Julie Andrews sings with the first animatronic motion picture puppet – a robin.

Quick question…what’s the very first motion picture ever to feature an animatronic puppet? The Dark Crystal? Nope. The Empire Strikes Back? Guess again. Believe it or not, the answer is actually Mary Poppins!

Walt Disney of course pioneered the field of animatronics and, as this short video about early Disney animatronics explains, Mary Poppins was the very first Disney film to utilize Walt’s brand new toys. Anybody else notice how the contraption being worn by a man in a chair around the 1:10 mark of the video is really, really similar to a modern motion capture rig? And this was the early `60s!

Say what they will about Disney, there’s no disputing that he was a man who was way, way ahead of his time.