Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simply Perfect

One of my all time favorites.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

(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.

Many of us consider Marry Poppins a classic, one that has endured and still entertains audiences today. Saving Mr Banks takes an interesting look at the author behind Mary Poppins and the film adaption. Not many would be familiar with the background and difficult personality of the author. We also learn the inspiration behind the timeless classic. The film excels in getting you to dislike and maybe even hate Emma Thompson's character, P. L. Travers. She is disagreeable, stubborn and peculiar. Even though she is in need of income to save her home she is not willing to make a deal until all her demands are met. One important demand is the absence of animation which is central to many Disney films. Over the course of the film she warms up to the writers and Walt Disney who write the songs that we all know and love. When she cancels the deal and flies back to the U.K. she is visited again by none other than Walt Disney. We learn that her hopes for the film as in the books were not to save the children but their father which fictitiously based on her father. Mary Poppins was the nanny who saved everything that her real nanny or aunt could not do in her life. She lost her father as shown in her flashbacks. The real reason behind this classic creation endears her to the audience as we are told Mr Banks will be not just be saved he will be honored. While Mary Poppins brought joy to many to many children's lives the author also sought to bring joy and solace to her inner child and fathers memory. Excellent acting from Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Thompson who deliver star performances.

Disney and Poppins were part of my childhood, to be sure. Doesn't mean I want to go back there, but this was a pleasant excursion. Thompson and Hanks are perfect as the leads. Interesting that two characters who, these days, garner mixed reviews are so sympathetically rendered, but in a real way. At the centre of this, Mary Poppins is retold from the perspectives of its creator, the scriptwriters and musicians who had to work with her (tough work) and Disney himself. Real life, real and imagined pasts and the world of Poppins are successfully intertwined. Ultimately, this is a film which knows what film-making is about, communicating a real story in a creative, entertaining and ultimately moving way.

This has been my favorite movie for over three years now and I cannot even begin to describe how much I love it. It's hilarious and heartbreaking wrapped into one. It's the literally translation of bittersweet and it has been a comfort to me on many lonely nights. It's about forgiveness, forgiving others and mostly forgiving yourself. It's about letting go of the past and leading a life not dictated by what haunts you. It's about the magic of storytelling, and to me, what Disney is all about."That's what we storytellers do, we instill hope again and again." As someone who has idolized Walt Disney and been a huge fan of the history of Walt since seventh grade, I know that there are some fibs here and there, trust me. It's true that it shouldn't be used as a source of research, but let me be very clear when I say that SOME REALLY QUITE HARMLESS LIES DO NOT MAKE THE MOVIE DISHONEST OR BAD. IGNORE ALL THE REVIEWS SAYING THAT SINCE IT IS NOT 100% ACCURATE IT IS BAD. please do yourself a favor and watch this movie, I don't know how else to put it.