Mary Poppins Trivia
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99 free Mary Poppins trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Mary Poppins trivia questions with answers. Walt Disney chased the rights to Mary Poppins for more than twenty years, and the author hated the result. This Mary Poppins trivia quiz covers the whole story: Julie Andrews's Oscar-winning debut after losing My Fair Lady, Dick Van Dyke's infamous accent and secret second role, the Sherman Brothers' songs, Uncle Albert on the ceiling, Admiral Boom's cannon, the tuppence that started a bank run, the sodium-vapor penguins and the thirteen Academy Award nominations. It also follows the story off screen and onward: P. L. Travers's conditions for the Cameron Mackintosh musical, Bristol and Broadway, Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks, and Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Meryl Streep and a desk-dancing Van Dyke in Mary Poppins Returns. About a third of the questions are for anyone who grew up with the film, a third for real fans, and the rest for those who know who dubbed the geese. Every answer is checked against a cited source shown under the question.
30 of 99 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Mary Poppins (1964) was the feature-film debut of which actress?
Julie Andrews
Julie Andrews was pregnant when Walt Disney offered her the part, so he promised to wait for her; she arrived in Hollywood with a three-month-old daughter to start rehearsals.
Q 02Who wrote the songs for the 1964 film Mary Poppins?
The Sherman Brothers
The Sherman Brothers' 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' drew a lawsuit from the writers of a 1949 song with a near-identical title; Disney won by showing that versions of the word were far older.
Q 03Mary Poppins director Robert Stevenson reunited with its songwriters for which 1971 Disney musical?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Bedknobs and Broomsticks again mixed live actors with cartoon animals, and one of its songs, 'The Beautiful Briny', had been written for Mary Poppins and cut.
Q 04The 1964 film was based mainly on which of the Mary Poppins books?
The first novel
The first novel gives Bert only a small part as a match seller; the film merged him with the books' chimney sweep and built him into a leading role.
Q 05When P. L. Travers sold Disney the Mary Poppins rights, what could she still approve?
Script
Script approval: Travers had her meetings with the writers taped and objected to much of what they wrote, but Walt Disney held final cut and overruled her.
Q 06At the premiere party, P. L. Travers told Walt Disney which part of Mary Poppins had to go?
The animated sequence
The animated sequence: Travers found Disney at the after-party and announced that it had to go, and he answered, 'Pamela, the ship has sailed.'
Q 07Mary Poppins lost Best Picture to which musical?
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady took Best Picture, but its Eliza Doolittle was not even nominated, and the Best Actress Oscar went to Mary Poppins herself.
Q 08Which Mary Poppins song, sung by Bert, won the Best Original Song Oscar?
'Chim Chim Cher-ee'
'Chim Chim Cher-ee' says a sweep's handshake brings luck, so when every sweep shakes Mr. Banks's hand the children tell him he'll be lucky, just before the bank rings to summon him.
Q 09Mrs. Banks campaigns for which cause in Mary Poppins?
Women's votes
Women's votes: she comes home thrilled that a fellow campaigner chained herself to the prime minister's carriage, yet she defers meekly to Mr. Banks.
Q 10In Mary Poppins, where does Mr. Banks throw the children's advertisement for a nanny after tearing it up?
Into the fireplace
Into the fireplace: the scraps drift up the chimney, and next morning Mary Poppins reads the mended letter back to him while he protests that he tore it up.
Q 11In Mary Poppins, what is Mr. Banks's first name?
George
George Banks is played by David Tomlinson, who also voices Mary's parrot-headed umbrella, so it is his voice that grumbles at the end that the children think more of their father than of her.
Q 12What is Mrs. Banks's first name in the 1964 film Mary Poppins?
Winifred
Winifred Banks is played by Glynis Johns, for whom Stephen Sondheim later wrote 'Send In the Clowns', a song she called the best gift she was ever given.
Q 13What do Mary Poppins, Bert and the children jump into?
A chalk pavement picture
A chalk pavement picture: Bert has drawn it as that day's job, and the outing ends when a rainstorm washes the chalk away and drops them back on the London pavement.
Q 21Which metal's yellow lamps lit the screen that let Mary Poppins's stars dance among cartoon penguins?
