Saving Mr. Banks opens next week in the United States, but it’s already made its debut overseas. The Mirror has photos from the premiere, including some of the stars of the original film, Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Stars of the current film are out promoting the film. Tom Hanks discusses taking on Walt in a video interview with ABC. Emma Thompson compares her co-star to the man he is portraying at USA Today. SFGate goes behind the scenes with Disney Legend Richard M. Sherman on his actual meetings with P.L. Travers and what it was like watching it being recreated, while Jason Schwartzman discusses the pressure of playing a part when the real person you’re portraying is just off camera.
Not all is practically perfect though. The New York Post talks about the story from Travers’ perspective. They say she “was never won over by the man, his studio employees or the film… She spent the rest of her life maligning what she saw as the maudlin mess her Mary Poppins had become on the big screen” Author Marc Eliot added, “Disney had no creative respect for this woman. He wanted a property, and once he got it he completely ignored her input and all the restrictions she had agreed to. And that’s how the film got made. That revisionist history — that’s part of the myth of Walt Disney.”