We all knew Walt was evil

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2020)

Great watch, could watch again, and can recommend, but having recently watched "Mary Poppins" may alter the experience.
I have just watched "Mary Poppins", a wonderful movie, before this so the magic that Disney pumped into Travers' story is still fresh in my mind. I'm not saying that Disney didn't create something fantastic, but I'm struggling with my affinity for this story.
I think this is a great movie that documents an important event in both Disney and film history, and certainly that of intellectual property. I'm just not sure anyone else sees the same movie that I see in "Saving Mr. Banks", a title that I don't agree with at all, other than the victors of wars write history: I would have titled this the pursuit of "Mary Poppins".
If you just change some of the music around, then you would have quite the psychological thriller on hand. The movie is filled with Disney hunting Travers, sorting out how to manipulate her in different ways, what to hide from her. He even has idiot minions that nearly ruin it for him. There's elements at play all over, she's brought out of her native environment, EVERYONE she interacts with is paid by Disney: they have a vested interest in keeping him happy, especially since he's not used to being refuted.
20 years, a man pursued a woman that said no. 20 years, and she finally hit a wall and was low on funds enough that she could be convinced to deal with a kingdom of frivolity, and she had to sell a part of herself to him, even though she didn't want to, assured one thing, lied to, and having to make concessions the entire way. The audacity of going to someone, asking to buy their invention, and then belittling it so much that you reinvent it to the point it isn't recognizable as the thing you bought: it would have been so much easier to simply create something from scratch.
This movie actually embodies everything I hate about the MCU, even in the early 1960s, it was enough to take a name that people recognized (and nothing else) and exploit it to make money off of it with no regards to the original work or author. And it is the fault of the authors, the owners of the intellectual property to sign away the rights without securing right of refusal or final approval. And it is the fault of the studio to exploit those in dire need as if they would buy a product that couldn't be sold as is.
PL Travers was the hero of this story, and she lost to Disney, to need, to greedy capitalism, and I wish more people would take her advise of "Never again!".
I think, in the end, this movie creeps me out, and makes me sad about the world. As good as it is, I can't say I enjoy it in retrospect.