Mary Poppins/YMMV

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • There are also who think Mary Poppins is an irresponsible, dangerous drunk. She supernaturally disposes of her competition for the job, then takes her charges to play with a homeless man. After giving them cough medicine. That tastes like rum to her.
  • Some people think she gives off a cold and dismissive feeling and would not actually be very successful with real children, like she was in the movie, in real life.
  • Given how dismissive she is of everyone she meets, except when they fall about praising her, Mary Poppins is some kind of high-functioning sociopath.
  • Time Lady of Gallifrey. Seriously, she pulls a six-foot lamp out of her bag, right there in the film.
  • Some people insist that Burt is actually a Crazy Homeless Person.
• Canon Sue: It wouldn't be surprising if Mary Poppins's middle name was Sue.
  • Further evidence that Tropes Are Not Bad.
  • She even gets a song about it in the stage musical. She's Practically Perfect, after all.
  • She vaguely borders on a Parody Sue, in that while she's (as is well-known) practically perfect in every way, very few of the truly positive developments in the movie are directly her doing. While she is the catalyst for change, very little of it comes directly from her... for example, Mr. Banks' changed attitude towards his children largely comes from experiences that he had intended to have with them anyway (taking them to the bank to open their account) and his conversation with Bert (who had been hired as a sweep independent of Mary). Mary gives a nudge here or there, but her influence is far more subtle and less direct than many examples of the Sue breed.
• Ear Worm: Practically every song.
  • Chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cheree, a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be! Chim chiminey chim chiminey chim chim cheroo...
  • Just...A... Spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine go dow-own, the medicine go down! Just a spoon full of sugar makes the medicine go down, in the most de liiiiiiiight-fullllll waaaaaaaay!
  • Feed the birds, tuppence a bag. Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag! Feed the birds, that's what she cries, while overhead her birds fill the skies!
    • Famously, this song was a favorite of Walt Disney. Whenever he visited the Sherman brothers, he would say "play it". They would already know he meant "Feed the Birds" and play it for him. Even at his funeral.
  • Let's! Go! Fly a kite! Up! To! The highest height! Let's! Go! Fly a kite, and send! It! Soaring!
  • Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. If you say it loud enough, you'll always sound precocious....
  • I love to laugh! Loud and long and clear! I love to laugh! It's getting worse every year...
  • Step in time! Step in time! Step in time! Step in time! Never need a reason, never need a rhyme! Step in time! You step in time!
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Miss Andrew, the anti-Poppins, seems to be this in the stage version.
• Purity Sue: A rare positive example, helped by Andrews's Academy Award winning performance, making Mary come across as a three dimensional character.
• So Bad It's Good: Not the movie itself, mind. But rather, Dick Van Dyke's accent.
• What Do You Mean It's Not Didactic?: Some critics and academics have argued that the film encapsulates the societal shift of its time, with Mr. Banks representing the passing of the stuffy 1950s and Mary Poppins representing the arrival of the carefree 1960s.
  • In the musical, the contrast between generations is represented in the story, with George Banks, Miss Andrew, and most of the adults representing the older up-tight Victorian era while Mary, Bert, Mrs. Corry, Northbrook and a few others represent the much looser Edwardian era.