Unlike most streaming services, the movies available on Disney+ tend to conform to a fairly standard mold. You’ve got a lot of big franchise films and a lot of movies aimed at children, and not a whole lot in between.
If you’re looking for something a little more robust, or at least aimed at adults, you might want to check out Saving Mr. Banks. The movie tells the story of Walt Disney’s quest to adapt Mary Poppins and his various attempts to woo the author of the book series it’s based on, P.L. Travers. While the film is undeniably a little hagiographic, here are three reasons you should check it out.
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It features an incredible Emma Thompson performance
Few performers are more capable of playing a cynical, hard-hearted woman than Emma Thompson, but even so, her performance in Saving Mr. Banks is remarkable precisely because she manages to be incredibly charming despite her character’s cynicism.
Much of the movie is framed around Disney’s attempts to prove that his company and personality are more than a stunt designed to rake in profit. Ultimately, the movie’s heart is with Travers, a woman who poured everything she had into her work and does not want to see it destroyed.
It emphasizes Disney’s good qualities
There are plenty of things that Saving Mr. Banks either does not address or just straight up lies about. Walt Disney was famously anti-Semitic, and Travers didn’t actually care for the final version of Mary Poppins. Even so, Saving Mr. Banks is persuasive in selling you the best parts of what Disney is about. The movie is an argument for the importance of telling stories because of what they mean to the people who craft and consume them. Does it help that telling those stories makes people richer? Sure, but that doesn’t mean the stories themselves aren’t important.
It will remind you just how good Mary Poppins is
There are definitely pros and cons to a movie relying on the legacy of another. Saving Mr. Banks mostly gets away with reminding you about the greatness of Mary Poppins. This movie definitely wouldn’t exist if Mary Poppins had been a disaster, and in fact, this movie will deepen your appreciation for Mary Poppins and all the weighty ideas it’s playing around with.
Although there’s plenty of whimsy at work in that movie, the core story is one of a man — who has almost no connection to his children — realizing that they are the thing in his life that actually matters.
You can watch Saving Mr. Banks on Disney+.
