Saccharine-sweet Disney

MICKEY Mouse goes head-to-head with Mary Poppins in Saving Mr Banks, a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious backstage drama about Walt Disney's (Tom Hanks) two-decade pursuit of the rights to PL Travers's (Emma Thompson) classic book - because he promised his daughters he would make a movie out of it.

Like any Disney classic, the story is sweet, sentimental and magical and the connection with the well-loved 1964 Julie Andrews musical makes it even easier for Saving Mr Banks to resonate with the audience. Especially with the added story about Travers's troubled childhood which inspired her to write about the flying English nanny and her clever ditties.

That's enough to explain why she fended off Disney's generous offer to turn it into pop entertainment for so long, although the Australian-born English author begins to regret it when her career hits a snag. Reluctantly, she travels to Los Angeles to hear Disney and his creative team - screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford) and composers, the Sherman Brothers (Jason Schwartzman and BJ Novak) - make their pitch.