Pennywise’s dark, dark history paints the character as the ultimate boogeyman with hefty scoops of both clown and alien horror thrown in. Nevertheless, a major issue in this theory is that Mary Poppins appears to be a lot more efficient than the clown monster in what she does. Pennywise, for all his fearsome might, has to lure and terrorize quite a few children and ultimately finds dealing with the Losers’ Club a major challenge. Meanwhile, Mary Poppins casually arrives and takes control. She might as well be omnipotent as far as her movies are concerned, and only needs to work with two or three children at once.
This brings us to “Monsters, Inc.” As the beloved animated movie’s ending establishes, a child’s fear is a far less efficient energy source than their laughter, which is why the monsters pivot from their time-tested boogeyman antics to bedtime slapstick comedy. Though neither Mary Poppins nor Pennywise the Dancing Clown are part of the Pixar universe (as far as we know), this same logic might explain why the former’s interactions with the children are far more benevolent than Pennywise’s. She’s simply learned to harness joy, imagination, and childlike wonder as a food source, while the clown entity hasn’t figured out the trick — or, as the case may very well be, perhaps he simply prefers the taste of fear.