Sodium
Sodium: the sodium vapor process cut the actors out so cleanly that even the see-through veil on Mary Poppins's hat let the cartoon background show through.
Q 22In which Mary Poppins song does Mary duet with a robin that was really an Audio-Animatronic figure?
'A Spoonful of Sugar'
'A Spoonful of Sugar': the robin on her finger was a machine, and the whistling it seems to do was recorded by the film's star herself.
Q 23Where did Mary Poppins premiere on August 27, 1964?
Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Q 14Which second role does Dick Van Dyke play in Mary Poppins, under an anagram credit?
Mr. Dawes Sr.
Mr. Dawes Sr.: Van Dyke begged for the extra part and won it with a screen test in old-age make-up, and the end credits bill 'Navckid Keyd' before the letters unscramble into his name.
Q 15Which accent did Dick Van Dyke attempt as Bert in Mary Poppins, to decades of teasing from British audiences?
Cockney
Cockney: Van Dyke says the coach he was given 'didn't do an accent any better than I did', and in 2017 he apologised to Bafta's members for 'the most atrocious cockney accent in the history of cinema'.
Q 16In Mary Poppins, why does Uncle Albert float up to the ceiling?
He cannot stop laughing
He cannot stop laughing, and soon Bert and the children are giggling their way up to take tea on the ceiling with him; the only way down is to think of something sad.
Q 17In Mary Poppins, what does the Banks family's neighbour Admiral Boom fire from his roof twice a day?
A cannon
A cannon: he fires it to mark the hour, since 'Greenwich takes its time from Admiral Boom', and next door the cry of 'Posts, everyone!' goes up before each blast.
Q 18In Mary Poppins, where does the Bird Woman sell her breadcrumbs?
On the steps of St Paul's
On the steps of St Paul's: her song, 'Feed the Birds', was Walt Disney's favourite, and its writers recalled him asking on Friday afternoons to hear it played just for him.
Q 19In Mary Poppins, which sum does Michael refuse to hand over at the bank, sparking a run?
Tuppence
Tuppence: the bank's ancient chairman snatches the coins, Michael shouts for his money back, and customers who overhear take fright and demand theirs too.
Q 20In Mary Poppins, what does the magic tape measure read when Mary measures herself?
Practically perfect in every way
Practically perfect in every way: the same tape has just judged Michael extremely stubborn and suspicious, which he flatly denies, and Jane rather inclined to giggle.
Grauman's Chinese Theatre: the books' author had not been invited and had to press a Disney executive for a ticket, and the film she saw that night came as a shock to her.
Q 24Which Disney workshop was set up in 1965 with Mary Poppins profits?
MAPO
MAPO, short for MAry POppins, was the manufacturing arm of Walt's theme-park design firm, and its name survives on the safety system fitted to Disney's monorails.
Q 25Which actress took the screen role of Eliza Doolittle from Mary Poppins's star, then lost the Golden Globe to her?
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was then left off the Oscar shortlist, while her rival used her Golden Globe speech to thank Jack Warner, the studio boss who had refused to cast her.
Q 26In Mary Poppins, Mary tells the children she will stay only until what happens?
The wind changes
The wind changes: she says it at bedtime, and when the wind swings round to the west at the end she asks for her hat stand and packs while the family goes off to fly a kite.
Q 27According to Walt Disney, who made him promise to film the Mary Poppins books?
His daughters
His daughters loved the books, but keeping the promise took Walt more than 20 years, because their author kept refusing to sell him the rights.
Q 28Which Les Misérables producer won Travers's permission for a Mary Poppins stage musical?
Cameron Mackintosh
Cameron Mackintosh got the rights on her condition that nobody from the Disney film took part, yet after her death he teamed up with Disney so the show could use the film's songs.
Q 29Mary Poppins stage writer Julian Fellowes later created which TV drama?
Downton Abbey
Downton Abbey followed in 2010; for Mary Poppins he brought back a book character the film skipped, Mr. Banks's own fearsome childhood nanny, Miss Andrew.
Q 30In Mary Poppins, Mary first says 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' after winning what?
A horse race
A horse race: she wins it on a carousel horse, and when reporters crowd round and suggest she must be lost for words, she tells them she has exactly the right one.