Saving Mr. Banks is an excellent movie that evoked so much emotion out of me. I cried as hard watching Saving Mr. Banks as I did when I watched DreamWorks The Help. I have a feeling that I cried like that because I just recently lost someone in my life that meant the world to me. So you might want to take some tissues with you just in case a memory falls down your cheek.
Saving Mr. Banks is the story of how Mary Poppins popped out of the story books and onto the movie screen. It’s the only movie I’ve ever seen about Walt Disney and it was really interesting to learn about his personality and his passion. Tom Hanks plays Walt and he did an amazing job. Walt Disney began his quest to get the rights to P.L. Travers’ book “Mary Poppins” in the early 1940s. Although it took nearly 20 years to obtain the rights, when “Mary Poppins” was finally made, it won five awards of its 13 Academy Award® nominations: Best Actress (Julie Andrews), Best Effects, Best Film Editing, Original Score and Original Song. Among the nominations were Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also won a technical Oscar® for Petro Vlahos, Wadsworth Pohl and Ub Iwerks for conception and perfection of techniques of color traveling matte composite cinematography.
In Saving Mr. Banks we meet P.L. Travers and everyone she had to work with to make the movie. Two of my favorite characters were the Sherman brothers because they were so creative and they made me smile in moments where I was on the verge of tears. Richard and Robert Sherman composed the original score and wrote the 1964 Oscar®-winning song “Chim Chim Cher-ee.” They are portrayed in the film by Jason Schwartzman (Richard) and B.J. Novak (Robert). Walt Disney was very fond of the song “Feed the Birds,” which apparently touched him with its message that it doesn’t take much to give love. Disney would call the Sherman Brothers up and ask them to come play the song, so they would go to Disney’s office and play it for him. It became a regular almost-every-Friday ritual.
P.L. Travers played by Emma Thompson was a women protecting her character, and really she didn’t want Disney to have anything to do with her Mary Poppins. However, Walt really personified with her and got down to what Mary meant to Travers and together they worked out some really deep issues. It felt like at least what was portrayed in the movie, that Walt helped Travers heal. Because she started writing again after she had a heart to heart with Walt.
Saving Mr. Banks is a fantastic movie, it’s a journey of a love story of a little girl and her father and healing from a great loss and disappointment. And the end result being a beloved movie celebrating it’s 50th year, Mary Poppins!
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SAVING MR. BANKS opens in theaters limited today and opens wide on December 20th!