The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story

source: The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story

I loved every single minute of this. Im currently in my early 20s and the impact these two had on my life is incredible. From marry poppins to the carousel of progress, they've brought so much joy to kids and adults everywhere! It was really cool to learn about how they got introduced to Walt as well as getting to see a lot of behind the scenes footage of mary poppins. These two men shaped my childhood and im forever grateful! RIP Robert <3.

this, for me personally, was really absorbing and fascinating subject matter for a celebrity profile documentary. i'll have to admit i'm one of those persons whose life was profoundly effected by the Sherman Bros. music. not only did i grow up with it practically from the cradle, i sort of majored in it as a quasi-pupil of sorts. i probably am more familiar with pretty much all of the Sherman Bros. works more than anybody i've ever met. i used to listen to their soundtracks over and over and over...get the picture? i remember knowing the difference between their Disney and non-Disney musical scores when i was very young and others hadn't the slightest. i even revered the scores to Disney films like 'Family Band' and 'Happiest Millionaire' when others had long forgotten those movies. 'Family Band' and 'Millionare' were my first soundtracks ever. even before i had the original soundtrack to 'Mary Poppins' i had those. i was probably around eight at the time. so you can imagine the influence these two men have had on my life. funny thing is, i really know little or nothing about their personal life or about who they were. i am familiar somewhat with the chronology of their work and of the various songs and melodies, and i am familiar with the many photographic images, but that's about it. most of the stuff i discovered here in this documentary was news to me and i wasn't sure i liked everything i heard. i was somewhat shocked to learn that the musical duo that gave us so many happy, happy, joy, joy, children's ditties, were so petty, dysfunctional and cranky with each other. i have a brother, and we are close enough, but i know how this sort of thing goes. i guess i just expected more mature behavior from these two. knowing what i do know about personality types, i venture to say the problem might have lay mostly with Robert, God rest his soul, because he is more withdrawn and less communicative. these types are often moody and are often silent because they are secretive and judgmental. he is also the older sibling, and according to Rank, has the whole dethroned king complex. dunno. just guessing. it was sad, but very revealing to know this about them. i mean it really makes you feel like you kind of got to know them. there were some sweet, but overly brief interviews with Lesely Ann Warren and John Davidson. and it was interesting, for me, to hear 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' star Angela Lansbury, talk about Robert and his service in World War II and how it effected his treatment on that film score. it was also of interest to hear that their father was a well known songwriter and a immigrant. never knew any of that. for true aficionados of the Disney classics, this film should be a real treasure. it is done with fondness and warmth without being overtly sentimentalized. for those that don't really respect or truly love the films of Walt Disney himself, this whole thing might not mean much at all. the Sherman Bros. are my favorite song writers for musical theater of the last century. true, a lot of musical theater doesn't always appeal to me, i find a vast majority of it overrated, but musicals are my favorite genre never the less. the Bros. have never gotten the respect of say a Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe or even a Rodgers and Hart, i think it's time. their scores are truly whimsical and delightful treasure. even if the creators were grounded and mired in their own spiteful, crabbiness.

At the risk of sounding blasphemous, I kinda find most of the songs discussed here really annoying, and so hearing all the music get praised throughout was never something I could get on board with. I was sort of told rather than shown why other people love their music so much, so that whole aspect didn't really work for me. But it's competently made and well polished, and whenever it discussed how the brothers disliked each other while also working so efficiently together, I found that whole dynamic interesting. A mixed bag, and not as good as the documentary Howard on Disney+ (also Howard Ashman's music was just straight up better) but still overall not bad.

As a movie? Meh. It too often veers off course to tell us something that doesn't seem pertinent to the compelling central story. However, as a capture of two truly incredible men's work? Priceless.

"The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story" is a documentary about Robert and Richard Sherman, the legendary songwriting brothers who composed the music for such films as "The Jungle Book," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "Bednobs and Broomsticks" and their indisputable masterpiece "Mary Poppins," which features one of the finest scores ever written for an original movie musical. Though "The Boys" was produced and distributed by The Disney Studios - for whom the duo worked for many years – and was written and directed by their sons, Gregory V. and Jeff Sherman, this is no hagiography designed to provide a whitewashed account of its subject. On the contrary, it provides us with a warts-and-all look at the siblings who, while they could make great music together on a professional level, found it virtually impossible to harmonize on a personal one. In fact, their relationship was so strained that they essentially raised their families in isolation from one another (they even attended separate funeral receptions when their parents passed away) - and still today, the two men, even in the twilight of their lives, have yet to heal the breach that separates them. What's interesting – and, frankly a little maddening - about the film is that we're never quite sure what it is that caused this rupture, mainly because the boys themselves seem unable to account for it (half the time they seem to be unaware it even exists). All we know is that, for decades in public, they were able to put on a happy face and maintain the fiction that they were every bit as close as brothers as they were as songwriters, while out of the limelight and to the awareness of those who knew them, they had drifted irrevocably apart. Through interviews with their children, co-workers and admirers over the years, as well as with Bob and Dick themselves, the movie chronicles their childhood growing up in New York City, then Beverly Hills; their devotion and indebtedness to their songwriting father, Al Sherman; Robert's injury in World War II and the trauma of helping to liberate Dachau; their early years writing pop songs together and with others; their entry into composing for the movies with a song for "The Parent Trap." Then it's on to their years as the only songwriters lucky enough to be under contract to Disney; their close personal relationship with Walt himself; their Oscar-winning triumph with "Mary Poppins;" their eventual split with the studio after the death of Walt; their later work through the '70s and beyond; and their reunion at the London premiere of the stage version of "Poppins" in 2006. Despite the fact that the rift between the two is never adequately explained, the movie provides a treasure-trove of information, clips and snippets from that period in which they produced their work. There are moments of ribald humor and wistful nostalgia as we relive the memories the Sherman boys have provided for those of us fortunate enough to have grown up on their songs (they were even responsible for that most maddeningly memorable of ditties, "It's a Small World"). Indeed, in the face of all the personal animosity between the two men, it's the music and the memories that ultimately "help the medicine go down" while watching "The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story."

