P. L. Travers – Chris Barsanti

Going back to the well many decades later, Disney delivers a brand-new musical adaptation of P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins books that’s not close to the original but better than it has any right to be.

Mary Poppins Returns opens wide today. My review is at PopMatters:

As the law of diminishing returns for any sequel is one of the immutable laws of the cinematic universe—and all the more so for movie musicals (no matter what those fiendishly wrong fans of Grease 2 might claim)—there was even less chance that Mary Poppins Returns could pull the same rabbit out of one of Poppins’ very fetching hats. Nevertheless, this sequel manages a somewhat impressive feat for the often groan-inducing Disney remake factory: it captures the essence of the original while adding just enough spark to set it apart…

Here’s the trailer:

Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) cajoles ‘Mary Poppins’ author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) in ‘Saving Mr. Banks’

It’s been a while since Emma Thompson has been a fixture at the Academy Awards; her last win was in 1996 for writing the screenplay of Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility. That might change now, with her incomparable work in the new Disney biopic Saving Mr. Banks, where Thompson plays the icy Mary Poppins author P.L. Travers as she gets humbugged by Walt Disney (Tom Hanks), who’s intent on making her astringent fantasy novels into a big, splashy musical.

Saving Mr. Banks opens this weekend in limited release and then wider on December 20. My review is at PopMatters:

One of the great selling points of Saving Mr. Banks is this clash of characters. Travers is the proper British writer representing an already fading ideal of Victorian decorum. Disney is the modern American televisual salesman who has made a career out of ransacking the myths of the world and repackaging them in singing, dancing, animated Technicolor. The practically perfect Thompson is all stiff lip and querulous frown, her Travers wondering what fresh hell she’s just stumbled into; Thompson delivers more information out of a slight narrowing of the eyes than most actors can with an entire speech…

This is ALL wrong... — This is ALL wrong…

Here’s the trailer:

Chris Barsanti

Tag: P. L. Travers

Screening Room: ‘Mary Poppins Returns’

New in Theaters: ‘Saving Mr. Banks’