The Walt Disney classic film, Mary Poppins, has been translated into 20 languages. Now Google Translate makes for 21. Don’t get me wrong. Google Translate is an amazing tool! But the translation algorithms have somehow managed to develop a language all their own, that no one else quite understands.
Most everyone can recognize at least one of the Mary Poppins songs in the following medley. Many know the words by heart. But even if you’re not an MP aficionado, you’ll pick up on the oh-so unique (!) Google Translate interpretation of the lyrics.
Compare the original lyrics to the songs (in the banner above the window) with the Google Translate version (in subtitles below), and have a jolly good time watching the brilliant video clip. In the words of Google Translate, “Oh, good night is blowing up!”
A couple of weeks ago, news of the just-released trailer for a new movie about Walt Disney stormed the Twitterverse. That’s how I first heard about “Saving Mr. Banks”, the untold story behind Walt Disney’s acquisition of the rights for “Mary Poppins” — the much-loved children’s book by P.L. Traverse.
P.L. Traverse’s Mary Poppins books were loved by many, well before Walt Disney turned the first book in the series into a major motion picture in 1963.
But the whole world fell in love with Mary Poppins, when Julie Andrews starred in the leading role opposite Dick Van Dyke. The Sherman Brothers’ musical score had everyone singing the hit songs Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Spoon Full of Sugar, Step in Time, and Feed the Birds, to name a few.
Maybe it’s because so many of us grew up loving this story and its characters (even the dancing penguins!), that the trailer about the untold story behind the personalities that brought this story and film to life sparked a reaction similar “the tweet heard round the world.”
Characters Need To Be Larger Than Life
Anyone who’s seen Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color on TV (or became addicted to the reruns), is familiar with Walt Disney, the man: his voice, his mannerisms, and demeanor. So, it would be a hard-sell for any actor to fill those shoes. The same could be said for P.L. Traverse, if we were as familiar with her as we are with “Uncle Walt.”
I admit, that at first I was taken aback by Tom Hanks‘ impersonation of Walt Disney. My internal editor said things like, “Walt Disney didn’t talk like that” and “Walt Disney wasn’t that demonstrative.”
Then I took a step back and realized that P.L. Traverse probably wasn’t as pinched and twitchy as Emma Thompson‘s impersonation either. I finally realized that, much like the characters in the stories we write, the characters in movies have to be larger than life to be interesting.
Along with the characterizations of Walt Disney and P.L. Traverse … I’m sure embellishments were added and (or left out), to make the “story” screen-worthy. I’m OK with that, for the sake of an engaging (based-on a true) “story”. How about you?
A Sneak Peak at “Saving Mr. Banks”
To Learn More About the REAL Walt Disney…
If you are captivated by Walt Disney (the man) and all he accomplished, you should most definitely visit the Walt Disney Family Museum (WDFM) in the San Francisco Presidio. Trust me. It’s not like any museum you’ve ever been to. You will be amazed. You can find out more on my blog post about the WDFM here.
Magic happens at writers’ conferences… So it was no surprise that the air was sparkling with it at the “Practically Perfect” NY13SCBWI Winter Conference. Seriously. How could it not, with Julie Andrews (a.k.a. Mary Poppins) and her amazingly talented daughter Emma Walton Hamilton as keynote speakers?
Julie Andrews has been writing wonderful books for children for forty years–on top of launching the Julie Andrews Collection–and has collaborated with her daughter on 27 titles. To read the SCBWI blog on their presentation, go here: “It Takes Two”. You won’t want to miss it. It’s awesome!
What I wanted to talk about today came from a question asked of Julie Andrews after the presentation…
What book influenced you the most growing up?
A simple enough question … on the surface. But when I peeled back the layers of time and re-experienced the feeling that one book gave me, hooking me on reading for the rest of your life…
Four words: It rocked my world.
That book opened a doorway to magic, imagination, and adventure, and I could go there any time I just by opening the pages. Pretty powerful stuff.
For Julie Andrews, that book was “The Little Gray Men“. She loves that story so much, that she brought it back into print in the Julie Andrews Collection. For the person asking the question, it was Julie Andrews’ first book, “Mandy“.
For me it was “The House at Pooh Corner“. I was in the third grade, and the silliness of the story and clever misspelled words, like “rox” and “Wol” won me over instantly. And all the endearing characters were my new BFFs.
