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Heartwarming / Saving Mr. Banks

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Moments pages are Spoilers Off. Proceed with utmost caution! You Have Been Warned.


  • In the scene where the Sherman brothers make Mrs. Banks a suffragette to explain her not watching the children, Ms. Travers argues against the decision, saying that a mother may have other reasons for not taking care of her children and still have the best intentions.
    • Doubles as a Tear Jerker and Harsher in Hindsight moment when Ginty's mother nearly commits suicide from the stress of her husband's alcoholism and illness.
  • Walt is sitting on a bench within the studios when he hears a piano and Richard Sherman is singing "Feed the Birds". Richard smiles at Walt briefly finishes the song, as Walt is listening with a thoughtful expression. Then his boss says, "That will work," and sits next to him, to review "A Man Has Dreams". It may seem small given in real life "Feed the Birds" was Walt's favorite song from the brothers, but his tiny bit of praise actually spoke volumes.
  • The song "Let's Go Fly a Kite". As the Sherman Bros. play and sing it for Pamela Travers, she is won over, as they made George Banks, whom Travers thought Disney turned into a monster, be the one who mends his children's kite, thus bringing the family together. Travers' enthusiasm, despite her insistence that it should have been "let us go and fly a kite" (of course, she did strike that insistence from the record about a second later), makes for a rather heartwarming piece towards the end.
    • Don noticing Travers enjoying herself and silently asking her to dance is especially cute.
    • The Thomas Newman string arrangements of said song may bring this into Tear Jerker status.
    • The sheer unspeakable joy on Travers' face as she sings along at the end, her hand tapping the beat on Richard's shoulder. Emma Thompson's radiant supernova of a smile says it all.
  • Travers taking the giant stuffed Mickey doll to bed with her. And the reveal that she took it back home to London.
  • Many of the early scenes with "Ginty" and her father are this.
  • Ms. Travers autographing Ralph's daughter's copy of Mary Poppins, and giving him a card with names such as Albert Einstein, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and others who had difficulties, telling him that his disabled daughter can do anything she sets her mind to.
    • Also, she has Walt's name on the list, backing it up by claiming he has some form of ADHD. Even after their last meeting, it says a lot about what she thinks of him.
    • Even better, Ms. Travers is the one who offers to sign the book. Ralph just wanted to show her that he's reading it and enjoying it.
  • The Mickey Mouse entertainer offering his arm to Ms. Travers at the premiere.
    • Also the seating arrangement once she gets inside. She's seated between the Sherman brothers and right in front of Mr. Disney. The brothers both keep glancing at her to see her reaction to various scenes, clearing hoping she'll like their movie. When Ms. Travers gets visibly emotional during a scene involving Mr. Banks, Mr. Disney leans forward to comfort her. It's possible that the seating arrangement was intended as damage control in case she vocally hated the film, but still, the result was to surround her with the few people at the premiere who she knew and liked.
    • Walt's satisfied expression after he comforts Mrs. Travers and tells her, "Mr. Banks will be all right." He nailed the anguish that Mr. Banks's solitary walk to the bank would have.
    • To elaborate more on the Mickey Mouse entertainer, she doesn't walk straight into him, nor he just enters the camera frame to offer her an arm. As Mrs. Travers walks alone towards the entrance, clearly feeling out of place, we see her stopping to look at something. A close-up reveals it is a picture of David Tomlinson as Mr. Banks, with a following close-up showing us Mrs. Travers looking at it then noticing someone next to her. Then the film cuts to back to the previous full shot, only now the entertainer is standing right next to her, almost as if he "magically" showed up. To top it off, the Mickey Mouse costume shares the same big yellow ribbon her giant stuffed Mickey doll has. In a symbolic way, the entertainer is her Mickey doll, the only other friend she made in America after Ralph, coming to escort her into the theater.
  • Ralph surprising Mrs. Travers at the hotel to take her to the premiere. She's so touched by this gesture she actually hugs him.
  • Early in the film, Travers makes quite a fuss over Mr. Banks having a mustache, stating that he must be clean shaven. Towards the end, Walt admits to her that the mustache was derived not from vain ego as Travers seemed to have thought, but from his own father; his personal Mr. Banks.
  • When the Bank President and Ginty see her father making a spectacle of himself in the bank, the President fires him, but clearly regrets it when he realizes he has fired the man in front of the daughter whom he clearly loves, and gives him one last chance.
  • During the scene with Walt and Robert Sherman about why Travers is so set on having everything her way and won't bend in anyway, Walt says that he understands because he was once offered a lot of money for Mickey. Even though he had no money at the time, he could not go through with the deal, because as Walt put it, "That mouse is family."
  • At the premiere, Travers stares at a piece of artwork of Mr. Banks, whose appearance she dismissed in an earlier scene, admiring it. This also feels like a tribute or tip of the hat to David Tomlinson, who played Mr. Banks in Mary Poppins.

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