SAVING MR. BANKS -- my review

SAVING MR. BANKS is the behind-the-scenes story of how Walt Disney coerced author P.L. Travers into letting him make MARY POPPINS. There’s no real spoiler alert because, well… if you don’t know by now that MARY POPPINS did get made, you’ve been living in a cave.

It's an enjoyable holiday movie although a better title might have been A TRUCKLOAD OF SCHMALTZ HELPS THE MOVIE GO DOWN.  It was a little, well... Disney.  But if you have fondness for the subject matter and Uncle Walt (which I do) you will probably come away happy.  It’s glossy, it’s PG, it’s homespun, there are even Jews (the Sherman brothers), and it’s more fantasy than reality.

Now then, full disclosure: As a longtime screenwriter, veteran of many maddening notes sessions – they could have all the flashbacks they want showing Ms. Travers tragic childhood; I still couldn’t sympathize with her for throwing the script out a window. And I agree with her on most script points.

There is something a little incestuous about Walt Disney Pictures making a movie where Walt Disney stars and is the shining hero. I shudder to think if Miramax does something similar where the hero that saves the day is Harvey Weinstein.

As I said, this movie has a lot of Disney fairy dust sprinkled on it. Google the real P.L. Travers. This was a horrible wretched woman whose selfishness knew no bounds and who destroyed numerous lives along the way. Emma Thompson was the Julie Andrews version of this hateful spinster.



Tom Hanks was fine as Uncle Walt although he didn’t have much to play. Folksy. He was very folksy.

At the end of the day I felt a more compelling story would have been the making of Disneyland. Or the discovery of Annette.

Nice to see it's doing well at the boxoffice, but please Disney Company, don’t make a sequel. Don’t make SAVING KING TRIDENT where Michael Eisner gets THE LITTLE MERMAID produced by suing everybody.