Saving Mr. Banks Blu-Ray Review

Mitchell Stein- Released yesterday on Blu-Ray, Saving Mr. Banks tells the true story of how Walt Disney wooed P.L. Travers to the rights of her book, Mary Poppins to create the famous film adaption. Mary Poppins is well known for its music, special effects and it’s heartfelt story. 

Saving Mr. Banks shows us the entire journey up until the movie started going into production. Oddly enough, the story seems to end before the filming takes place, but this movie really just offers a “behind-the-scenes” look at what it took just to receive the rights, and it’s quite an exciting journey.

The film’s cast is brilliant. While Tom Hanks may not look a lot like Walt Disney, the spirit of Walt lives on. In fact, there’s a sequence where Tom plays a scene from an actual Walt Disney clip word for word, and he does a spot-on impression of it, he’s a really fantastic actor and I can’t think of anyone better to play the role of Walt.

Emma Thompson steals the stage with her performance of the troubled and unhappy P.L. Travers. The story not only circulates around Travers, but it also offers flashbacks at Travers’s early life, and shows us her troubled childhood, and why she is unhappy with some of the things today.

The film’s detail is fantastic. How many people would have noticed Walt’s Smoke Tree Ranch tie clip on his tie? There’s many elements of the film’s set design that really speak to the die-hard Disney fans like myself. From the vintage items in Walt’s office to the detail in 1960’s Disneyland, The detail is just incredible and I applaud the film’s set design department. 

As for the Blu-Ray release, I have to say I am shocked at the lack of bonus features to be found. When the film tells the in-depth story of the creation of Mary Poppins, the Blu-Ray bonus features barely give any insight into the creation or during the filming of Mary Poppins.

The Walt Disney Studios: From Poppins to Present offers a look at the famed Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank and looking back to what it was like during the filming of Mary Poppins in the 1960’s. There’s also Deleted Scenes and Let’s Go Fly A Kite, which shows the cast and crew break out into a chorus of the popular Mary Poppins song on the last day of filming. It’s fun, but doesn’t really make up for the lack of bonus features. 

Overall, the film is great and the features could’ve used some more peeks at what it took to bring Poppins to the big screen, or even some behind the scenes look at the making of Saving Mr. Banks, especially with the amount of detail that went into the film. What usually pushes me to buy the Blu-Ray over the DVD version is when the Blu-Ray has a lot more bonus features. I was pleased incredibly with the film, but I was disappointed in the amount of bonus features.  Hopefully this will be corrected when the film is re-released in a couple of years.

Saving Mr. Banks is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital Copy