"The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story" is a terrific documentary produced by the sons of the famous composing team of Robert and Richard Sherman ("Mary Poppins," "The Jungle Book," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang") about their fathers and their complex relationship. Robert, for example, the older brother and "poet," who wrote so beautifully of sweetness and optimism, was in the very first group of GIs to liberate the Dachau concentration camp, which had a profound impact on him and his relationships, especially with his brother. And how do these famous songs come about? When one of the composers' sons came home and said he had some sort of anti-polio treatment at school, the father assumed it was a shot and said, "That must have hurt." The son replied, no it was medicine he swallowed after they gave him a lump of sugar to take beforehand. Voila! The birth of the famous "Mary Poppins" tune, "A Spoonful of Sugar (Helps the Medicine Go Down)." Fascinating stuff on so many levels, it will interest music aficionados, Disney fans, students of Hollywood history and even those who really know very little of these particular gentlemen. Well worth your time. And, Hollywood, if you're listening -- how about a movie telling their story? Terrific stuff.

This film is the perfect companion to the two CD set "The Sherman Brothers Songbook," which I listened to before I watched the DVD of this film. Let's start with what I already knew. I knew that the Sharman's had written the vast majority of the songs used in Disney's films of the 60s and early 70s. I likewise knew that they had written some of the songs used at the theme parks. But they wrote so much more. They wrote songs for albums by former Mouseketeer Annette, such as "Tall Paul," which topped the pop charts, and "Pineapple Princess." They wrote "Sweet Sixteen," which became a number one hit for Ringo Starr. They wrote songs for the film musical "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." I knew that they had written "It's a Small World." But they contributed even more that I hadn't even remotely been aware of. If you've ever been to a Disney theme park, their footprints are everywhere. "The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room." "Magic Journeys" at Epcot. "Meet the World," used at Tokyo Disneyland. "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow," the song used at The Magic Kingdom's Carousel of Progress." The real treat of the CD is "Makin' Memories," at "Journey Into Imagination" at Epcot. Disney edited a slew of photos ranging from touching to cute to funny to this song. It's was replaced years ago, but I've always loved that song. What shocked me is that they had written several songs for "Winnie the Pooh," and the Charlie Brown animated films. Their are some people that they interviewed for the film that were complete surprises, such as Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborn, and director John Landis. It was also cool to see Pink Floyd covering one of the Sherman's classics. Some other nice touches include one of the Sherman's singing and playing the piano for "Feed the Birds." During this song they inter-cut Walt Disney feeding birds on the Disney lot. Highly recommended.

This is the third Disney documentary I've seen in the last couple months (this includes this film, "Walt and El Groupo" and "Waking Sleeping Beauty") and all three were enjoyable bits of nostalgia. However, unlike these other two films, the Shermans were most famous for their work but they wrote music for a wide variety of projects--not just ones for that studio. The film begins in a way that took my by surprise. Apparently it was made by one of Bob Sherman's sons and one of Dick Sherman's sons. Neither knew each other and their families never really interacted--despite their fathers being brothers and long-time writing partners! Now that is weird and caught my attention, as it seems that over the years the two became more and more estranged from each other and were so unalike. What follows is a nice nostalgic look at these men and their lives and shows the many ways in which their music has shaped films and our culture. The film is well made, fascinating and great for Disney fans and non-fans. While not as amazingly good as "Waking Sleeping Beauty", it is some documentary.

I'm always interested in movies about songwriters, being a huge fan of the Great American Songbook. This is the story of Bob and Dick Sherman who were in-house songwriters for Disney for a couple of decades. We have these guys to thank for the earworm "It's a Small World" along with the hit songs written for the grown-up mouseketeer Annette. Need I say more? I found the documentary engaging, mostly because I'm interested in the process of songwriting, and also for the human interest. These brothers, who worked closely together on the music, really had nothing at all in common, went their separate ways in their private life, so much so that their kids did not know their cousins. I don't find that hard to believe at all - plenty of brothers share very little of their lives. These two happened to be in business together, and they made it work. Most interesting was the insight into the inner workings of Walt Disney studios and the profile of Walt. I enjoyed the story about when Walt Disney went to New York to see Julie Andrews in Camelot to check out whether she would be suitable for Mary Poppins. The rest is history. Long story short, this is a doc that's worth seeing for audiences that are interested in songwriting and movie history, and perhaps for those for whom Supercalifragalisitc.... is a treasured part of their childhood. Myself, I'm not a fan of the Disney brand of musical of that era.