January 8, 2014
Çortlanô (Observer
Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) courts P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson), the author of Mary Poppins, for the rights to develop her book Into ^ a tû re ^ ilm .
Tearing Up All Over Again
I went to see "Saving Mr. Banks" with
pretty low expectations. I'm a fan of
Emma Thompson, and "Mary Poppins"
was a childhood favorite o f mine, but I'm
more jaded now. I am fairly resistant to
too-neat resolutions of complex social
conflicts, and this film about how Holly
wood mogul Walt Disney overcame the
objections o f the author, P. L. Travers,
to the film adaptation of her beloved
stories seemed fraught with potential for
irritation. I smelled sentimentality from
the trailer and was prepared to be an
noyed or, at least, underwhelmed.
Instead, I was amused, and charmed,
and blubbered through much of it.
That's not to say it's a film without
flaws. I did indeed notice plenty of over
simplification while watching, even with
out knowing anything about the back
story. Since seeing it, I've discussed it
‘Saving Mr. Banks’
renews Mary
Poppins charm
with friends and read up on Travers an<
see a lot of valid criticisms of the mate
rial.
The relationship between Travers an<
Disney, for example, was more compli
cated in real life; both likely behavec
worse than what is depicted on-screen
and many, perhaps most of her objec
tions to the Disney treatment of Mar)
continued
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