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The Story:
The film opens with a shot of Mary Poppins touching up her makeup as she perches on a cloud high above 1910 London. The action then descends to earth where Bert, a cockney jack-of-all-trades, introduces the audience to the Bankses, a well-to-do but troubled family headed by the cold and aloof Mr. Banks and the loving but highly distracted Mrs. Banks. The Banks' latest nanny has just quit out of exasperation at the indiscipline of the Banks children, Jane and Michael, a fact that Mrs. Banks only belatedly becomes aware of, due to her ongoing preoccupation with suffragette rallies.

Mr. Banks decides to take a personal hand in the hiring of a replacement and insists on a stern authoritarian type to control his children. However, Jane and Michael take upon themselves to draft an advertisement for a fun person who would not be a tyrant. Although Mr. Banks rejects their proposal, tears up their ad and throws it in the fireplace, the note magically flies up the chimney.

The next day there is a long line of nanny candidates waiting at the Banks' door. However, a strong gust of wind literally blows the nannies away while Mary Poppins flies down with her umbrella to apply. The interview with Mr. Banks goes quickly, when he is stunned to see this calmly defiant new nanny has responded to the children's ad (rather than his own) despite the fact he destroyed it. As he tries to fathom this mystery, Mary Poppins hires herself and begins work.

The children face surprises of their own as they discover that Mary's method of arrival is only the beginning of her magical talents. With songs and magic, numerous wondrously impossible things happen starting with Mary Poppin's bottomless carpetbag, and her making the children's nursery clean itself to the tune of "A Spoonful of Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down." The magic continues with a wondrous outing that begins by literally jumping into a chalk pavement drawing with Bert, and later having tea while suspended in midair with Mary's joking "Uncle Albert" who floats uncontrollably whenever he laughs.

Mr. Banks grows increasingly uncomfortable with his children's stories of their adventures and how they are enchanted by the new nanny. However, Mary effortlessly inverts his attempted dismissal of her services into a plan to take his children with him to the bank where he is employed. Unfortunately, the occasion takes a disastrous turn when Mr. Dawes, Mr. Banks' extremely elderly employer, personally tries to persuade Michael to invest his money, which Michael intended for a local birdwoman, to the point of stealing it out of the boy's hand. When Michael loudly protests, the other customers suddenly panic and start a run that forces the bank to suspend business. In the resulting chaos, the children flee in fear, wander into the slums of the East End of London and become lost. Fortunately, they literally run into Bert, currently employed as a chimney sweep. He takes them safely home while explaining that the incident at the bank does not mean their father hates them, but rather is a sign of the fact that he has preoccupying problems of his own.

Upon arrival at the Banks' home, a departing Mrs. Banks hires Bert to watch the children until she gets home, where he ends up sweeping the chimney while the children watch. Mary arrives back from her day off to caution the children about the hazards of that activity. However, the children are sucked up the chimney to the roof. Bert and Mary follow to retrieve them. Taking advantage of the situation, Mary and Bert lead a tour of the rooftops of London that concludes with a joyfully energetic dance with Bert's chimney-sweep colleagues as they demonstrate their acrobatic skill to the music of "Step In Time." A volley of fireworks from the Banks' eccentric neighbor, Admiral Boom, sends the gathering back down the chimney into the Banks home.

Mr. Banks arrives home, forcing Mary to conclude the festivities. Banks then receives a phone call from work ordering him to return immediately for disciplinary action. As Mr. Banks gathers his strength to face his superiors, Bert points out that while Mr. Banks does need to make a living, his children's childhood will come and go in a blink of an eye, and as a father he needs to be there for them while he can. A sombre and thoughtful Mr. Banks proceeds to the bank where he is fired in the most humiliating way possible for causing the first run on the bank since 1773. However, after being left at a loss for words when ordered to give a statement about his dismissal, Mr. Banks realizes the true priorities of life and gleefully uses Mary's all purpose word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" to tweak Mr Dawes. He then tells Dawes one of Uncle Albert's jokes, and raucously departs to the amazement of his ex-colleagues. Dawes mulls over the joke, finally "gets it" and floats up into the air, laughing...

The next morning, the winds have changed and to the children's sorrow, Mary must depart. However, Mr. Banks, now loving and joyful, reappears after a long night's disappearance with a mended kite for the children and an urge to play with his family. Mrs. Banks also realizes that she's been neglectful of her children, and supplies a tail for the kite, using one of her suffragette ribbons. They all leave the house without a backward glance as Mary Poppins watches from a window. In the park with other kite-flyers, Mr. Banks meets Mr. Dawes Jr. who says that his father literally died laughing at the joke. Instead of mournful, the son is delighted his father died happy and rehires Mr. Banks to fill the sudden opening.

With her work done, Mary Poppins takes to the air with a farewell from Bert.

Trivia
 The "A Spoonful of Sugar" song sequence contains a double-goof. At one point in the song, Mary opens the window and performs a brief duet with a robin. However, it is clearly an American Robin (Turdus migratorius) rather than the unrelated European Robin (Erithacus rubecula) found in England. In addition, it is two male robins building the nest outside the window, which is unlikely.
In 2005, the film was in the theatres in Israel for the first time, and it was dubbed by the actress and singer Ninette Tayeb.
While being a notable film to combine animation with live action, it was still using old techniques and many faults are easy to see. For example, by looking closely during one scene where Bert dances with the animated penguins, you can see that they are transparent and the leg of the table where Mary is sitting at, is visible.
The Penguins from Mary Poppins can regularly be seen on the TV Show Disney's House of Mouse. They reappear in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, serving patrons at the Ink & Paint Club.
In a poll conducted by Channel 4 (UK TV channel) in 2003, Mary Poppins was voted the 5th best musical of all time .