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Credit: Inside the MagicIn 2019, Walt Disney Imagineering announced that the first-ever Mary Poppins (1964) attraction would open in the United Kingdom World Showcase Pavilion as part of a major EPCOT overhaul. Though the ride was essentially a dressed-up version of Mad Tea Party, it was just a small part of a Cherry Tree Lane-inspired expansion featuring a whimsical garden.
As we all know, 2020 was a year unlike anything we could’ve imagined. The COVID-19 closures halted construction at Walt Disney World Resort. Even as restrictions slowly disappeared, construction material costs skyrocketed. It took over a year for the Central Florida Disney park to recover from staffing shortages caused by laying off thousands during the pandemic.
Walt Disney World Resort’s 50th Anniversary came and went without almost any of the promised EPCOT projects. World Celebration Garden, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Connections Cafe, Space 220, Journey of Water Inspired by Moana, and other experiences eventually opened… But the result paled in comparison to the planned EPCOT overhaul. The Play Pavilion, a Spaceship Earth update, and the Cherry Tree Lane expansion are widely considered canceled.
Disney Parks fans have long blamed COVID-19 budget cuts and construction constraints for the silence on the Mary Poppins ride. But a recent development about the film suggests a more nefarious reason behind the abandoned attraction.
This week, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) updated its maturity rating for the classic Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins) and Dick Van Dyke (Bert) film. Initially rated for all audiences, the board now recommends “parental guidance” for Mary Poppins because of a racial slur used in the movie.
A side character named Admiral Boom (Reginald Owen), who believes his home to be a naval ship, uses the word “Hottentots” to describe Mary Poppins, Michael Banks (Matthew Garber), and Jane Banks (Karen Dotrice), who are covered in soot. Though the film isn’t intentionally depicting Blackface, using such a word to describe darkened skin is cringe-inducing at best.
Initially used by the Dutch in the 17th century to describe the Indigenous Khoikhoi people of South Africa and Namibia, the word fell out of fashion for its derogatory nature. Most wouldn’t recognize the term today because it was so offensive that nearly everyone disregarded it as a racial slur.
The Walt Disney Company appears proud of Mary Poppins. So much so that they created a dramatized retelling of Walt Disney’s (Tom Hanks) strained relationship with P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) as he tried to gain the film rights to her “Mary Poppins” books: Saving Mr. Banks (2013). Five years later, Emily Blunt starred as the whimsical nanny in a beloved sequel to the 1964 film, Mary Poppins Returns (2018). Disney theme park guests can still meet Mary at Magic Kingdom Park, Disneyland Park, EPCOT, and, sometimes, Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Nevertheless, there’s more controversy behind Travers’ beloved character than the public realizes. The eight-book series contains horrifically racist references to “Red Indians” and countless uses of the slur later seen in the film. In a particularly heinous chapter, Mary Poppins visits an African country with the Banks children, and the narrator describes a “negro lady” carrying “a tiny black pickaninny with nothing on at all.”
The character spoke in a dialect that was questionable even upon the book’s 1934 publication: “My, but dem’s very white babies. You wan’ use a li’l bit black boot polish on dem.”
Travers revised the chapter twice, in 1967 and 1981. The latter came a year after the San Francisco Public Library System removed all eight “Mary Poppins” books from its shelves because of the racial stereotypes within them.
After speaking with a schoolteacher friend, Travers said she felt it necessary to remove any language that would hurt Black children reading her novels. But just a few years after her second revision, the author disavowed the decision and condemned adults for allegedly speaking on behalf of children: “What I find strange is that, while my critics claim to have children’s best interests in mind, children themselves have never objected to the book.”
This information has been public for decades. But as time passes, fewer children know Mary Poppins from the books–many don’t even know the series exists. Today’s adults are largely unaware of the 1980s controversy surrounding Travers.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) hasn’t announced plans to change Mary Poppins’ maturity rating in the United States. Even so, Walt Disney World Resort’s decision to cancel the Mary Poppins attraction may have stemmed from a foreseen cultural reckoning about the decades-old film and book series. They don’t want another Splash Mountain on their hands.
Does Mary Poppins deserve a higher maturity rating in the 21st century? Share your thoughts with Inside the Magic in the comments.