Apparently there’s a strong case for comparing Mary Poppins with Pennywise…yeah, you read that right. Cooper Hood from ScreenRant has a theory (video below) that the kindly nanny from one of the most loved children’s stories and the murderous, unknown clown from IT are one and the same. It might be enough to roll your eyes and wonder just who’s been hitting the catnip a little too hard, but honestly this sounded interesting enough to give it a shot. When you get right down to it there are enough similarities and interesting differences to really think that it might be worth noting that the entity that was Pennywise could just as easily be Mary Poppins in a new form. Do keep in mind that Pennywise has been able to change form throughout the many upon many years that he was on earth, so it’s not impossible to think that the creature might have traveled and even experienced a different temperament at some point. Yeah my brain is rejecting it too but just go with it for now.
Here are a few similarities and differences you might want to pay attention to.
They both feed off of emotions.
Granted, Pennywise feeds off of fear and despair whereas Mary is affected by cheer and happiness, but it’s more or less the same thing on different ends of the spectrum. The idea of the two being the same being, as Emily Brown of Unilad talks about, would mean that in its more negative state the creature is drawn by negative emotions that it can feed off of and grow stronger by. On the other end it could be affected by happiness and joy that fuel a different side of its nature and therefore allow it to thrive in a different form. It’s very difficult to really say this without laughing but at the same time it’s not such a horrible theory since it would represent a very dual nature that depicts a singular being as having two different aspects that are bound by one common concept. Keep in mind that if a person thinks that one of them is gone or dead this could be the transitory point for the creature in which it abandons one form in order to survive in the next. For all we know the body of Pennywise that was revealed in the second chapter could just be a shell through which the entity exists, as seems to be the case, and once it disappeared it could have gone elsewhere to show up as something or someone else. It’s thin, but it’s not transparent to be honest.
They both interact primarily with kids.
Ever notice how the adults in IT seem utterly clueless and don’t even take note of the fact that their kids are often off on their own or have a fear that seems to stem from a common source among them? That’s been explained by some as Pennywise’s hold over Derry, but as far as Mary Poppins goes her hold over the kids is a lot more positive but no less noticeable as she interacts with them primarily and leaves the adults alone. Getting back to the different sides of the same coin however it can also be said that the adults they interact with the most are those that they interacted with as kids since they both come back during a time of need or desperation and make their presence known. Again, Pennywise is out to get the only kids that ever got away from him, while Mary is back to help out those that are in need of her expertise. But apart from the grown-up children that they both interacted with in their respective movies, they hardly ever deal with the adults, if at all.
They both come back after a prolonged period of time.
Mary comes back a couple of years prior to Pennywise’s time period, but maybe that’s why they can be the same person. Maybe Pennywise feeds as the negative aspect after having been sustained by the positive aspect. One fades off while the other comes forth, it’s an interesting idea really and would sustain the difference that lies between them. Of course there are a lot of holes to this theory that could be poked at and prodded and likely used to tear it apart, but it does raise and interesting question as to the origin of these two iconic characters in the annals of entertainment. There are many other ways to link them that may or may not be effective, but with movie magic just about anything is possible and after all, it is just a theory. If someone came up with a way to get the needed permission to make a movie like this though, oy.
All in all both characters are great and have been for a while, but it’d be better to think of them as separate beings since there aren’t a lot of folks that would want to see Mary Poppins unhinge her jaw and reveal the deadlights, as Gabriella Geisinger of DigitalSpy might agree.
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