Holy moly, you are right! I usually like Podhoretz’s reviews, but this one’s like a screed. Who writes a screed against an innocuous movie like “Saving Mr. Banks”? Even if it’s all nonsense, who cares?
Evidently John Podhoretz does. This is probably the strangest movie review I’ve ever read.
I’d like to see that movie too, I love “Mary Poppins”, it’s the first movie I remember seeing and my whole family LOVED it.
WIKI Although P.L Travers was an adviser to the Disney production, she disapproved of the dilution of the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins’ character, felt ambivalent about the music, and so hated the use of animation that she ruled out any further adaptations of the later Mary Poppins novels.[12]
At the film’s star-studded première (to which she was not invited, but had to ask Walt Disney for permission to attend), she reportedly approached Disney and told him that the animated sequence had to go.[13] Disney responded by walking away, saying as he did, “Pamela, the ship has sailed.”[13]
Enraged at what she considered shabby treatment at Disney’s hands, Travers would never again agree to another Poppins/Disney adaptation, though Disney made several attempts to persuade her to change her mind.
So fervent was Travers’ dislike of the Disney adaptation and of the way she felt she had been treated during the production, that when producer Cameron Mackintosh approached her about the stage musical when she was into her 90s, she acquiesced on the condition that only English-born writers and no one from the film production were to be directly involved with creating the stage musical.
This specifically excluded the Sherman Brothers from writing additional songs for the production, even though they were still very prolific. However, original songs and other aspects from the 1964 film were allowed to be incorporated into the production. These points were stipulated in her last will and testament.
For what it's worth, I've not seen either movie. Mary Poppins may be a classic, beloved film, but it just doesn't appeal to me. Could be that I'd love it, but I have no desire to invest the time to find out. On the other hand, my wife and I have been planning to see Saving Mr. Banks, despite our disappointment with Mr HANKS' liberal delusions.
One thing that stood out in the review was Mr. Podhoretz's slam on Disney movies of that era. Was he judging them in the context of the times, or comparing them with more modern movies? I saw quite a few Disney movies as a kid, and usually found them entertaining and/or just as well-made as anything else of the era.
Knocking The Shaggy Dog or The Absent-Minded Professor? Heck, even Old Yeller and Bambi taught me that it was ok to cry
Lighten up, John Podhoretz!
Gay, anti-parent, anti-American, perverts today have ruined not only the "entertainment" geared to children but even the name! IMHO
Loved Disney (spent much of his youth in Kansas City, including going to the same school my mother attended), loved and looked forward to Sunday nights and the Wonderful World of Disney.
Am I correct in thinking Johnny Tremaine was a Disney TV project?