Yesterday we were treated to the first official image from the film Saving Mr. Banks, which is a Disney film about Walt Disney trying to obtain the rights to the P.L. Travers’ novel Mary Poppins. Tom Hanks plays the iconic Walt and Emma Thompson plays Miss Travers herself.
First Image
The image shows Walt at Disneyland waving at patrons as a stern-faced Travers begrudgingly walks beside him. Seeing this photo makes me want to do two things: watch Mary Poppins and go to Disneyland immediately!
Trailer
And when it seemed like we wouldn’t get a trailer for a long time, Disney surprised us today with an official trailer for the film! This trailer is fantastic, nostalgic and beautifully informs audiences that this film is not a biography about only Walt Disney, but rather a film equally about Travers and her struggles.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/LztLegpGepo]
The trailer paints the picture about how hesitant and reluctant Travers was to give Walt the film rights to Mary Poppins. We get to see her involvement in crucial decisions such as the making of the film, Mary Poppin’s portrayal (“Poppins. Never ever just Mary.)”, and even her opposition to made up words such as “responstible.”
Personally, my favorite part of this trailer is getting to see famous Disney cameos such as B.J. Novak and and Jason Schwartzman as the famous Disney composers the Sherman brothers, Robert and Richard. You get to hear songs them performing such as “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (to Travers disgust) and “Feed the Birds.”
I particularly love how strangely endearing Travers is in this trailer. You’d expect that you’d be pulling for Walt because he’s Walt Freakin’ Disney for heaven’s sake! But in the trailer, we get a glimpse about how important and personal Mary Poppins actually is to her. I think her obstinance in giving in to Walt’s demands because she doesn’t want him to dilute the character and make it all sparkly. It will definitely make for a fascinating film.
Saving Mr. Banks hits theatres December 20, 2013 (but will receive a limited release on December 13).
