Saving Mr. Banks: A Sad Story That Leads To Movie Magic

NOTE: This review is spoiler-free, only mentioning what can be seen in the trailers for the film.

When you think of Disney, happy, cheery things come to mind.  Mickey Mouse, Woody and the gang from Toy Story, and just to name one more, Mary Poppins.  With this in mind, I was quite surprised with the tone of Saving Mr. Banks, a Disney-produced movie about the true story of the making of the movie Mary Poppins.

The main player in this film is P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), who at the time the movie takes place had written four Mary Poppins books.  Travers is a very proper British woman.  She does not get along with many people, and appears very unpleasant/unhappy.  The story begins with Travers leaving London to take a meeting with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) regarding a screen adaption of Mary Poppins.

Anyone who was ever a child knows who Walt Disney is.  He is the creator of magic, wonder, and the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland!  He is practically the exact opposite of Travers, and has grand ideas of what Mary Poppins should be like on the big screen.

The majority of the movie is spent with Travers fighting over ever aspect of the film with Disney and his creative team of  Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), Robert Sherman (B.J. Novak) and Richard Sherman (Jason Schwartzman).  The Sherman brothers wrote all the music for Mary Poppins, as well as tons of other movies.  I was particularly impressed with Schartzman’s performance, and read in an interview that he did all his own singing and piano playing in the film.

WARNING: The following paragraph contains what could be considered a spoiler, but it is in the trailer, so I am going to mention it.

As the fights progress, Disney is confused about how over-protective Travers is with her characters.  The entire movie is sprinkled with flashbacks to Traver’s childhood, and it becomes clear to the viewer, as well as Disney at the same time, that Mary Poppins did not show up to save the children, but their father, who represents Traver’s father (Colin Farrell) in the flashbacks.

P.L. Traver’s story is absolutely heart-breaking, and it leads to quite a depressing movie.  I thought it was a great story, just not at all what I expected from the “House of Mouse.”  Though your heart is broken, in true Disney fashion, it is warmed by the end of the movie, but that is all I will say to avoid true spoilers.  Walking out of the movie, I realized how little I actually remember about the movie Mary Poppins.  I recognized almost every song that appeared in Saving Mr. Banks, but I realized I don’t remember the first thing about the actual plot of Mary Poppins at all.  I’m inclined to go re-watch it 🙂

Overall, I enjoyed Saving Mr. Banks quite a bit.  It is getting a limited release starting Friday, December 13th, with a wide release the following week on Friday, December 20th.  I think the movie will clean up over Christmas at the box office.  It’s a solid family movie, but parents of young children be warned, there’s some dark territory in this movie dealing with topics such as alcoholism and suicide.  Be prepared to discuss these with your kids if you choose to take them to see the film.