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YMMV / Saving Mr. Banks

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  • Alternative Joke Interpretation: Travers asks "why have you made Mrs Banks a silly suffragette?", implying that she's disdainful of the women's movement, and the joke seems to be that the men are more respectful of it than her. But her disdain could be read another way if one considers the historical context - the suffragettes were extremely unpopular even among First Wave Feminists themselves. There was a distinction drawn between the suffragists - who campaigned for women's rights through peaceful means - and the suffragettes - who did more violent things such as blowing up buildings and were essentially terrorists. So is Travers more annoyed that they've changed her character into someone who's implied to do those things?
  • Award Snub: Emma Thompson was widely expected to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for her performance, but she didn't.
  • Awesome Music: While the songs preformed in this film are faithful to the original, a couple stand out:
    • The Sherman Brothers performing "Fidelity Fiduciary Bank" for Mrs. Travers. What makes this awesome is that, at the same time, there was a flashback of her father making a speech about the bank. As a result, the two scenes bleed into each other, with the Shermans and Goff finishing each other's sentences and the latter even getting involved in the singing.
    • The film's rendition of "Let's Go Fly a Kite", which is absolutely joyous. Special mention to the clear, beautiful soprano in the last half, courtesy of Emma Thompson.
  • Broken Base: The ending depicting Travers weeping at the premiere. Some people dislike the idea that it implies Travers was moved by the film, as she reportedly hated it and wept because her book had been transformed into something unrecognisable. Others point to some merit to the idea of it happening - as Travers did say in an interview some ten years later that it was a good film in its own right, but far too different from her books (one person who watched it with her years later said there were some parts of it where she became very excited). This same camp points to Travers looking mortified at the "Jolly Holiday" sequence, which does indicate she didn't think the movie was wholly good. It all depends on how willing you are to stretch Artistic License – History by ten years to allow the scene to work.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Walt being able to join Richard Sherman in singing "A Man Has Dreams" despite it being the first time he heard it makes sense: considering the many musical films that came before Mary Poppins, Walt obviously picked up on reading sheet music. Walt, in real life, was also known to review his creative teams works after hours without their knowledge.
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight: With Disney's epiphany that Mary Poppins was trying to save Mr. Banks rather than the children, it makes her interactions with Michael and Jane in Mary Poppins Returns all the more sweeter, as they're laced with the implications that she's helping them more than she's helping Michael's children.
    Mary Poppins: I've come to look after the Banks children.
    Anabel Banks (Michael's daughter): Us?
    Mary Poppins: Oh yes, you, too.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Meryl Streep turned down the role of P. L. Travers. She would later star in Mary Poppins Returns as the character Topsy.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Mrs. Travers is portrayed as one. She's a grumpy, child-hating pill who snarks at every Disney employee, and seems determined to be difficult. But given her sad childhood - seeing her father succumb to alcoholism and watching her mother attempt suicide, it's hard to not feel sorry for her. And the fact that she's trying to make sure her work and characters are represented well.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: A number of people went to see the film just to see Tom Hanks playing Walt Disney.
  • Narm Charm: Walt Disney's speech about having to deliver newspapers in the snow as a child. It can come across as the most pretentious Oscar Baity scene imaginable, but Tom Hanks makes it work.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Travers' mother's attempted suicide by calmly walking into a river and trying to drown herself. Which the young daughter had to watch. What makes this even worst is that this really happened, except Travers did not watch but knew her mother was suicidal.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Julie Andrews doesn't appear until the Mary Poppins premiere, since Saving Mr. Banks completely skips over the filming of Poppins. Fortunately, her impersonator, an uncredited Victoria Summer, effectively re-creates her mid-'60s appearance, thanks to closely studying footage of the real Andrews attending the Mary Poppins premiere.
  • Questionable Casting: Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks are both very convincing as P.L. Travers and Walt Disney, but B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman seem sorely miscast as the Sherman Brothers, since they do not look or sound anything like them.
  • Ron the Death Eater: A strange case. But many viewers and critics attacked the film for softening Walt Disney and ignoring many of his flaws. Most obviously, this was because the film was produced by the Disney studio and therefore could be seen as giving themselves a rose-tinted portrayal. But as Lindsay Ellis points out, the film downplays many of Travers's flaws as well - showing her merely as a Defrosting Ice Queen with a Freudian Excuse rather than, as her own grandchildren put it "she died loving no one and loved by no one".
    "If [the film] softens Walt, then it softens Travers too."
  • Spoiled by the Format: The Reveal that "Travers" is not in fact the author's actual surname, but instead the first name of her father, is spoiled by the closed captioning referring to her father by name in every line of dialogue he utters.

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