19.15 mmol of C6H12O6

Essay-a-Week Challenge - Week 6, Part 2

"June 10th: One Movie Everyone Should See"

Whether a chick flick or a slasher, take go ahead and gush about a film you love.

Topics from, A Bookful Blockhead.

Part 1 (preamble), here. 

Unlike the mysteriously magical nanny, the above recording is not practically perfect in every way, due to some rusty fingers and poor recording equipment. But enjoy nonetheless =). 

My favourite movie, and perhaps the movie everyone should see, is Mary Poppins. It's a movie based on a children's book, and while its appeal is mostly for kids, the story brings out the inner child in everyone. There are plenty of heart-warming themes, a cast of interesting characters, and an endless track of wonderful songs. Despite the father, Mr. Banks, playing the early antagonist, by the end you'll feel happy for everyone in the entire family as Mary Poppins floats away in the distance.

I have always enjoyed watching my favourite movies and shows over and over again, and I have watched Mary Poppins dozens of times. I never tire of the music, the penguins, and the tap-dance number of "Step-in-Time". Most recently, I went through much of the film last Wednesday, while facing the much dreaded, corrupted server-monster that hosts McMaster's course registration services (needing to get up early the next morning, I started Mary Poppins at midnight and promised myself to go to sleep if the movie finished before I got into the system, as opposed to staying up 'til 3:30 the previous year to get into just 40% of my courses). Thankfully, the movie made the "tab, enter, enter, and repeat" sequence slightly more bearable.

Mary Poppins, Julie Andrew's first major movie, was filmed in 1964 in glorious 2-D. Arguably a classic, the movie does not feel like one, with its main conflict - the battle between work and family - at the heart of modern troubles, and it is easy to relate to the Banks family. Only we wish we could have such a mysterious, magical nanny to pay us a visit.

Whenever you're a bit bored, or looking for a movie to cheer you up a bit and release your inner, confused-but-optimistic child, then consider picking up Mary Poppins. Oh, and the music. is. wonderful. Besides Chim Chim Cher-ee winning the Oscar for Best Original Song, I enjoy every song of the movie, from the famous "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" and "A Spoonful of Sugar", to Mrs. Bank's "Sister Suffragettes". Oh yeah, the film won Best Original Score as well.

Besides showcasing a lovely repertoire of Disney songs, I give credit to Mary Poppins for my self-training at a young age to "play by ear", that is, playing a song after listening to it. The first song I can recall trying to figure out is Chim Chim Cher-ee, and once I was able to reproduce its melody (I even scribbled down some messy notes on staff paper), I was soon trying to replicate any song I wanted to learn. More than 10 years later as I write this, I've embedded a more recent play-by-ear attempt [above], a Mary Poppins medley that I put together earlier this week, played courtesy of my aunt and uncle's newly-tuned piano.

I hope that you've all watched this movie at some point, and can reflect on some of the scenes and clips from Youtube and recall your thoughts and feelings from when you first watched it. And if you haven't watched it yet, I would strongly suggest watching Mary Poppins. Or even better [perhaps], seeing the musical adaption, Mary Poppins the Musical, in person. I was lucky enough to see in last week, and my post about that can be seen here (to be written).

Sorry for this late post, but better late than never. I'll leave you with a video clip of "Step In Time", and I hope I'll be in time for the next post.