An excellent film on many levels

Rating: 9/10 (24 May 2014)

Saving Mr. Banks, about the dynamics behind the making of the film Mary Poppins, is Hollywood at its best: people with hardships in their past overcome them through their collaborative art; something creative, sweet, perhaps syrupy, but always honest, and with integrity.
It was a wonderful choice to pick the co-author and consummate actress of Nanny McPhee, Emma Thompson, for the role of Travers.
We see the hardships in Walt's own past, that of Mrs. Travers, and a couple of other key characters: one of the song writers injured in the war, and the limo chauffeur who loves his handicapped daughter (this film's unseen Tiny Tim). And all of these Snow White Dwarf characters, innocent and childlike, except Mrs. Travers, carry this syrupy hope and optimism. The same that her father carried...which may have led to his death. Or was it the one thing carrying him as long as it could? In grief over losing him, she has written a beautiful book, but herself become a living Ebenezer Scrooge.
In this American version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", Walt Disney is the living Ghost of Christmas Present.
Walt reveals that he knows the perfunctory and scrooge practicality of Mrs. Travers belies such dreamy hopes she herself carries, and always has since childhood, writing about a magical savior nanny who flies in on the wind and an umbrella. Walt later discovers Mary Poppins is all about her lost relationship with her deeply beloved father, and Walt works subtly to reconnect her to the very childlike nature of her father whose death she has still not come to terms with. He tells her that this film, Mary Poppins, will be a way for her to come to terms with honor.
Mrs. Travers discovers that Disney is indeed integrating these truths seamlessly, and has done so all along. We are all children, after all, and our happiness depends upon remembering and honoring that.
He is far from fluff. There is more gravitas in that ride on the merry go round than Mrs. Travers understands at the time.
And then she realizes that everyone on this project, even the secretary bringing a feast of syrupy and colorful sweets every day into the office, everyone who works for Disney is in the same boat she is, finding meaning and expression by turning personal difficulty into a positive creation. And that self-knowledge, that personal wisdom makes the folks at Disney able to accomplish miracles while showing remarkable tolerance and encouragement to each other.
Disney was not all slapstick cartoons, talking animals and smiles. A year before releasing Mary Poppins, in 1963, Disney released The Three Lives of Tomasina, a film that touches on death, mysticism, spirituality, re- birth and the love between father and daughter that in grief can become a neurosis. Disney always had deeper intent and content. Same with Darby o'Gill released by Disney in 1959. Even Bambi and Dumbo, dealing with abandonment, death, and the difficulties of grief and separation, the emotional wounds of being orphaned. And 20,000 leagues Under the Sea in 1954. The portrayal of a genius captain's murderous rampage; self- destructive insanity and his obsession with his lost wife honored Edgar Allen Poe as much or more than Jules Verne. These films are nothing close to Mrs. Travers' prejudice about Mr. Disney's work. It was Mrs. Travers' superficial view that was mistaken. And that was the product of her own self- denial.
Mrs. Travers, while watching Mary Poppins, cries at points, but she also still cringes at others. She is still Mrs. Travers. We see the genius of Disney: his work reflects the best of very different professionals, and a deeper spirituality.
Hanks does a nice, layered job. He portrays Disney the savvy business leader and manager. But there is still much more to tell.
An entire film could be made of Walt's role leading the way to the Monorail, an engineering feat unprecedented in America and only faintly recognized, for it remains too far ahead of its time. Walt had his own engineers at the Burbank studios design most of it, successfully, working with a basic concept from Sweden, fighting the clock to meet deadlines. He turned a concept into an actual reality through brilliant engineering and leadership. The first monorail in America.
Walt was far more than a film maker. City planners today use Disneyland and Walt Disney World as a model for the ideal urban community. Walt didn't plan these places as theme parks. His entire vision was to use them as living models of ideal communities. Visiting either park was to be a subtle education, and has proved to be so.
One day that film will contrast Walt walking as an eight year old boy through the snow at his father's command with the adult Walt obsessed with innovations in public transportation, the ergonomics of technology, and the design of Utopian communities.
Steve Jobs, George Lucas, and Steven Spielberg all from California, are childhood students of and adult contributors to Disney's vision.
And of coarse, the better known struggles to get Snow White to screen, and Fantasia, both requiring incredible personal risks, technical genius, leadership, sentiment and teamwork. An entire motion picture could be made of either of these remarkable personal and professional journeys of achievement.
I will never forget, as a seven year old boy visiting the Monsanto Home of the Future at Disneyland in 1964, designed largely by Disney and his own crew of engineers. Sitting on the coffee table, without being mentioned by the tour guide, was a wireless picture phone in a small flat rectangular shape, probably three inches by five inches, looking just like today's smart phone. Spooky.
We are all still trying to live up to Walt's vision, each in our own way.