Rachel Tropp
\nEE Senior Entertainment Editor<\/p>\n
Most people are familiar with the movie Mary Poppins<\/i>.\u00a0 We\u2019ve all watched it as kids, and we probably all used to know every lyric to the songs, like \u201cChim Chim Cheree,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cA Spoonful of Sugar,\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Go Fly a Kite.\u201d What we probably didn\u2019t know was exactly how difficult this film was to make, and I don\u2019t mean in terms of animation and special effects.\u00a0 The movie Saving Mr. Banks<\/i> is all about how this favorite childhood movie came to be.<\/p>\n
The struggle existed behind the scenes, between Walt Disney and P.L. Travers, author of the Mary Poppins books. For 20 years, Mrs. Travers refused to allow her beloved stories to become a movie, despite Mr. Disney\u2019s repeated attempts to secure the rights. In fact, his 7-year old daughter had made him promise to get Mary Poppins on the big screen, and he refused to break that promise, even though his daughter was in her late twenties when the movie finally came out. The only reason Mrs. Travers agreed to produce the movie was because after 20 years in print, the money from the book was starting to run out, and, as she said, \u201cI\u2019d like to keep my house.\u201d As the audience finds out, keeping her house was pretty much the only thing she\u2019d like. But despite her misgivings and dislikes, she packed up her bags and went to California to put her two cents, and more, into the movie script.<\/p>\n
One of her conditions was that every word of the production meetings be recorded–these \u00a0recordings created the factual backbone of the movie, as well as providing a glimpse into P.L. Travers\u2019 own character.<\/p>\n
Familiarity with the movie Mary Poppins<\/i> makes it very amusing to hear Travers\u2019 initial demands: she didn\u2019t want any animation, she wanted a clean-shaven Mr. Banks, she didn\u2019t want the color red in the movie, and she wanted absolutely no songs. Well, as we all know, she didn\u2019t get any of these wishes; and I for one am glad–the movie wouldn\u2019t be the same without them.<\/p>\n
But the portrayal of P.L. Travers as a demanding witch, who also hates babies, stuffed animals, balloons, and pretty much any sign of joy, isn\u2019t complete without the flashbacks of her past. About half the movie takes place in 1906, when Travers was just seven years old. In fact, the movie begins with a shot of Travers as a little girl, building a little house out of leaves and twigs. The opening line is: \u201cWinds in the east, mist coming in. \u00a0Like somethin’ is brewin’ and \u2019bout to begin. Can’t put me finger on what lies in store, But I fear what’s to happen all happened before.\u201d This is the same opening line as in the Mary Poppins<\/i> movie, making clear that the story of P. L. Travers\u2019 life is what has happened before, and that her life is the same story.<\/p>\n
As the movie progresses, this only becomes more and more clear. Mr. and Mrs. Banks are her own parents, the Goffs; she and her sister are Jane and Michael. And Mary Poppins is real, too. It\u2019s no wonder Travers resisted Disney\u2019s ideas, as the characters were \u201cfamily.\u201d Really, really they were. Soon, it becomes clear that Travers\u2019 family had no happily ever after. Her father was an alcoholic, and their family was deep in debt. But he always told his little daughter, whose real name was Helen \u201cGinty\u201d Goff, to never stop dreaming. He said that this world isn\u2019t real, and no one could force them to live in this reality.<\/p>\n
Travers Goff was a banker, like Mr. Banks in the Mary Poppins story. It becomes clear that it was his struggle written into the story, although his redemption was only imagined. P. L. Travers, the coldhearted lonely woman, had layers. There were reasons she chose her lifestyle, and the Mary Poppins<\/i> movie went against everything she wanted to feel about the people she once knew.<\/p>\n
Saving Mr. Banks<\/i> was brilliantly written and paralleled to Mary Poppins<\/i>.\u00a0 Every little detail of the movie was carefully designed to reveal something about P.L. Travers\u2019 life, or to give some hidden meaning to the artistic choices in Mary Poppins<\/i>. For instance, in Mary Poppins<\/i>, we see tea poured milk first. Saving Mr. Banks<\/i> shows that this was a personal habit of Mary Poppins\u2019 author–its inclusion in Mary Poppins<\/i> had been a tribute. Countless other details like this combined to make this movie simply profound.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I wasn\u2019t expecting much from this movie. After all, \u201chow-this-movie-was-made\u201d movies are never great. But Saving Mr. Banks<\/i> was simply fantastic, with its beautiful story and actors like Emma Thompson (P.L. Travers) and Tom Hanks (Walt Disney), and scenery that brought to life 1906 Australia and 1961 Disneyland with vivid color and accuracy . This movie was just so worth seeing; I ran home afterward to watch Mary Poppins<\/i> and enjoyed it more than I ever had in my life. Although Mary Poppins had to leave when the wind changed, this beautiful story will never leave us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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