Let's Go Fly a Kite

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"Let's Go Fly A Kite" is a song from Walt Disney's film Mary Poppins, and it is composed by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. This song is heard at the end of the film when the story's protagonist, "George Banks" (played by David Tomlinson) realizes that his family is more important than his job. He mends his son's kite and takes his family on a kite flying outing. The song is sung by Tomlinson, Dick Van Dyke and eventually the entire chorus.

In fitting with Mr. Banks' change in character, this song was pre-recorded, and thus sung normally, by Tomlinson, rather than his previous talk-sing in the Rex Harrison style, as is seen earlier in "The Life I Lead."

[edit] Development

Although the notion of Mary Poppins gliding down a kite is mentioned incidentally in one of the P.L. Travers books, the metaphor of the mended kite (being a symbol of the mended Banks family) is taken from the 1961 Sherman Brothers' screenplay treatment. The song was inspired by the Sherman Brothers father, Al Sherman who beside being a well known songwriter in his day, was also an amateur kite maker, who made kites for neighborhood children as a weekend hobby.

The song was originally written in 4/4 or common time, but Walt Disney felt it was too much like the ending of a Broadway show and wanted a song that was more "breezy", like a waltz. The song was recrafted into a 3/4 waltz-like arrangement.

The song appears in the stage musical version as well, but closer to the middle of the show and not at the show's end. In this version, the scene recreates what happens in the beginning of the second book when Mary Poppins came back on the string of Michael's kite.

Walt Disney had asked his song writters to write a song about kite because of his two daughters. Both of his daughters were members of the Kappa Alpha Theta fraternity and their symbol is a kite. The song, "Let's go fly a kite" is therefore dedicated to Kappa Alpha Theta