Millions of people around the world have seen and loved Mary Poppins, but not many of them know about the struggles Walt Disney went through to make this film. Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of how Walt Disney got the rights to Mary Poppins and does so in a beautiful, heartwarming way.
Walt Disney made a promise to his daughters that he will make a film out of the beloved book, Mary Poppins and was not ready to break that promise. The author of the book, P.L Travers, on the other hand, did not want to give away the rights. This film tells the story about how the film came into existence.
The acting in the film is remarkable. Walt Disney is played by Tom Hanks and he knocks it out of the park in this performance! He also really looks like Walt Disney, so as soon as I heard that he would be playing Walt in this film, I immediately saw the connection and knew he would give a great and realistic performance of Walt Disney. P.L Travers was played by Emma Thompson and she also did a really good job in the film and gave a stellar performance. She is, arguably, the main character in the film and has a brilliant character arc. Also, the characters are extremely likable and there is a ton of character development going on. It was also really interesting seeing Walt and P.L Travers, these two character foils, interact with each other.
The costume design is also perfect, given the time in which the film is set. All of the characters have 60s haircuts and wear 60s clothing. There are also a ton of great set pieces, especially Walt Disney Animation Studios, making a perfect replica of how it looked in the 60s.
The film also had a lot of heart. There are quite a few scenes that will more than likely result in you crying your eyes out (I know I did), so bring a bunch of tissues with you into the theater. There are a ton of beautiful scenes, but there are also a ton of heartbreaking scenes. It's an extremely dramatic and emotional film. You also get to see what P.L Travers' childhood was like (it was not the best childhood and was, in fact, really difficult), and that is really where the film hits you. These flashbacks also tell you why P.L Travers acts the way she does as an adult.
If there's one extremely minor problem with the film, it would be that after one very happy scene, it went right to an extremely depressing flashback of P.L Travers and that was a tiny bit of a change in tone, but it really did not bother me that much because of how amazing the characters are and how invested I was in the story.
While the focus of the film is primarily on P.L Travers, there is a perfect balance between her backstory and Walt Disney's struggles with getting the rights to Mary Poppins. There are some scenes that focus on Walt Disney rather than P.L Travers and they show a lot of insight about how he feels throughout the whole film.
One thing I was worried about was that Disney was going to make Walt Disney seem like a perfect person and not show him doing stuff such as smoking, which was a bad habit of his. They do not make him seem perfect at all. They make him seem like a nice guy because he was a nice guy, but they also show him smoking and stuff like that. That just proves that Disney does not target their films to younger kids. Further proof of that is present by seeing this entire film. This is by no means a "kids movie".
The music in this film is also remarkable. There is music from Mary Poppins, which is no surprise, but there is also a beautiful score in the film.
Overall, Saving Mr. Banks is an amazing film and is definitely one of the best films I have seen this year. It gave me a completely new insight on Mary Poppins which will definitely stick with me whenever I see the original film. I will never look at Mary Poppins the same way again. I see a ton of award nominations and award wins for this film.
Film Grade: A+
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