Saving Mr. Banks
Overall I liked the film very much. Many people have been debating about how accurate it is. Personally two things come to mind. One it's a drama not a documentary so dramatically tweaks will be made and two, if it's good enough for Richard Sherman and Floyd Norman who were actually there then it's good enough for me. Some nasty things where said about the portrayal of Walt by Abigail Disney. Foremost I don't think the film went out of it's way to paint a picture of a saint, they just painted a picture of a man, a man who had to deal with a very difficult person. Again, if Floyd Norman, who knew him personally, was happy with the portrayal by Tom Hanks then so am I. The film's not even about Walt so I don't see why that discussion is important.
Lastly a lot has been said about the ending, some people claiming that it was glossing over PL Travers' feeling of the finished film. It's not exactly true that she hated the film. In fact in interviews collected by historian Brian Sibley, she actually alters her opinion of the film quite frequently. At one point she said it's a fine film, not accurate to the books mind you, but as a film, fine. Nobody will ever know how she really felt. All that is known was that she cried for some reason at the premiere and she complained about the animation sequences, both of which the ending address. So in that regard I thought the ending was the best possible ending they could do, an ambiguous ending for an ambiguous lady. Also I agree with Luke from Kyle and Luke's podcast, I want a T-shirt with a silhouette of Mary Poppins with the slogan "Walt was right".
Frozen
I liked Frozen when I saw it. I didn't love Frozen however. I didn't come out wanting to see it again for some time at least, nor did I leave with a big smile on my face. I left happy but not joyous, not like when I saw Tangled for example. Yet, I've seen Frozen do extraordinarily well with people absolutely loving it and whilst I'm happy it's doing well, I had to figure to myself what was wrong with me. For all purposes I should have loved the film like everyone else, so I had to figure out why. It's not like I had a problem with the music, it was very Broadway but I liked it. I adored Olaf, I believe he was underused but he was great. Anna and Elsa were good leads and interesting characters. The ending was very sweet and worked very well.
So what was it. It's taken me a little while but I think I figured it out. The film hurt my feelings.
Let me explain. Whilst I appreciate the message of Family love and believe it is an important message to have, I don't think the film needed to put one kind of love in detriment to another. Even though I thought the ending worked well, I do believe at the beginning the film tried to hammer the message that "Romantic love is foolish" rather bluntly and on the nose. It felt like the film was saying "Hey all you people that hate Disney princess films, well you are right, they are stupid". It felt like the film was kicking and stomping all the other films, the films I loved and cherish, into the ground, just to seem more modern or something. I mean when I see memes around the internet clipping the portion of the film where Elsa says "You can't marry a man you just met" and people write underneath "About damm time Disney" it upsets me. Frozen could have handled it better, Enchanted managed to do it without smudging the notion of "love at first sight" into the dirt. Both kinds of love are important and it hurts me to think that Frozen felt for it to succeed it had to stab Disney's other fairytale films in the back. I'm sorry but it's just how I feel. At least Olaf was good though.
