Mary Poppins in 2004, Walt 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 film version of her books would do justice to her creation and did not want an animated cartoon based on it. The books had been a favourite of Disney's daughters when they were children, and he finally succeeded in purchasing the rights in 1961, although Travers demanded and got script approval rights. The relationship between Travers and Disney is detailed in "Mary Poppins She Wrote", a biography of Travers,
Mary Poppins (film) earning a net profit of $28.5 million. Walt Disney used his huge profits from the film to purchase land in central Florida and finance the construction of Walt Disney World. "Mary Poppins" is widely considered to be Walt Disney's "crowning achievement". It was the only film of Disney's to garner a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars in his lifetime. The film also inspired the eighth season episode of "The Simpsons" entitled "Simpsoncalifragilisticexpiala(Annoyed Grunt)cious", featuring a parody of Mary called "Shary Bobbins" who helps out the Simpson family after Marge loses her hair due to stress, and spoofs of the