It was posted on Raw Story the other day. Having watched two, hour long specials on PL Travers I think he was a bit off the mark not to mention he is not a reviewer but a writer. Writers hate when anyone changes what they have written so he identified with Travers and understood why she would not want Disney changing things. Problem in this case however is that Disney's version was extremely successful and even if it wasn't to her liking the public loved it and it earned 12 Academy Award nominations winning 5 of them. It made her character a household name when Mary Poppins would not have been otherwise. Something writers need to understand is that they sometimes need to let go and allow other visions of their work to spring free for the public to enjoy. Yes it hurts to let go of your baby and it hurts even worse if the fuck it up but Disney's Mary Poppins is a classic and treasured by the public. It means a lot to many people. She should have accepted that and have been happy that the move did bring a lot of people happiness even if it wasn't 100% all her that molded it.
Harlen and a few who are strong in Travers camp point to the fact that she hated the film and in Saving Mr. Banks she is shown crying at the end as though the film which she fought against the whole way ended up moving her to tears. My personal opinion is that the film walked a fine line and it came across more to me that the whole process and fight with Disney had brought back a lot of very powerful emotions and she seemed to be crying because perhaps she was conflicted inside hating what Disney had done with her book but also identifying with how Mr. Banks ends up saved at the end of the Disney film which is what she had hoped could have happened with her father. It is said she was seen crying at the end of the film and I doubt it was just because she was appalled with what turned out to be an American treasure. There was something deeper going on there. This video special does a nice job touching on these issues:
And lets keep in mind that she could be very rude, insensitive and there is no doubt was a very difficult person to work with. She adopted a twin taking him away from his brother and lied to him for years about a number of things. Her adopted son even says in one of the videos that the reason she just wanted one of them, was so she could impose herself on him. Saving Mr. Banks didn't bring up a lot of her biggest issues, it chose to highlight her very difficult childhood and how it may have molded her and impacted the story Mary Poppins, yet allowing the audience to lover her with all her quirks and baggage.
There was no way Disney was going to go hard on Walt Disney, but it is a fact that those who worked with him on Mary Poppins really liked him. Does the film gloss over the problems between him and Travers? Absolutely, but it works very well in the context of the film.
As far as Reviewers go it has an 80% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with over 90% of the public liking it.
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