Arts & Entertainment

Five Things To Know About 'Saving Mr. Banks'

The film opens in theaters Dec. 20.

By Eric Yates

Saving Mr. Banks
2 hours, 5 minutes
Rated PG-13
Directed by John Lee Hancock

Five things to know about the new Disney movie about Walt Disney:

5) Not unlike many people in their early 30s, who grew up watching Mary Poppins, I had no idea that it was not an original Disney production, but rather based on a series of books by P.L. Travers. This film details how Walt Disney eventually was given the rights, despite more than 20 years of Travers refusing, to adapt the books into a film. “Mr. Banks” refers to the father of the children in the actual Mary Poppins story.

4) That Tom Hanks is a pretty good actor. Once again, Mr. Hanks utterly transforms into the character. He becomes Disney, in his mannerisms, his speech, and his abiding sense of child-like hope. The transformation was such that I completely forgot what the real Disney even looked like.

3) If a story calls for a fussy English lady, there’s no one who plays a fussy, English lady better than Emma Thompson. Her performance is steady and reliable, blending the perfect amount of sensibility, whimsy, and emotion.

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2) There’s been a Colin Ferrell sighting! For as wonderful the performances of Hanks and Thompson are, the best acting in the movie is done by the roughneck Irishman. As the father of Thompson’s childhood character (Helen Goff), the flashback scenes depicting him as an utterly caring and whimsical father whose drinking problem eventually leads to the downfall of the family is masterful. You feel so empathetic for him at story’s end.

1) Stay for the credits. There’s a recording of actual taped audio session between the real P.L. Travers and the members of Disney’s movie-making staff who worked with her to adapt it into a film. Her adorable wordplay is incredibly charming, and gives a great sense of what the actual planning sessions were like.

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