SAVING MR. BANKS
Brilliant, heartrending Disney drama with mixed spiritual content.
Should You Watch It?
SAVING MR. BANKS is extremely poignant and sometimes heartrending. Its brilliant script gives depth and growth to both Walt Disney and P.L. Travers, while Emma Thompson and Paul Giamatti deliver especially strong performances. The music and cinematography also serve the story well.
The concern is not the filmmaking. It is the worldview. The movie includes Buddhist and New Age ideas, occult imagery and discussion, alcoholism, and a dysfunctional family marked by serious pain. At the same time, Walt repeatedly speaks about salvation, redemption, hope, love, forgiveness, sacrifice, giving, and honesty.
That combination makes this a powerful but spiritually mixed film. Adults may find real emotional and moral value here, but it is not suitable for children or young teens. For discerning adults, WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESWalt Disney wants the movie rights to P.L. Travers’s beloved Mary Poppins books. Travers has kept the rights from him for 20 years, but her funds are running low, so she reluctantly travels to Los Angeles to begin selling them.
Walt has promised his children that he will make Mary Poppins into a movie. But Travers has very specific ideas about the character, and she and Walt have sharply different visions for the project.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is exceptionally well-made. SAVING MR. BANKS has a brilliant script that allows the story to unfold while revealing the characters’ depth and arcs.
Emma Thompson and Paul Giamatti give extremely strong performances. The music and cinematography are also executed well. Even the flashbacks flow smoothly into the main story and create additional depth.
The result is a powerful, poignant drama with moments that can be deeply moving.
The Worldview
SAVING MR. BANKS presents a mixed worldview. It includes Christian themes of salvation, redemption, hope, love, forgiveness, sacrifice, giving, and honesty, especially through Walt Disney’s character. These themes drive the characters’ transformations and provide the movie’s strongest moral center.
But the film also presents New Age and Buddhist ideas. A Buddhist icon accompanies Mrs. Travers, and a mystical guru’s book appears on her desk. The story includes discussion of life as an illusion and suggests that meditation can make a person whatever they dream. It also suggests that history is cyclical and that the dead remain one with the universe.
Occult elements appear as well, including a story about a witch turning a man into a horse. The film addresses alcoholism and shows how a lack of a real worldview can lead to self-deception and destruction. The Christian ideas are meaningful, but they share the movie with spiritual concepts that conflict with biblical truth.
The movie’s longing for salvation, hope, love, and forgiveness points toward truths Scripture grounds in God: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Strong mixed pagan worldview with some Buddhist and New Age content such as a Buddhist icon, a mystical guru’s book is shown on a desk, there’s discussion of life being an illusion, girl meditates to be a hen laying an egg after being told she can be whatever she dreams, father tells story of a witch turning a man into a horse, but also with some Christian, moral content, such as mentions of the Saints and Apostles, and themes of forgiveness, love, hope, sacrifice, giving, and honesty; two obscenities and four profanities; no violence man coughs up blood; no sex, just a kiss between a married couple; no nudity; alcoholism is addressed in the movie; smoking, but no drug use; and, there’s the portrayal of a dysfunctional family where the mother almost commits suicide and the father is an alcoholic.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film presents salvation, redemption, hope, love, and forgiveness as powerful needs. How does the Bible explain where true salvation comes from?
Ephesians 2:8–9 · John 14:6The story includes alcoholism and self-deception. How can loving honesty help someone trapped in destructive behavior?
Ephesians 4:15 · James 5:19–20The film mixes Christian themes with Buddhist, New Age, and occult ideas. How can you test spiritual claims rather than accepting every comforting message?
1 John 4:1 · Acts 17:11Forgiveness is one of the movie’s central moral themes. What does Christian forgiveness look like, and how is it grounded in God’s forgiveness of us?
Ephesians 4:32 · Colossians 3:13The Final Word
SAVING MR. BANKS is beautifully made, deeply moving, and spiritually mixed. Its Christian themes offer genuine moral substance, but its Buddhist, New Age, and occult elements require adult discernment. Our answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For a family viewing choice, see.
