Last night, Mackay and I watched a movie called Saving Mr. Banks. It's about the author of Mary Poppins, and her journey to sell the rights to for Disney to make it into a movie. It's a touching story because she wants the movie portrayed exactly how she sees it in her head because it is based on her own life. Her father is supposed to be Mr. Banks, and it is really important for the author to have him portrayed as loving despite his trials in life. The movie is full of flashbacks to her childhood. Sadly, you see that her father had an alcohol addiction which made it hard for him to keep a job and provide for his family. In the end, her dad dies from alcohol poisoning. It made me really sad to watch because of the sadness that his addiction ultimately brought to the whole family. At the end of the movie, Walt Disney is trying to convince the author, P.L. Travers, to sell the rights, and I really liked what Walt Disney said about his childhood. I loved the message about forgiveness, so I wanted to share it. Forgiveness is healing, and it was beautiful to see this character finally forgive herself for things that happened when she was a child.
Walt Disney: Have you ever been to Kansas City, Mrs. Travers? Do you know Missouri at all?
P.L. Travers: I can't say I do.
Walt Disney: Well, it's mighty cold there in the winters. Bitter cold. And my dad, Elias Disney, he owned a newspaper delivery route there. A thousand papers, twice daily; a morning and an evening edition. And dad was a tough businessman. He was a "save a penny any way you can" type of fella, so he wouldn't employ delivery boys. No, no, no... he used me and my big brother Roy. I was eight back then, just eight years old. And, like I said, winters are harsh, and Old Elias, he didn't believe in new shoes until the old ones were worn through. And honestly, Mrs. Travers, the snowdrifts, sometimes they were up over my head and we'd push through that snow like it was molasses. The cold and wet seeping through our clothes and our shoes. Skin peeling from our faces. Sometimes I'd find myself sunk down in the snow, just waking up because I must have passed out or something, I don't know. And then it was time for school and I was too cold and wet to figure out equations and things. And then it was back out in the know again to get home just before dark. Mother would feed us dinner and then it was time to go right back out and do it again for the evening edition. "You'd best be quick there, Walt. You'd better get those newspapers up on that porch and under that storm door. Poppa's gonna lose his temper again and show you the buckle end of his belt, boy."
[Travers looks noticeably unsettled by his story]
Walt Disney: I don't tell you this to make you sad, Mrs. Travers. I don't. I love my life, I think it's a miracle. And I loved my dad. He was a wonderful man. But rare is the day when I don't think about that eight-year-old boy delivering newspapers in the snow and old Elias Disney with that strap in his fist. And I am just so tired, Mrs. Travers. I'm tired of remembering it *that* way. Aren't you tired, too, Mrs. Travers? Now we all have our sad tales, buy don't you want to finish the story? Let is all go and have a life that isn't dictated by the past? It's not the children she comes to save. It's their father. It's *your* father... Travers Goff.
P.L. Travers: I don't know what you think you know about me, Walter...
Walt Disney: You must have loved and admired him a lot to take his name. It's him this is all about, isn't it? All of it, everything. Forgiveness, Mrs. Travers, it's what I learned from your books.
P.L. Travers: I don't have to forgive my father. He was a wonderful man.
Walt Disney: No... you need to forgive Helen Goff. Life is a harsh sentence to lay down for yourself.
Later in the conversation Walt says:
Walt Disney: George Banks and all he stands for will be saved. Maybe not in life, but in imagination. Because that's what we storytellers do. We restore order with imagination. We instill hope again and again and again.
