Week 3 - the umbrella
The third object you had to find was one of the most iconic one: Mary Poppins's umbrella.
It is thanks to this umbrella that Mary Poppins can fly. It has become iconic mainly because of its handle (= poignée): it is a talking parrot head! And this little parrot has quite a cheeky (= impertinent) personality! At the end of the first movie, he tells Mary Poppins that the Banks children don't really care about her...
For this scene where the parrot talks to Mary Poppins, an animatronic was used. It is a little animated or robotised creature controlled from a distance thanks to cables or a remote control (= télécommande). The little bird that sings with Mary Poppins in another scene was also an animatronic.
THE CLUES
The parrot has a BILL (synonym of "beak"). One of RIHANNA's best selling song is entitled "Umbrella". The handle is a TALKING parrot head and the umbrella is used to protect oneself from RAIN.
BONUS
Did you know that in the scene where all the nannies waiting for an interview are blown away by the wind (opening their umbrella didn't help!), most of the actors playing the nannies were men?! Why? Well, the actors had to be stuntmen (= cascadeurs) and in the 1960s, this job was predominantly taken by male actors. Another reason could be that it made all the nannies look very unattractive in comparison with Mary Poppins who appears for the first time in the next scene of the movie.
The design of the umbrella in Mary Poppins Returns (2018) has changed a little. In this new movie, the parrot is brown.
Actress Emily Blunt, who plays Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns (2018), took home one of the umbrellas used for the movie, as a souvenir!
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