I promised more pictures from Galveston, but this struck me as something I wanted to talk about more. After all, the pictures will still be here next week, or the week after…

So, last Saturday, there was a special showing of Mary Poppins on TV. I recorded it and watched it on Monday.  I was incredibly impressed how well it held up. I sang along with most of the numbers, and rediscovered some that I had totally forgotten about.

It got me thinking about the recent Saving Mr. Banks. I wanted to see the story of the movie getting made. I’d never seen it, and I hadn’t read a lot about P. L. Travers, though I knew a bit about her life. So, I watched this film immediately after Mary Poppins. I was amazed how different the film the fictional version of the author wanted was from the final version.

It made me wonder what the original book was like. I started reading it Monday night. I haven’t gotten terribly far in the novel, but it is substantially different. I also have copies of The Real Life Mary Poppins: The Life and Times of P.L. Travers and Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P.L. Travers in my queue, because I want to see how accurate the portrayal of Travers was according to her biographers.

Am I obsessing? Is this a trip down the rabbit hole–or maybe up the chimney? 😉

I think it is a good example of how interesting following a research thread can be. 🙂

It’s also an interesting tale of how a writer’s work can wind up totally different than their vision if they are ever lucky enough to get that “Big Hollywood Break.” This is something that every writer needs to be aware of. (Though I’d still love to have to worry about it…)