Saving Mr. Banks (2013)
In London 1961, agent Diarmuid Russell urges financially strapped author Pamela “P. L.” Travers to travel to Los Angeles and meet with Walt Disney, who has pursued the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories for twenty years after having promised his daughters to produce a film based on the books. Travers has steadfastly resisted Disney’s efforts, fearing what he will do to her character. Having written nothing new and her book royalties dried up, she risks losing her house. Russell reminds her that Disney has agreed to two major stipulations (no animation and unprecedented script approval) before she finally agrees to go.
Flashbacks depict Travers’ difficult childhood in Allora, Queensland, Australia in 1906, which became the inspiration for much of Mary Poppins. Travers idolized her loving, imaginative father, Travers Robert Goff, but his chronic alcoholism resulted in his repeated dismissals, strained her parents’ marriage and caused her distressed mother’s attempted suicide. Goff died from tuberculosis when Travers was seven years old. Prior to his death, her mother’s stern, practical sister came to live with the family and later served as Travers’s main inspiration for the Mary Poppins character.
Date of download: 2015-11-11T17:22:34+00:00
Cast:  Emma ThompsonP.L. Travers (Helen Goff)  Annie Rose BuckleyHelen (Child)  Tom HanksWalt Disney  Colin FarrellTravers Goff  Ruth WilsonMargaret Goff  Paul GiamattiRalph  Bradley WhitfordDon DaGradi  Jason SchwartzmanRichard Sherman  B.J. NovakRobert Sherman  Kathy BakerTommie  Rachel GriffithsAunt Ellie |
In London 1961, agent Diarmuid Russell urges financially strapped author Pamela “P. L.” Travers to travel to Los Angeles and meet with Walt Disney, who has pursued the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories for twenty years after having promised his daughters to produce a film based on the books. Travers has steadfastly resisted Disney’s efforts, fearing what he will do to her character. Having written nothing new and her book royalties dried up, she risks losing her house. Russell reminds her that Disney has agreed to two major stipulations (no animation and unprecedented script approval) before she finally agrees to go.
Flashbacks depict Travers’ difficult childhood in Allora, Queensland, Australia in 1906, which became the inspiration for much of Mary Poppins. Travers idolized her loving, imaginative father, Travers Robert Goff, but his chronic alcoholism resulted in his repeated dismissals, strained her parents’ marriage and caused her distressed mother’s attempted suicide. Goff died from tuberculosis when Travers was seven years old. Prior to his death, her mother’s stern, practical sister came to live with the family and later served as Travers’s main inspiration for the Mary Poppins character.
