REVIEWED
“Poor A. A. Milne, ghastly.” - Pammy erm P. L. Travers (Emma Thompson) while clenching a Disney® Pooh-Bear™ toy.
Nanny McTwee... those old enough to have loved Disney's Mary Poppins as a child, Saving Mr. Banks is bound to leave you giddily drunk, as if you'd drank a 50 year old single malt bottle of nostalgia.
[*cut and paste your own synopsis]
[*For none cynics]: It's the positively charming tale of Walt Disney's 20 year pursuit to fulfill a promise to his daughters and turn English children's author P. L. Travers Mary Poppins into the universally loved family motion picture.
[*For the more cynically minded]: It's the nightmarish tale of corporate world domination, how secret smoker Walt Disney fought tooth and nail to buy the copyright to Limey author P. L. Travers Mo Pappkins, and turn it into an all singing brash American market friendly motion picture featuring animated penguins and newly invented words against the wished of its author Dame Pammy Travershire.
Ever since her role in Nanny McPhee, I suspect people have noted what a wonderful Mary Poppins Emma Thompson would have made. With Mr. Banks she sort of gets that opportunity playing her author Travers, the pompous writer with a tree sized stick up her supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. Who has to fight the good fight to keep the intellect in her intellectual property. Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell are all triple A.
Love or hate old Walt, he was a magpie picking up most of his studios earlier success stories from European folk tales and fantasy stories. Banks works foremost because it showcases this side to his studio and the Hollywood vultures in general, while also showing the cultural divide between England and America (more so back then than now). The back story of Mr. Banks character, the banking father of the two children in Poppins, who was based on Travers own alcoholic father, gave the movie added depth. Cor Blimey, Guv'nor... I'd expected to have hated this, [hand on heart cynically free] I actually really enjoyed this. I genuinely feel it showed warmth you rarely find with these sentimental best 'taken-with-a-pinch-of-salt' biopics, even if it was a blatant trumpet blowing exercise for Disney Corp.
[Personal Reasons For Remembering]
Laughing out loud at the 'Dick Van Dyke "A GREAT!" segment, poor fella hes forever been a source of amusement here in UK for his mockney accent, but he was a great choice. The Mad Men/Glee feel to the music writers Jason Schwartzman, B.J. Novak and Bradley Whitford (all actors I've loved the TV of, West Wing & Bored to Death R.I.P.). The inspired use of storyboard pictures, vintage photos and tape recording of Travers & Disney during the closing credits (earned the movie an extra star from me).
Originally taken from Letterboxd
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