Run, Don't Walk to See "Saving Mr. Banks"

Take your tuppence and go see the movie, Saving Mr. Banks. Pop your umbrella and catch an east wind to the nearest theater.

Based on the collaboration between P.L.Travers and Disney studios in the making of the1964 movie, Mary Poppins, the multi-layered magical ride will certainly prove to be an "E" ticket.

This is a film everyone should experience.

If stories exist to help make sense of our world, as Tom Hanks says, playing the beloved Walt Disney, this one is the pinnacle.

I hope I wasn't too annoying to other moviegoers, but I couldn't help sing along with all the wonderful Sherman and Sherman tunes I'd grown up with.

Richard Sherman, 85, the sole survivor of the songwriting duo.

The movie tenderly opened with the delicate

descending baseline of the minor harmonies of


Chim Chim Cheree played on piano.

Then sprinkled throughout came

Feed the Birds

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Let's Go fly a Kite

A Spoonful of Sugar




A word of advice to you post 60's born youngsters: Do not see Mr Banks if you haven't seen Mary Poppins.

In fact the more you've been immersed in the Mary Poppins culture the more you will get out of  Saving Mr. Banks.

My indoctrination began early as my mother regularly read several of P.L. Travers' books to me at nap time. That was the beginning of my infatuation with that quirky English Nanny. I distinctly remember the hardback books with the whimsical illustrations of the slender, rosy-cheeked British woman and her two charges.

Mary Poppins, Mary Poppins Comes Back, Mary Poppins Opens The Door, Mary Poppins In the Park, Mary Poppins From A-Z, , Mary Poppins in the Kitchen, Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane,
Mary Poppins and the House Next Door.

Even before I was born, my father was keeping close watch on Walt Disney. Maybe because they shared a first name, my father, Walter Allen.

In a July 1955 letter to my older brothers when they were visiting relatives in Massachusetts, my father  wrote abut the grand opening of this wonderful amusement park in Anaheim a few miles from our home. "It's a fantastic place! We will go when you get back. It costs a large sum of $15 for the whole family to go!"

Wow! A whopping $15!  The cost, now? Add a couple of zeros for a 3 day trip to Disney World.

Growing up in the early 60's, if we did our summer chores faithfully, we'd be rewarded with a trip to Disneyland. I remember saving all my A, B, C, D and E tickets in my top desk drawer to be used on the next visit to the Magic Kingdom.
 
When Mary Poppins, the movie came out in 1964, I was done. A year later at age 8, I had to be her at Halloween. Mom bought me the plastic carpet bag and let me wear her old suit, blouse and hat. Adding a household umbrella, I thought I looked pretty close to the real thing.

Me dressed up as Mary Poppins - Halloween 1965

The surprise in Saving Mr Banks appeared in the personal conflicts within the author and how Disney was an agent of healing for her past. One doesn't know often where history ends and Hollywood begins, but the message, whether fact or fiction was true and poignant.

My husband shed a tear at the end of the movie too, identifying with having lost his father to an untimely alcohol related death. My husband was 17 and his dad under 50.

The highest purpose of a work of art has been accomplished in this movie. It redeems the horrible things that can happen to a person. It fosters forgiveness and births hope and joy.

One more thing.

If you exit the theater before the credits finish rolling, you'll miss the best part--actual audio recordings of Travers hashing out the details with Disney producers while creating Mary Poppins.

Bravo! Bravo! Saving Mr. Banks.