Saving Mr. Banks (2013) [Blu-ray]
Biography | Comedy | Drama | History | Music

Tagline: Behind the beloved book is a story beyond words.

Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson bring to life the untold true story about the origins of one of the most treasured Disney classics of all time. John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) directs this acclaimed film, which reveals the surprising backstory behind the making of Mary Poppins. Determined to fulfill a promise to his daughters, Walt Disney (Hanks) tries for twenty years to obtain the rights to author P.L. Travers' (Thompson) beloved book. Armed with his iconic creative vision, Walt pulls out all the stops, but the uncompromising Travers won't budge. Only when he reaches into his own complicated childhood does Walt discover the truth about the ghosts that haunt Travers, and together, they set Mary Poppins free!

Storyline: When Walt Disney's daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins (1964), he made them a promise - one that he didn't realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney's plans for the adaptation. For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn't budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp. It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers ... Written by Walt Disney Pictures

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on March 19, 2014 -- A thick air of sentimentality, overly tidy storytelling and frustratingly sunny revisionism hangs heavy over director John Lee Hancock's Saving Mr. Banks, which never quite feels like the truest of true tales. And yet the sweet aroma of prickly playfulness and irresistible likability make it a positively pleasant film; brisk and earnest, with a touch of that patented Disney magic. Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks are spot on as persnickety author P. L. Travers and legendary filmmaker Walt Disney, and an absolute delight to watch. So too are Paul Giamatti, Jason Schwartzman, Bradley Whitford and B.J. Novak, even though Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith's screenplay push the quartet dangerously close to cartoon territory. Just be ready for a slightly different biopic than the film's trailers suggest. This isn't Walt Disney's story; it's P.L. Travers'. Scenes with Hanks donnings Uncle Walt's signature mustache and smile afford the man of the hour surprisingly little screentime in the first half of the film, while indulgent, overripe flashbacks to Travers' childhood (that are much too long and arrive much too frequently) cheapen the already on-the-nose proceedings with made-for-TV bluntness. Taken as a Golden Age Hollywood fairy tale, though, the utterly charming Saving Mr. Banks boasts just enough heart, humor and sincerity to almost, almost make up for its truth tinkering.

Determined to fulfill a twenty-year-old promise made to his daughters when they were children, innovative filmmaker Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) works to develop a film adaptation of "Mary Poppins," author P.L. Travers' (Emma Thompson) beloved book. There's just one problem: she refuses to relinquish the rights to her series. Traveling to Los Angeles, the famously protective Travers is aghast at the "silly and absurd" musical Walt, screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford) and co-composers Richard and Robert Sherman (Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak) are developing, and immediately sets her mind to righting the ship. It isn't ownership she's battling for, though. As the team slowly discovers, her stories are more than whimsical tales; they're deeply personal, entrenched in a painful past that swirls around her alcoholic father (Colin Farrell, playing opposite Annie Rose Buckley as a young P.L. Travers in 1906.) What follows is a clash of two seemingly immovable titans -- Walt, the folksy dreamer, and Travers, the uncompromising pragmatist -- forced to come to terms with one another before the Mary Poppins generations of children have known and loved can be brought to the silver screen.

Saving Mr. Banks departs from the reality of the Disney/Travers battleground early and often. While it did take Walt Disney nearly two decades to obtain the rights to Travers' book (none of which we see in the film), and while she did indeed travel to Los Angeles and serve as a thorn in the side of the Mary Poppins production team (as depicted), Disney had already acquired the rights to her book. Travers was a hypercritical consultant with contractual script approval, yes... which Disney shrewdly trumped later with final cut powers. The enormous sway the author holds over the course of Saving Mr. Banks? Largely fiction. The threat of the production falling apart? Fiction. Travers' ultimately teary, cathartic reception of Mary Poppins at its Hollywood premiere? The good terms on which she and Walt Disney depart? A nice moment but, you guessed it, complete and total fiction. Travers hated the version of Mary Poppins that made it to theaters, and didn't hide her feelings. And if such fundamental components of Hancock, Marcel and Smith's adaptation are so loosely inspired by true events, how are we to separate fact from fiction elsewhere? Suddenly the entire film is called into question, all for a little extra dramatic punch that, ironically, is undermined by the elusiveness of its historical accuracy.

And yet... "Inspired by." "Based on." These are Saving Mr. Banks' saving graces. So the Cult of Walt once again fudges the facts. Better to err on the side of optimism than skepticism. So the Disney marketing machine's deification of its legendary founder continues. If anyone deserves Hollywood deification, it's Walt. So Hancock and Disney proper are more interested in delivering a warm, heartfelt family dramedy than a more revealing, more complex glimpse into an uncommonly rocky Walt Disney production. Did anyone want The Social Network of Mary Poppins tell-alls? So the laughs are all at Travers' expense, who serves as both protagonist and antagonist in her own character arc. Does it render the film inert? Lessen its warmth, good-natured humor, the infectiousness of its classic Sherman Brothers songs, or the power of its third act as Mary Poppins comes to life on screen for the first time? Not at all. There's a purity to Hancock's saccharine biopic (some will call it a naiveté) that makes for a more streamlined, effective and moving story than perhaps the events upon which it's based. Thompson's Travers comes out looking much better for the wear than her real-life counterpart, and Hanks' performance as Walt Disney is so perfect -- so captivating, entertaining and engaging -- I'd be first in line to see any future films that seated Hanks at the head of the Mouse House table. I'm just waiting for the Nine Old Men casting call.

The real battle in Saving Mr. Banks isn't between Walt Disney and P.L. Travers, it's between fact and fiction. Even without digging into the events that inspired the film, it's pretty clear the real driving force here is screenwriters' discretion. Fortunately, Hanks, Thompson and a strong supporting cast, as well as the soul and spirit of Mary Poppins itself, help Saving Mr. Banks' lesser qualities go down with a spoonful of sugar. Disney's Blu-ray release is better, thanks to a lovely video presentation and solid DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track. Just be prepared to overlook the rather disappointing lack of significant extras.

[CSW] -2.5- It is widely known that Mary Poppins was one of Disney's greatest successes. What few would remember is that the movie had a long, uphill battle to get made. One of the obstacles was the constant disapproving of author P.L. Travers, who reportedly was very critical in the way Walt "Disneyfied" her story. Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of the battles Travers fought with Disney, while simultaneously cutting to scenes of the author's own childhood in Australia. I was never able to see past Tom Hanks and believed it was Walt Disney. It may have been my short coming but it didn't quite go down with a spoonful of sugar. Overall the story was a bit depressing. Many will find this film warm and touching and rewarding but the deeper story is not as touching or rewarding and if you can't let the spoonful of sugar make the medicine go down you may be a bit disappointed..
[V4.5-A4.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box.

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