'Saving Mr. Banks' trailer explores how 'Mary Poppins' was adapted for the big screen
The first trailer for the film “Saving Mr. Banks,” which follows the story of how P.L. Travers’ children’s novel “Mary Poppins” became a Disney film, was recently released.
The movie stars Tom Hanks as Walt Disney and Emma Thompson as Travers, who is wary of Disney and his production team’s wishes to turn her beloved book into a movie.
The trailer shows Thompson traveling to Los Angeles to meet with Hanks and his company about the possible film. As seen in the trailer, Travers apparently had no patience for those who didn’t get her creation right.
“Introducing the creator of our beloved Mary,” Disney writer Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), who would pen the screenplay for “Poppins,” announces as she arrives.
“Poppins,” Thompson corrects him. “Never, ever just Mary.”
She also was wary of the movie getting the Disney treatment (“I know what he’s going to do to her,” Thompson says during the trailer. “She’ll be cavorting and winking”) and impatient of Disney-like cuteness.
“Responstible is not a word!” Thompson snaps at the Sherman brothers (Jason Schwartzman plays Richard and B.J. Novak plays Robert), who composed the music.
“We made it up,” Schwartzman tells her.
“Well, unmake it up,” she says with finality, causing him to hide the sheet music for “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.”
But the most important sticking point, according to the movie, was Disney’s misguided idea (at first) of what the story was really about.
“You think Mary Poppins has come to save the children?” Thompson asks Hanks. “Oh, dear.”
Other cast members include Colin Farrell as Travers’ father, “How Sweet It Is” actress Victoria Summer as Julie Andrews, “The Fighter” actress Dendrie Taylor as Disney’s wife Lillian, and Paul Giamatti as Ralph, who meets Thompson at the airport in the movie’s trailer.