My fourth grade teacher read “Charlotte’s Web” to our class, and I fell in love with Wilbur and Charlotte. I’d never really cared much for pigs until then, and I’d been terrified of anything spidery. One story changed all that.
There have been many books since… But “The House at Pooh Corner” will always be my first; the book that was the key to a world of wonder.
How about YOU…
What book rocked your world?
Don’t be shy. You’re among friends here.
And don’t be afraid to tell us about more than one treasured story that changed your life!
To suspend disbelief and surrender to a story, the characters have to be believable. That sounds simple enough. Yeah, right. I read books that advised me to create character sheets listing descriptive features and facts about each character. I did. And my characters came out two-dimensional.
A list of facts didn’t get me inside my character’s skin. I have to internalize who the characters are before their personalities shine through my writing.
A list of traits was only a description of the outside of a character. And while those details are important, I needed to understand my character from the inside out before I could write dialog and describe actions that were real for that character.
I was a film-a-holic before I started on my writing journey. From watching all those movies, it finally clicked that writers have to be actors, show a character’s feelings through their words and actions. But before I could do that, I had to understand who they were.
Again, “how do you do that?”
Discovering Your Character’s Quirks
Fast-forward a few years along my writing journey, after a lot of trial and error and input from some honest critique partners (thank you!). Here’s a few methods I discovered that help me “become one” with my characters.
1. What’s in a closet says a lot about character.
In a UC Extension workshop taught by Andrea Brown, yes the Andrea Brown of Andrea Brown Literary Agency, asked the class describe unique items that were in our character’s closet (baseball gear, ballet slippers, board games, etc). This type of list helped opened a window into my character, because the contents of their closet showed me “who” they were and “what” they cared about.
2. I tweet, therefore I am.
In my current project, my characters tweet to each other rather than text, because it’s free. To pull this off, I couldn’t make up Twitter handles without the danger of exposing actual accounts. So, I had to create an account for each character. This included designing profile pages that matched their personalities, and figuring out who they would follow, besides each other. All I can say is, “whoa!” Figuring out who someone follows on Twitter is a great exercise in getting to know someone. My characters became surreally real, especially when they began tweeting to each other.
3. Do, Be, Do, Be, Do.
“Doing” is the fastest way to learn something, for many of us. And the rule holds true for learning who your characters are on a personal level.
DISCLAIMER:I *only* dress up as fictional characters on Halloween. But even so, it’s an amazing experience. People treat you like you are that character. Seriously. I learned that you can go pretty much anywhere and talk to anyone dressed as Mary Poppins. I am not even kidding.
Relax, you don’t have to dress up like a character to experience who they are:
Try the things your character likes doing: rollerblading, martial arts, dumpster diving *well, maybe not that one*
Eat your character’s favorite foods: taste, smell, and touch elicit tangible feelings you can use to bring a character to life
Frequent places your character would go: utilize atmosphere, sights, sounds, people, and even conversations you overhear to give depth to your character
4. Pushing the Extreme Method Envelope.
Some actors push the envelope of method acting, and *stay in character* even when off the set or stage. If you’re extreme enough, you take this approach to getting into your character’s head too. I haven’t tried it, yet. But you never know.
For example, Lily Tomlin took “method acting” to a new level by dressing up as a character, and then going out into the real-world and interacting with people “in character”.
Trudy the-bag-lady was a life-study character Lily Tomlin later used professionally, as seen in the following clip from the 1980 Lily Tomlin Comedy Special, with guests Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda.
How do you get to know your characters?
We all learn in different ways. What worked for you might help someone else crack the surface of their character so they can make them fully rounded. Caring is sharing!
Help with Character Development — a post with lots of links for a broad range of useful advice on character development, compliments of Elizabeth S. Craig.
Because Fridays are always better with a Happy Dance!
Or … maybe … because my previous post on Animated Storytelling is the perfect excuse set up for posting a dance sequence that ALWAYS makes me laugh ... The dancing penguins sequence from Walt Disney’s “Mary Poppins”!
I especially love the penguin who toboggans off-screen, and then – try as he might – can never get back in sync with the group. I think that’s because I frequently feel like I’ve gone barreling off the map and am forever out of step with everyone else!
