A More Abundant Walt Disney
Let me be spit spot, crystal clear here at the start: "Saving Mr. Banks" is a wonderful film. SEE IT ...soon. But when you think of Walt Disney collaborating with "P.L.Travers" the creative imagination that "HATCHed" Marry Poppins you are not likely to imagine this film. While it soars with heart and delightful comedic moments throughout, it is also has many dramatic, even dark scenes. (If your kids like Disney, take them to Frozen. "...Mr. Banks" is PG-13)
This is a very sophisticated (grown up) film with a poignant and dramatic backstory that stands in sharp contrast to the creative wrangling of the Walt vs. P.L.Travers parts of the story. While creating Mary Poppins, the movie that we all know (and most love), they were joined my the soon-to-be-legendary Sherman Brothers. Their original score of sixteen songs holds its own beside iconic Hollywood and Broadway musicals. P.L. Travers was set against a musical, but now, it is hard to imagine Disney’s Mary Poppins without Sherman’s songs. It would have been a very different film.
And ..."Saving Mr. Banks" is a much different film than I expected. It is a far better film—in every respect—and my hopes were quite high. It is immensely satisfying movie-going, but delivers much more than just a peek behind the vail of movie making magic. This is a theme park thrill ride of emotions. It takes you to heights of laugh-out-loud joy as the "Sherman Boys" plink out one more memorable tune, then, like Disney's "Tower of Terror" attraction drops us off a cliff of emotions as we return again and again to the backstory of "Mrs. Travers" childhood in Australia.
(OOPS, is that a spoiler?) That "PLT" is NOT British is the smallest of many secrets revealed in KELLY MARCEL's richly detailed and remarkable researched screenplay. This is not a History Channel docudrama and it is NOT a film for younger audiences. Its PG-13 rating is well earned for sequences of tense emotional and psychologically complex backstory—leading to another quite surprising, albeit true, second backstory near the end of the film. Mature early teens, maybe up for this experience. (Concerned parents should see it once without your kids and decide which of your clan can handle the strong dramatic bits.) I promise: you will not mind seeing it again. The film is packed like Disneyland's eighty seven acres with rich, full, remarkable, and most satisfying experiences. I laughed a lot, teared up (and down) and am certain I need (and want) to see it again ...soon, in order to take it all in.
As someone who worked at Disneyland when I was in high school and rejoined the company in September 1982—EPCOT Center opening—tehn, went on to many unforgettable years as a Disney Imagineer (theme park designer) and consultant at the corporate level, I know a little bit about Walt Disney, the man. Though I am far from an expert, my every-Tuesday lunches with the "Dinosaurs Club" (retired Disney animators, Imagineers, and film makers) has given me reams of mental files on how it all happened "behind-the-dreams." So, it was a welcome surprise that the film, in a few small moments, chose to let Walt be Walt. If you did not know already, you will learn that he smoked, drank (on the job) and was given to the occasional colorful utterance. (Each of these is represented only once, briefly, and Walt even expresses discomfort that he is discovered smoking.) It would have been easy and unnoticed by most to leave out these humanizing traits, but their inclusion is a small example of the degree to which writer Marcel, producer Sue Smith (both Brits), and director John Lee Hancock ("The Blind Side") collaborated to craft a movie about real people struggling with powerful personal issues and top-of-their-game professional challenges. Walt and “Mrs.-Travers-please” have vast creative differences.
“Saving Mr. Banks” does not reveal the whole story. The story of Mary Poppins (the fictional nanny) and author “P.L.Travers” (born Helen Lindon Goff) is not complete when Travers and Disney worked together in the mid 1960’s. Though Travers thought the five Mary Poppins books were the whole story, working on the film inspired her to write three more Mary Poppins adventures, after her visit to Disney Studios in Burbank, CA. She completed the eighth book in her eighties.
We see her starting book six near the film’s end. When are we ever done with ...anything? In John’s poetic gospel he shares Jesus words’ (John 10:10), “I have come that you might have life, and that you might have life abundantly.” Sorry, Jesus (always reaching for the stars) says, “MORE abundantly.” In one translation of the New Testament he says, “Better than you could ever imagine.”
God is not finished with any of us yet. If we are willing to imagine there might be more to our lives, and have the courage to trust God to go with us through whatever’s next, and then the confidence to create a more abundant life. We can.
It is nearly impossible for P.L.Travers to trust Walt to deftly handle her creative work in the first five Mary Poppins books. How crazy is that: not wanting to work with Walt Disney? How crazy is it of any of us would not want to seek God’s best for our lives? Walt Disney was not God. But what he did with the passions, curiosity, and indefatigable belief in the scores of creative folks he surrounded himself with is a picture of God working through one life. Walt Disney only lived to be 65. He lived a breathtakingly creative life.
From before we were born, God has imagined “a wonderful life” for each of us. And no matter your age, accomplishments, or challenges, God says, “Let’s do more.”
Some of our Creator’s best form the cast of “Saving Mr. Banks.” All are first rate, down to PLT's chauffeur, Paul Giamatti (HBO's John Adams.) Tom Hanks is completely engaging and believable inhabiting Walt Disney. Does he sound and act like the real Walt? Who knows? Most of us only experienced Walt on Sunday nights in a scripted, rehearsed, TV performance as Walt Disney the legend. But Hanks does capture a Walt that those who knew him (including Walt’s daughter, Diane Disney Miller) have applauded. Almost unnoticed and unmentioned in pre-release publicity for the film, is swarthy Irishman, Colin Farrell. We know him more often as the brooding, unshaven, tough guy. Here, he is the real “Mr. Banks,” P.L.Travers' real father—Travers Robert Goff—in the film’s many flashbacks. He is a loving father who is fighting his own, dark, personal battles. Farreell delivers a layered and impressive performance. This Colin Farrell is a surprise.
Most of the film's accolades have gone to Emma Thompson as P.L.Travers and deservedly so. Thompson, known for here quick wit and off screen goofiness, plays Travers who was anything BUT goofy. Travers was quirky, idiosyncratic, and annoying, but not fun. Funnily enough "Mrs. Travers" insisted that all meetings at Disney Studios were tape recorded. These real, still-in-existance tapes served as a research gift to Thompson and all involved in the production. BE SURE TO STAY for the credits as they play a few minutes of the actual audio tapes of the curmudgeonly Travers.
There is not a wasted moment in this film. Just when you think ..."Oh, NOW we're on our way" the wind shifts, the weather vain turns to the East and we take another "step in time" toward making magic. Making MORE life ...abundantly.
• If you have NEVER seen MARRY POPPINS, or not viewed it in a while, this film—SAVING MR. BANKS—stands on it's own as a fascinating story, based on real people and events. But "...Mr. Banks" will certainly whet your appetite to watch MARRY POPPINS and you will love it all the more.]
When you've seen "Saving Mr. Banks" come back and share your thoughts in the "Comments" area, below. There's a lot to this story that should elicit your cooments about the creative process, dealing with (healing) our past, and learning about the making of a classic film.
[Featurette on making of Saving Mr. Banks ]
