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Film 1054: Saving Mr. Banks

Trivia: In the movie Tom Hanks is playing Walt Disney who is his distant cousin.

Walt Disney hid his smoking habit from the public, fearing it would harm his and his studio's family friendly image. Tom Hanks wanted his portrayal to be accurate, so he lobbied to show Disney smoking. Disney, however, still insisted that smoking was not appropriate for a family film. Hanks got one concession from the company: a shot in which Disney is seen stubbing out a cigarette.

According to the 40th Anniversary DVD release of Mary Poppins (1964) in 2004, Walt Disney first attempted to purchase the film rights to Mary Poppins from P.L. Travers as early as 1938, but was rebuffed because Travers was disgusted by Hollywood's handling of book-to-film adaptations, and did not believe a film version of her books would do justice to her creation. Another reason for her initial rejection would have been that at that time the Disney studios had not yet produced a live action film. For more than twenty years, Disney made periodic entreaties to Travers to allow him to make a Poppins film. He finally succeeded in 1961, but Travers demanded and got script-approval rights. Planning the film, writing the script and composing the songs took about two years. Travers objected to a number of elements that actually made it into the film. Rather than the Sherman Brothers' original songs, she wanted the soundtrack to feature known standards of the Edwardian period in which the story is set. She objected the "anti-feminist" ending, in which Winifred Banks, the mother of Jane and Michael, lays aside her devotion to the cause of women's suffrage to be with her children and to round up help and support to find George Banks after he fails to come back from the bank. Travers also objected to the idea of using animation to depict the chalkboard world. Disney overruled her, citing contract stipulations that he had final say on the finished print. Travers refused to allow any other Mary Poppins books to be filmed, even though Walt tried very hard to get her to reconsider.

According to an article on the website The Flickcast - All Things Geek, during their Saturday panel, "Working with Walt," renowned Walt Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr began to tear up while speaking about the film. As the web article reads on, "He, and the fellow Disney legends that joined him on stage, were touched by how director John Lee Hancock and screenplay writer Kelly Marcel brought Walt to life again. Little quirks, like Disney clearing his throat to let you know that he was about to enter a room, have added a level of authenticity often lost in films like this."

The first theatrical film from Walt Disney Pictures or any other film studio in Hollywood to feature Walt Disney as a lead or supporting character in a feature film.

Mrs Travers says to an exasperated Walt Disney that "Disappointments are to the soul what a thunderstorm is to the air." This line is a quote from German dramatist Friedrich Schiller.