By Steven Suskin
22 May 2005

Coming soon to a theatre near us, to coin a new paraphrase, is the Disney Cameron Mackintosh Mary Poppins. In the meantime, the house of Walt has seen fit to outfit a super-duper new 2-DVD release of the 1964 original [Buena Vista].  Mary Poppins is a jolly 'oliday, all right. The stars, Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke — both Broadway recruits — are supercali-whatever; the score, by the Brothers Sherman (currently on Broadway with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang), contains a good handful of fine tunes, and the film is loaded with charm and magical effects.

The music sounds especially good, in large part due to the presence of orchestrator Irv Kostal. Kostal was just then in his prime, following West Side Story, Fiorello! Tenderloin and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Listen, and watch, the way the Mary Poppins orchestrations prop up the action on the screen. Quite a spree, it is. Mary Poppins served to force Kostal out of the Broadway market. Conflicting schedules prompted him to walk out on his contract for Fiddler on the Roof. (Which would you choose?)  Poppins turned out to be the right choice, especially as it led Kostal directly to the film version of The Sound of Music.

Disney has also released their cinema classic Bambi [Buena Vista]. This never was a stage musical, and presumably never will be (although stranger things have happened). Bambi is less musical than its Disney brethren, with the songs more incidental than character-related.  That's probably all to the good, and besides the point; this 1942 film is quite special, and as is typical the two-disc set is loaded with interesting extras (including deleted scenes, a "making of" documentary, and more). With a spiffed-up, state-of-the-art restoration, Bambi shows us what Disney was doing back when Walt was at the controls. In 1942, in the middle of World War II, a film like Bambi must have really seemed magical.

—Steven Suskin, author of "A Must See! Brilliant Broadway Artwork" [Chronicle Books], the "Broadway Yearbook" series, "Show Tunes" and the "Opening Night on Broadway" books. He can be reached by e-mail at Ssuskin@aol.com.