is easily intimidated by Mary Poppins, who treats her with thinly-veiled contempt. In the film she is a strident suffragette who is treated somewhat satirically. The reason she was made into a suffragette in the film was to explain why she sometimes did not have time to look after her children. In the stage musical she is a former actress who is under constant pressure from her husband as she struggles to enter his social circle. In the 1964 Disney film she is portrayed by Glynis Johns. The Park Keeper is a prominent supporting character in the