Mary Poppins
Buena Vista Distribution Company | Release Date: August 27, 1964 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 13 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
And a most wonderful, cheering movie it is, with Julie Andrews, the original Eliza of My Fair Lady, playing the title role and with its splices and seams fairly splitting with Poppins marvels turned out by the Walt Disney studio. Read full review
100
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Julie Andrews’ first appearance on the screen is a signal triumph and she performs as easily as she sings, displaying a fresh type of beauty nicely adaptable to the color cameras. Van Dyke, as the happy-go-lucky jack-of-all-trades, scores heavily, the part permitting him to showcase his wide range of talents. Read full review
90
The DissolveNoel Murray
Mary Poppins is a near-masterpiece. It’s the best of the first wave of Disney live-action features, and the most complete and satisfying musical of any kind that the studio produced until Beauty And The Beast came along. Read full review
90
The TelegraphMartin Chilton
Van Dyke's energy is prodigious (especially when he leaps around with a gang of sooty chimney-sweeps on the London rooftops) and the songs are classics. Read full review
90
The GuardianEmma Brockes
Tomlinson is the great heart of the movie, the warmth to Andrews’ splinter of ice, who, while sustaining the film’s line in jokey verbosity, still manages to be moving. Read full review
90
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
The film can hardly contain itself with its catalogue of memorable songs, battery of dance routines, and strong supporting cast. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
While it doesn't have the soft-edged sense of wonder that the Travers books have, Walt Disney's 1964 version of the Mary Poppins story does manage to avoid the usual saccharine excesses of his live-action work. Read full review
90
IGNPeter Schorn
What holds Mary Poppins back from being absolutely perfect (as opposed to practically perfect) is due to the episodic structure of the story. Since scenes and songs were drawn from a range of stories from the book series, they play as a series of random adventures, not an organic progression of a single tale. Read full review
80
TV Guide Magazine
One of the greatest children's films ever, MARY POPPINS is as perfect and inventive a musical as anyone could see, with a timeless story, strong performances, a flawless blend of live action and animation, wonderful songs, and a sterling script with all the charm of the P.L. Travers books upon which it is based. Read full review
80
EmpireEmma Cochrane
One too many jokes about Dick Van Dyke's dire Cawk-nee accent can drag a movie down. Read full review
80
TimeStaff (Not Credited)
Though overlong and sometimes over-cute, Mary Poppins is the drollest Disney film in decades, a feat of prestidigitation with many more lifts than lapses. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineJaime N. Christley
The movie, like a day at Disney World, pulls the viewer through an incessant, nigh-claustrophobic landscape of surrealism and fun. Resistance is futile; the sugar is the medicine. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineEric Henderson
The “Whistle While You Work” residue of domestic slavery that colors “A Spoonful of Sugar” aside, Mary Poppins is basically Long Day’s Journey Into Matriarchy (cathartic for some, terrifying for others). Read full review
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