Sunday, November 9, 2008

Our Daughters' Daughters Will Adore Us

This weekend, LittleBird entered a new phase of her girlhood. She saw Mary Poppins for the very first time.

Her face was priceless during A Spoonful of Sugar. Her jaw actually dropped open as the toys flew across the room and put themselves away.

It has affected her in a profound way. She has woken up two nights in a row and come to our room to ask us hundreds of questions about every nuance of the film a three year-old could manage. She is trying to wrap her brain around all of these terribly complicated concepts.

One of the benefits of watching this type of film is having the opportunity to appreciate the humor through adult eyes. In light of our recent election, I particularly enjoyed Mrs. Banks and her involvement with the suffragette movement.

I had forgotten the wittiness of the writing of that particular scene. The personality of Mrs. Banks makes light of the imprisonments and hunger strikes, but there are references throughout the film. How excited she is to throw eggs at the Prime Minister, of her fellow suffragettes chaining themselves to fences. How she understands her limitations in the line: "Put these away, you know how the cause infuriates Mr. Banks."

She is an endearing character, and her description of their activities quite charming. It is a rose-colored glasses view of history, but timely nonetheless.

If you have a moment, treat yourself to the scene. The text is even there for you to follow along. I promise, you'll be whistling the tune despite yourself. I've particularly enjoyed singing to Hubbie that men are rather stupid. With lyrics like those, how can you go wrong?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

i totally love mary poppins. When I was wee i often called my great auntie Mary poppins cos she was magic. And the film was really magical. I loved the chimney sweeping. Awesome.

Irrational Dad said...

hmmm.... I've never seen Mary Poppins. But with a song about men being stupid, how can I go wrong!?!?!

RiverPoet said...

I've never seen Mary Poppins. Not sure why that wasn't part of my childhood, but it wasn't. So was this supposed to be set in America (despite the British accents) or did they have the same parallel battle in UK for women's voting rights?

Peace - D

RiverPoet said...

Nevermind! I just read the suffragette movement link. Sorry! D

Anonymous said...

Love this movie, and I recently watched it for the first time as an adult and really got so much more out of it.

Know my favorite part of your post, though? That you got the punctuation correct on the subject line. Seriously...how many other bloggers would have written: Our Daughter's Daughter's Will Adore Us?

Kudos to you!
D

A Free Man said...

Because of the last election results I've changed my mind about letting women vote. If they hadn't we'd be talking about President McCainright now.

;)

Mary Poppins rocks!

Not Afraid to Use It said...

@SSG: I'll bet your Auntie loved that!

@Joe: It really must be a girl thing. But it is DEF a right of passage a little girl should experience.

@RiverPoet: Nope. Britain, 1910. I hope you get the chance to see it one day. It won't be the same, seeing it through adult eyes, but it is wonderful just the same.

@babymakesthree: I'll fess up--I totally looked it up to make sure I had it correct. I was NOT going to fuck this up.LOL

@AFreeMan: I think you are my husband's new hero.

Coal Miner's Granddaughter said...

Awesome! I'm so glad she enjoyed it! And the suffrage movement? Have you watched "Iron Jawed Angels"? Amazing film. Check it out!

Kelly said...

I love Mary Poppins and can't wait to share it with Miss Priss!

Gypsy said...

And we'll sing in grateful chorus!!

Awesome. :)