Today marks one year exactly since my check-in date for the college program at Walt Disney World. I began the day a little sad, because if you know me very well, you also know that I don't want anything more out of life than Disney, and yes, I'll say it again, I feel cheated. But then I remembered that God only has plans to prosper me, not to harm me, and if I listen to Him, he will give me a hope and a future. (That's my paraphrase of Jeremiah 29:11) I believe that my college program was meant to stoke my passion for Disney, and further awaken it within me, and boy, did it ever. Through my college program I learned that achieving my dreams and goals will take some major effort on my part, effort that will perhaps seem monumental compared to that needed by my ambulatory peers. But that is okay with me. After all, if I want it, it's worth the effort right?
Anyway, so much for the introduction. This post is supposed to be a review of the movie Saving Mr. Banks, and I want to stick to that template. Anything else is just extra, and I won't charge you for it. :)
So, Saving Mr. Banks. Where do I begin? I will try to give a thorough a review as possible without spoilers, but I'll go ahead and stick the caveat "read at your own risk" in there, just in case.
In the beginning, before seeing the movie, all I ever heard was, "P.L. Travers (the author of the Mary Poppins books) was a highly argumentative lady who was horrible to Walt and he had a terrible time getting her to agree to anything."
This is a perfectly accurate statement. It took Walt twenty years to get Pamela to even entertain the notion of selling him the film rights. (And this was only because she was so strapped for cash she was on the verge of losing her house.)
Did she have some outlandish requests? Absolutely, especially for a Disney film. Two of her original conditions were no music and no animation. They might seem a little outlandish yes, but now ask me another question: Do I blame her? The answer to that is a resounding no. Not at all. As a writer myself, I know that the characters I write are like my children. In fact, one of my conditions if I ever pen anything that merits a movie is that I either write the script myself, or, like Mrs. Travers, get full script approval. Having said that, I have some friends that take the attitude of, "As long as they pay you, it doesn't matter what happens to your characters." I disagree wholeheartedly. As much as money would help my situation, the love for my "family" of characters supercedes the need for capital. Writing is my escape from the horrors-yes, I said horrors-of my every day life. It was quite the same for Mrs. Travers. Mary Poppins was a tribute to her father, the person she was closest to. She felt that any dishonesty in the portrayal of her characters was an insult to the memory of her father, and I think Walt respected that, that's why he was so patient with her. He probably experienced a similar pain upon losing Oswald, Mickey's long-eared predecessor, who has now been restored to the Walt Disney Company.
Having read all this, you are probably thinking, "But Ryan, there are songs and animated penguins in the Mary Poppins movie. After all that fighting, didn't she lose the battle anyway?"
Mmm, not really. To sort of answer that question, I will give you a quote from the movie by Mrs. Travers, portrayed expertly by Emma Thompson.
"If you think that Mary Poppins came to save the children, Mr. Disney, I'm afraid you've entirely missed the point."
Saving Mr. Banks is an excellent movie with superb performances given by all involved. But, you don't have to take my word for it.
As I look back on my college program and all the emotions it stirs, from immense joy to bitter disappointment, I think of this quote by my uncle Walt:
Around here, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening new doors and trying new things, because we're curious, an curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.
-Walt Disney
So, yes, I may have to work harder to get back to Disney, but my passion for Disney is a God-given one, and I have never felt that I fit somewhere more in my life, whether my leaders could see it or not. But that's okay. I will work as hard as I can. Because it is my passion, and my passion is worth it, no matter how long it takes, or how many people I have to prove wrong.
"Impossible is not a word, it's just a reason for someone not to try." -Kutless
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