This is How Movies Should Be Made

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Walt Disney has become a brand-name invoking a world of perpetual enchantment and demonstrations of friendliness so over the top they can confine to a tyranny of smiles. That's a very cynical way to look at it but not too far-fetched. Still, as a father of a little girl and given how enamored she was with "Frozen" and how she seems to enjoy the old cartoons I show her on Youtube, I can't deny that Disney (the man or the company) always had a way with children and pardon the cliché, the inner child in all of us.So it's quite fun to see the Walt Disney company producing a movie where all the archetypes of Disney would be disdained by a stuck-up British lady who's no one else but the writer of "Mary Poppins", P.L. Travers played by a delightful Emma Thompson. It's also fun to see the one receiving these critics being good old Disney himself, played by Tom Hanks. He doesn't try to imitate Disney but "Saving Mr. Banks" isn't intended to be a formal biopic about how the tycoon got the rights for what would become one of his most successful and iconic works.The film plays on a more emotional level, it is about two visions, two convictions that should have made Mickey Mouse and Mary Poppins walk hand-in-hand to contribute to a masterpiece (the poster is a perfect summary of the film on that level)... only it took twenty years. It was a promise made to his daughters that Walt Disney couldn't allow himself to break, make a film out Travers' classic "Mary Poppins", but the woman, a stubborn Aussie, wouldn't have the glitter and the schmaltzy bliss of Disney tarnish the legacy of her book. She had a misconception, taking Disney for some modern-day Santa Claus but so did Disney by misunderstanding the woman and ignoring the sources of her inspiration, some tragic ones.The film offers many flashbacks of Travers' childhood during which we witness the fallout of her family, from the descent into sickness and alcoholism of her father, to the attempted suicide of her mother and a nurse that took care of her family when she was seven. Just like John Lee Hancock's previous film "The Blind Side", the film seems very simple and straightforward until, you start to grasp a specific subtext. In "The Blind Side", there's a moment where we clearly question the motivations of the Tuohy Family, if it wasn't just about football, and then this question is answered. In "Mr Banks", we know Travers doesn't want any animation, any red color, but we quickly realize there's something else eating her.She wants Mr. Banks shaven, to be a good man, she has an obsession with Mr. Banks even more than the children or maybe Mary Poppins, the flashbacks centering on her well-meaning but unlucky father played by Colin Farrell allows us to reassemble the pieces of the puzzle and understand what the purpose of Mary Poppins was. There's a pattern in the film consisting on all the friendliest moments (and Travers is quite devoid of immediate warmth) involves a father or one invoking father's memories. Nothing Oedipal about it, it's just speaks about people who accomplished major works by translating the burden of their childhood into something positive.Of course, Disney's body of work is superior but there's no denial that Travers contributed to his most iconic creation, his first Best Picture nomination and a classic for all ages. We know "Mary Poppins" will be made anyway, and the efforts of the Sherman brothers or Disney executive will pay off, but the film is enjoyable on the simple level of these interactions and the so conflicting mentalities of Disney, a cheerful man but astute businessman and a woman who's taking her book very personally. It's only after she realizes how personal it is to Disney that she finally trusts him... and the rest is history.

(Flash Review)Mary Poppins a movie I still have yet to see (!!!!) and this movie is about the creator of the Mary Poppins character, Mrs. Travers, as Walt Disney attempts to persuade her to give up animation rights so they can make the historic classic. As there is no surprise spoiler at the end, this film is about how they get the movie produced. Travers is portrayed as a stereotypical uptight and overly proper British lady, in contrast to Hanks, who plays Mr. Disney. There were some amusing moments and tidbits of musical numbers with Travers and Disney and his creative team on how they don't see eye to eye. But a big side story was Travers's backstory, told through many flashbacks, about her alcoholic father and him never being proud of her. This tale brought to focus Travers's buried emotional issues and how it interfered with the movie's production. Overall it was more drab emotions versus humor and not much was told about why Mary Poppins is so universally loved yet it was professionally scripted and produced without enough creativity or charm.

Following three years since its release, I can't help but express how thought-provoking Saving Mr. Banks turned out since the day I first watched it on opening night. The 1960s became one of the last prominent moments in Uncle Walt's lifetime that he witnessed before he passed away, but it's really about how one movie almost never came to be. About how the Mouse met the Magical Nanny.The story follows P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the renowned author of the Mary Poppins books. In 1961, when Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) asks for her to fly to America to meet her personally about his film adaptation of her book, she reluctantly accepts to meeting him. Despite her tragic and bitter past life that greatly dictated her present self, Travers learns from Walt's experience that it doesn't have to be that way and what really matters is letting go and keep moving forward.Director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) definitely showed the tribulations and conflicts Travers had when overseeing the production of Walt Disney's Mary Poppins adaptation. It may have gotten off to a troubling start with her not being open to how each character in her book should be portrayed as well as showing disdain on a few songs, even the animation that Walt wanted to include, but upon seeing the progress of where the direction was going, there were signs that she was beginning to warm up to it. I loved how a few scenes began to jump ahead back and forth on a recurring basis between glimpses of her childhood and then into how that reflected onto her books.Tom Hanks' take on Walt was pretty uncanny in how he segued into sounding like him and Emma Thompson's portrayal as P.L. Travers showed angst and bittersweetness, yet is misunderstood as a troubled individual that had a rough childhood. I was also left in awe on how in one scene Disneyland was shown as it once looked in the 60s. Looked pretty nifty as though you've traveled back in time. Overall, it's a dramatic and tense element deep beneath the inner workings of light-hearted Disney.

Author P.L. Travers reflects on her childhood after reluctantly meeting with Walt Disney, who seeks to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the big screen. Unfortunately the trailer and the movie are way too different this movie was a major disappointment and the reason why is the character of Emma Thompson although an amazing and talented actress her character is annoying and complains about everything and not even Tom Hanks as Walt Disney can't help it and save it the acting is fine but the troubled and annoying character of P.L. Travers played by Thompson is killing the whole film and the pacing is just off during most of the movie and it's a shame cause this is a movie i wanted to like but as it turns out i didn't