I’m a little surprised that given Hollywood’s fascination with the biopic there hasn’t been more done on one of the historic figures who truly helped to shape things beyond just movies. Walt Disney really is a man who is more than worthy of having a film made about his life. When you examine the history of him as well as the Walt Disney Company you’ll find that Walt had a tremendous impact not just with what he overcame but what he accomplished. This is the man who not only built a theme park known around the world but brought groundbreaking animation to theaters as well as many other things. What some might not know however is that among the many different movies he was involved in the one which eluded him for many years was none other than Mary Poppins.
Saving Mr. Banks is a much closer look at what went on behind the scenes of creating the movie which has become a beloved classic. P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the author of Mary Poppins, has been invited to Disney Studios in California to oversee the script for the film adaptation and she’s more than a little apprehensive. Travers isn’t really that interested in having her creation adapted for film and she’s also concerned that Disney will turn the book into a musical as well as an animated film. She’s already had assurance that animation isn’t going to be used but she still wants final say in the script itself. Walt (Tom Hanks) introduces Ms. Travers to the team she’ll be working with consisting of screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford) as well as the Sherman brothers, Robert (B. J. Novak) and Richard (Jason Schwartzman) but there are problems right from the start as the three try to work past Travers’ often ridiculous demands. Just when it seems they finally might be making progress Travers learns that one of the things she didn’t want to happen to her creation is in fact a part of the script and it puts the entire project in jeopardy.
Although it seems as if Saving Mr. Banks is the story of Walt Disney, it’s actually much more about P.L. Travers. Going into the film I was aware that Walt had tried for twenty years to secure the rights to adapt Mary Poppins, and as the film reveals his reasoning isn’t just that he enjoys the book itself but he also made a promise to his daughters that he would make it into a movie. The film however goes much more into the history of Mary Poppins as far as its real world influence in concerned. Mary Poppins may very well be a fictional book based around a fantastic, magical character, but there are things within its pages which are adapted from things which happened to Travers during her childhood, at least that’s what the movie would like you to believe but more on that later. The character which is the most important to her is the father, Mr. Banks, and she has based him around her actual father who died when she was a young girl. The original script had him cast in a light which she saw as very unfavorable and this was among the many things which caused her to butt heads with the screenwriters as well as Walt.
From her initial meeting with Walt Disney you can see that the task of adapting Mary Poppins was going to be a huge undertaking. It wasn’t in the source material but rather in the attitude of Travers. She has already made up her mind that the film isn’t going to happen and often it seems as though she’s intentionally trying to sabotage the efforts even though she’s in a position where the money that she would earn for selling the rights is much needed in her life. The movie does try and make her life out as though she had written Mary Poppins and then hadn’t done any other work since but that’s actually incorrect. There had actually been five different books written featuring Mary Poppins by the time she had met with Walt Disney and while the movie seems to point that to the fact that the book is more of an apology to her father and she blames Mary Poppins who is based on one of her relatives for his death and not having done enough, I would have to question that. In fact the aunt which is the basis of the character came after the real suicide attempt of Travers’ mother and she herself is documented as saying that while Mary Poppins may have some real world influence, the book itself is not based on her childhood. Saving Mr. Banks also seems to elude to a happy ending, that overall Travers is somewhat pleased with theatrical version of the movie but in reality that isn’t true. In fact she was unhappy about what was done with the movie that she once again had very specific demands when she was approached for a stage adaption.
The movie is cast rather well although I never could quite accept Tom Hanks as Disney. He doesn’t look like him, he doesn’t sound like him, but eventually I accepted him although in the back of my mind was always the nagging voice telling me that it wasn’t him, not in the way I envisioned him. There is more than enough reference material available but I know that in any film adaption, things are never going to be exactly as they should be. I can’t claim that I hate Hanks in the role, and he did a good job, but I will never think of him as being Walt Disney. One of the more underrated members of the cast is Paul Giamatti who plays the chauffeur Ralph. His interaction with Travers is actually more important in my view than any of the other characters and if what happened between them in true, it seems that some of his conversations with her might have changed her mind even if just a little. Ralph however didn’t actually exist and is in fact just an amalgamation of various drivers that Travers had during her visit.
Saving Mr. Banks does look extremely good in high definition. The set designers have done their best to try and retain the look and feel of the mid 1960’s as well as the early 1900’s. This isn’t a movie which is reliant of extreme, in your face special effects and instead is a much more subtle film. I also found at times that the cinematography was quite exceptional.
Given the history of Walt Disney in the film industry I’m a little disappointed that the blu-ray didn’t include more special features, particularly those which would look at his life outside of just trying to license Mary Poppins. From Poppins to Present covers briefly some of the film history but quite honestly not enough although looking at something of that magnitude is probably more worthy of a series. Let’s Go Fly a Kite features surviving Sherman brother Richard on set on the last day signing the classic song. There are also deleted scenes. Where was notable Disney historian Leonard Maltin who in the past has been a part of some incredibly informative Disney extras?
True to Hollywood form Saving Mr. Banks isn’t exactly how things happened but this doesn’t keep it from being a good film. The reality is that Saving Mr. Banks is a very well done movie which highlights one of the many important parts in Disney cinematic history. Given that the company has long been against biopics on its founder hopefully this will open the doors to look at some more of the history of Walt Disney as well as the now world famous studio and theme park.
You can purchase Saving Mr. Banks on DVD from Amazon for $11.75 or Blu-ray for $14.75 (prices subject to change).
Mike is the resident reviewer for Couponing to Disney and his own site Underland Online. He has a toddler daughter and is obsessed with Haunted Mansion and all things Disney. You can read Mike’s complete bio here.