Saving Mr. Banks - Response

Saving Mr. Banks
directed by John Lee Hancock
PG

Before watching the film...

What are your expectations of the film?
I have heard that the film is about Walt Disney and the making of the movie 'Mary Poppins'. I'm expecting that the film will be fairly good, as both Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson are well-accomplished actors. Also, Disney films are generally very good movies to watch, as they are usually light-hearted, feel-good movies.

[A quick observation from looking at the poster; I love how Walt Disney's shadow is Mickey Mouse and P L Travers shadow is Mary Poppins.]

After watching the film...

Narrative turning points - at what points does the plot change?
When Travers first starts to work with the Disney team, she refuses to budge on certain elements and doesn't want the film to contain music or animations, and she is very blunt towards everyone.

As Travers starts to loosen up, we see her begin to smile more often, as she slowly starts to forgive herself for her fathers' death and we see her open up more to those around her, such as Ralph the driver. She also starts to compromise on more things in the film and loosens her grip on the control. The idea of music grows on her, as 'Let's Go Fly a Kite', is used to portray Mr. Banks in a friendly manner, which she then dances to along with DeGradi, Dolly (Walt's secretary) and the Sherman brothers.

Once Travers realises that penguins are going to be in the film, she initially wonders how they are going to train live penguins, as she was under the pretence that there would be no animations in the film, as Walt originally agreed that there would be no animation, as she did not want Mary Poppins to become a cartoon; however once it becomes clear that the penguins would be an animation, she refuses to sign the contract which signs over the rights to Mary Poppins and leaves to head home for London.

Finally, Walt comes to London, still determined to keep his 20-year-old promise to his daughters, in that he would turn Mary Poppins into a movie. Once in London at Travers' home, Walt reveals his difficult past, in which he then brings up painful memories for Travers as he confronts her past. Travers then signs the contract which gives Walt the rights to Mary Poppins, and he creates the film, setting Mary Poppins free.

Memorable moments - what moments in the film stood out for you?
When Travers first arrived in California and was met by her driver that Walt Disney sent, she gets annoyed at his constant chatter and just shuts the partition window within the car, which was hilarious, as the driver just says to himself, "no problemo".

Once she got to her hotel room, the bellboy offered to help her unpack, to which she replied: "Young man if it is your ambition to handle ladies garments, may I suggest you take employment in a launderette". Then in the room, the first thing she does is remove the pears from the fruit basket, and throw them into the pool from her hotel balcony (later in the film, it becomes clear why she didn't want the pears in her room, as her father passed away while she was out buying him some pears, and she couldn't get them back in time). She then proceeds to place all of the Disney hampers into her wardrobe out of sight, and the giant Mickey plush toy on her bed into the corner of the room, facing away from her. This scene was one of the most memorable for me, as it was one of the funniest.

Another scene which I found memorable is the first table read, with Travers, Don DeGradi, Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman. DeGradi was co-writer of the screenplay for Mary Poppins, and the Sherman brothers were the composers and lyricists for the music in Mary Poppins. Travers was not happy when they made up a word in one of their songs, telling them to "unmake it". Like the earlier hotel scene, this was funny, as the pianist then quickly hid 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' behind another piece of sheet music on the piano.

Emotional response - what was your emotional response to the film? Did your emotions change? If so where, why?
I found that my main emotion throughout the film was happiness, as there was quite a lot of funny moments in the film, however, there was also quite a bit of sadness, especially as Travers past was slowly revealed during the frequent flashbacks. The film had two timelines, that kept interweaving with each other. One moment you would see part of Travers' childhood in 1906, then the film jumped back to 1961 when they were in the process of reading through the script and making changes. Travers childhood heavily influenced Mary Poppins, with Mr. Banks based upon her father Travers Goff, and Mary Poppins based upon her Aunt Ellie.

The most emotional part of the film had to be when Ginty (which was Travers Goff's nickname for Helen), went to get pears for her ill father, but by the time she got them and returned home, her father had passed away. Not only this but earlier in the film, she rescued her mother from a suicide attempt in which she almost drowned herself. This part of the film was equally emotional, as at this point you couldn't help feeling anything but sorry for Travers, as you see just how much trauma that she dealt with as a child, losing her father and almost losing her mother.

Did you feel empathy/sympathy for any of the characters? Which were your favourites? Why?
My favourite character, without a doubt, had to be Mrs Pamela Travers; her quick-fire quips and blunt humour easily made her the funniest character.

Throughout the film, I felt sympathy for P L Travers (Helen Goff), as her past is slowly revealed as the film goes on, showing that she had quite a difficult childhood. She wrote Mary Poppins based on her childhood and fought to protect the image of the character Mr. Banks, who was based upon her father. As her past is revealed, it becomes apparent that she blames herself for the death of her father, so protecting the image portrayed in Mary Poppins, is her way of not letting her father down again. Another point in the movie where I felt sorry for Travers was towards the end of the film, where Walt Disney wasn't even going to invite her to the premiere of the film, as he was worried about its reputation; however she made this negative a positive, as she turned up anyway, putting him on the spot so that he had no choice but to give her an invitation to the Hollywood premiere.