The Royal Doulton Animals are background characters who appear in the 2018 Disney film, Mary Poppins Returns. They are a group of animated animals who appear in the animated sequences in the Royal Doulton Bowl scene.
Background[]
The animals from the Royal Doulton Bowl sequence are a group of anthropomorphic animated animals seen throughout the animated sequence - mostly consisting of vertebrates. Given the fact that they are the only inhabitants encountered in the Royal Doulton Bowl hints that it is a world inhabited only by animals with no humans within the location.
Development[]
The animals were created through the use of hand-drawn animation in tradition with the 1964 original film but instead of a chalk painting, the animated sequence took place in the Royal Doulton Bowl. Before the animated sequence was finalized, the scene went in pre-production at London featuring pre-animation rehearsals were done in a green screen to bring in performances within the animated world while the costumes for the live-action characters were designed by costume designer Sandy Powell as an homage to the original film - specifically the "Jolly Holiday" and "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" sequences. The animated sequence was done at Duncan Animation Studios at Pasadena in California where the production team coordinated with the animators from the studio as well as the production design and the costume design. Producer John DeLuca commented that the sequence being made for Mary Poppins Returns was unique as the film never had live actors in animation in an attempt to create something never seen for many years in the big screen. The scene where Mary Poppins, Jack, John, Annabel, and Georgie ride on Shamus' carriage where it it seen going around the Royal Doulton Bowl proved to be one of the most difficult scenes to animate, due to the live actors sitting on an animated prop used by animated characters in the sequence. While most of the elements were created using hand-drawn animation, the carriage Shamus was riding on was created through CGI animation.
The scene where the animated animals dance with Mary Poppins and Jack on stage was used as an homage to classic musicals from the past - specifically numbers by Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, or Judy Garland. The penguins seen during the animated sequence dancing with Mary Poppins show an homage to the ones dancing with Dick Van Dyke (the original actor who played Bert) in the original film. Lin-Manuel Miranda, who played Jack, commented in an interview that the scene with the live actors interacting with the animated characters was a thrill, even though the scene with the animated animals was one of the most advanced scenes to be ever made which director Rob Marshall commented that the animated sequence took about over a year to finish the sequence which despite the challenge, the sequence became a thrill for him.[1]
Role in the film[]
As Mary Poppins enters the Royal Doulton Bowl with Jack, John, Annabel, and Georgie following along, they encounter an anthropomorphic dog named "Shamus" who introduces himself to the group which Mary apologizes to him for the crack on the bowl the Banks family's children caused in their house which Clyde, a talking horse, replies, telling Shamus that Mary can talk and as the children fix Shamus' carriage which Mary, Jack, and the children board on his carriage to go on an adventure across the Royal Doulton Bowl just as the musical number "The Royal Doulton Music Hall" begins as Mary sings along. As Shamus gives the group a tour across the Royal Doulton Bowl, two hummingbirds fly and land on Mary's finger, happily greeting her just as they fly away, followed by a family of storks. Other animals they encounter along the way are a dodo, lions, crocodiles, rhinos, bears, monkeys, a moose, and many other animals they encounter inside the bowl. As the carriage stops, Mary uses her parasol to bring in the Royal Doulton Music Hall which appears in front of them where all the inhabitants encountered there are anthropomorphic animals.
In front of the group is the entrance to the Royal Doulton Music Hall and just as the group enters, the Wolf (Wilkins' animated counterpart) happily greets Mary who happily honors her to be part of the stage this evening, followed by the Wolf happily observing John, Annabel, and Georgie Banks and later Jack, followed by the Badger and the Weasel (Hamilton Gooding and Templeton Frye's animated counterparts) telling the four that they knew about the Banks family, just as the Wolf offers the children to get cotton candy to enjoy their moments at the Royal Doulton Music Hall, unaware of the Wolf's sinister grin. Just as Mary, Jack, and the children enter, five pink flamingos perform on stage and sing in front of the audience while an orangutan conducts an orchestra with an octopus using his tentacles as the orchestra's sole musician while the audience is made up of anthropomorphic animals. Elsewhere in the audience, a whale watches the flamingos performing on stage as a guard holds an umbrella to protect himself, much to a duck sitting next to a walrus feeling uncomfortable of the whale above her. Jack then directs Mary, John, Annabel, and Georgie who find their seats where they sit next to a hedgehog family.
As the flamingos leave the stage, the audience cheers for a wonderful performance. Jack then announces for Mary's performance, which Mary tells the crowd that she hasn't sung for years; a group of penguins suddenly appear and tell her to sing which Mary agrees, telling the conductor to perform the musical number in D-flat major as the octopus plays the tune which Mary requested. During the musical number "A Cover is Not the Book", the penguins dance along with Mary who performs in front of the audience who then participate in Mary's singing, followed by Jack and the penguins dancing alongside with Mary. Just as Mary and Jack continue dancing with the penguins, a whole cast of animated animals appear on stage consisting of an elephant, a seal, a camel, pigs, monkeys, foxes, and turtles who perform with Mary and Jack - each wearing a pattern of purple and pink in their outfits. As the musical number resumes, Mary, Jack, and the dancing animals perform in front of the audience just as they all sing along during performance on stage followed by the chorus of flamingos who dance along with them. After their performance, the animal audience cheers for Mary and Jack's wonderful performance, followed by the children cheering along, only to notice that their toy giraffe, Gillie, is taken away. It is shown that the Wolf, the Badger, and the Weasel were the ones who took Gillie away. This leads John, Annabel, and Georgie to go after the Wolf, the Badger, and the Weasel with help from Shamus and Clyde to retrieve Gillie, causing Mary, Jack, and the children to end up in the real world at the nursery located at the Banks family home at Cherry Tree Lane upon reaching the edge of the bowl.
After the Royal Doulton Bowl was repaired at Topsy's shop, it is unknown if the repair on the Bowl affected the animals' existence.
Trivia[]
- Concept art for the flamingos that appear and dance in front of the audience are shown to wear different designs, making them one of the characters who had the most design changes before their finalized designs depict them to make them wearing pink showgirl dresses which curiously match their pink colors.
- Concept art also shows an unused animation of various animals sitting on an incidental moose's antlers while watching performance consisting of a squirrel, beaver, opossum, hummingbird, mouse, and snake respectively, but was scrapped in the final version of the film, likely because the animation would be too advanced when the moose himself applauds followed by the other animals on his antlers cheering.
- The scene featuring an incidental whale is seen sitting on a balcony where two seagulls are seen flying waiting for the show to begin is a possible homage to the Willie the Operatic Whale segment from Make Mine Music where the seagulls took part in the audience watching Willie's performance at the opera house with sailors watching the balcony with Willie as the whale performing on stage.
- One of the incidental dogs featured in the Royal Doulton Hall sequence has a striking resemblance to Lady from Lady and the Tramp.
- In the Deluxe Novelization adaptation of Mary Poppins Returns, the orchestra the orangutan was conducting was an animal orchestra of different musicians rather than the octopus being the orchestra's sole musician.[2]
