Reviewing Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks OST

What says Christmas more than a new Disney movie? Putting cynicism regarding marketing and extreme capitalism to one side, it’s undeniable that Disney retains a certain magic at this time of the year. Think Scrooge McDuck and Disneyworld parades, Fantasia and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas. The child in all of us gets all warm and fuzzy at the very thought. This new movie, Saving Mr. Banks, tells the tale of author PL Travers (played by Emma Thompson) meeting with Walt Disney himself (Tom Hanks) to get her novel Mary Poppins made into a movie, so it’s a little different but, if the soundtrack is anything to go by, still very cute.
We received the two-disc special edition of the soundtrack. The second disc is actually demos and recordings from the Mary Poppins soundtrack. Songs like “A Spoonful of Sugar” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” you’ve heard a million times but they sound particularly awesome right now. Disc one is a little weird; hearing Colin Farrell chatting over an instrumental “Chim Chim Cher-ee,” for example, is a touch disconcerting. Later, Jason Schwartzman performs the same song. But it’s all done with such good intentions and sweet sentimentality that it kinds works.