Written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith, and directed by John Lee Hancock, "Saving Mr.Banks" promises "the extraordinary, untold backstory of how Disney's classic 'Mary Poppins' made it to the screen."
Banks is a 2013 biographical drama film directed by John Lee Hancock from a screenplay written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith. Centered on the development of the 1964 film Mary Poppins, the film stars Emma Thompson as author P. L.
Upon immigrating to England in 1924, Goff began to write under the pen name P. L. Travers. In 1933 she began writing the novel Mary Poppins, first of the Poppins books.
David Tomlinson as George Banks, Mary Poppins' employer and strict father of Jane and Michael. He works at the Dawes Tomes Mousley Grubbs Fidelity Fiduciary Bank in London. He is a driven and disciplined man. Glynis Johns as Winifred Banks, the easily distracted wife of George Banks and the mother of Jane and Michael.
Director Rob Marshall recalled to Variety how quickly Andrews turned down the offer to appear in Mary Poppins Returns. Marshall stated Andrews felt the film was "Emily's show" and didn't want to hog the spotlight.
And finally, Walt Disney originally considered Angela Lansbury for the role of Mary Poppins before Julie Andrews was cast. Angela Lansbury recently appeared in Mary Poppins Returns.
They pay a heavy price for it. One of Mary and Bert's adventures goes wrong as they upset the bank manager where their father Mr George Banks works and almost cause a run on the bank. As a result, George Banks is sacked from his job. Deflated he wonders how he is now going to support his family.
George Banks: Male, 40s. The father to Jane and Michael Banks, is a banker to the very fiber of his being. Demanding "precision and order" in his household, he is a pipe-and-slippers man who doesn't have much to do with his children and believes that he had the perfect upbringing by his nanny, the cruel Miss Andrew.
Lin-Manuel Miranda as Jack, a cockney lamplighter and former apprentice of Bert from the original film. Ben Whishaw as Michael Banks, Jane's younger brother and father of Annabel, John, and Georgie, who is a widower now working as a part-time teller at Fidelity Fiduciary Bank and is a struggling artist.
Mary Poppins is a story about life's tradeoffs and the importance of finding balance, understanding and fulfilling obligations, and subordinating personal ambition.
At a time when 'Disney princesses' were shown to the world as people who were almost always dependent on the presence of a 'prince' to rescue them, 'Mary Poppins' appeared, slowly descending from the heights in her umbrella to make it clear that a woman does not have to depend on anyone to shape her life.
Travers, Disney devoted two decades to bring the nanny that is "practically perfect in every way" to the silver screen. In the early 1940s, Walt Disney made his daughter Diane a promise: he would adapt her favorite 1934 children's book, British author P.L. Travers' Mary Poppins, into a big-screen masterpiece.
Accuracy: Mostly true. Saving Mr. Banks does paint the father, Travers Goff, a little more positively than he actually was, but the basics — i.e. that Goff was an alcoholic, failed bank manager with an immensely romantic imagination — are all correct. Even the pear flashback toward the end has some basis in reality.
He is a long time friend of Mary Poppins, though their relationship is noted to be strictly platonic (but there are hints to suggest a more romantic interest between them).
In P.L. Travers' original eight-book series, Michael and Jane Banks had twin baby siblings, John and Barbara, who were a major part of the story from as early as Travers' first book; a year later, Travers' second book Mary Poppins Comes Back introduced another Banks infant named Annabel.
What does Mary Poppins do to stop Mr. Banks from firing her?
Midpoint: As George is on the brink of sacking Mary, she neatly turns the tables on him and convinces him it was his idea all along to take the children on an outing—to see where he works at the bank. This is the shift—from George simply reacting to his children to taking an active (if clumsy) interest in their lives.
This is also why Mary Poppins knows him as Uncle Albert! He's not her uncle. If he was, why would Bert just be at the house waiting for her when Mary gets there? She calls him Uncle Albert because that's what she's used to calling him when she saw him often during her time as Bert's nanny.
She might be an ange—or a Time Lord. What's clear is that Mary Poppins is a manipulative, lying, gaslighting jerk. It's highly possible you haven't realized this if you haven't, like me, seen Mary Poppins eighty-seven times in the span of fourteen months, but trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
The film's songwriter, Disney Legend Robert B. Sherman, who co-wrote the songs for the film told us, “Originally Walt wanted to cast Bette Davis for the part of Mary Poppins. Davis was (Mary Poppins books author) Pamela Travers' first choice, too.
Mary Poppins was a triumph at the 1965 Oscars, winning five awards and being nominated for eight others. So enduring is the film's legacy that it inspired a hit stage production that opened in 2004.
The film was set in In Edwardian London in 1910 but was entirely filmed at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. They using painted London background scenes to mock up London but they were based on actual places.
