“Mr. Banks” Film Depicts 1961 Disneyland

Earlier this month, official Disney fan club D23 posted a great piece detailing Disneyland’s role in the critically acclaimed new film, Saving Mr. Banks.

The movie follows the development of the 1964 Walt Disney Studios film, Mary Poppins. It stars Emma Thompson as author P. L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney.

In early November 2012, the film crew spent two days at Disneyland in Anaheim. After filming concluded for the day, many involved with the production stayed in the park to enjoy the rides and attractions.

Filming took place on Main Street and at the park’s entrance in the early morning hours so that guests would not be affected. Fantasyland was closed for an afternoon for filming at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and on the King Arthur Carousel where Disney tries to convince P.L. that “there’s a child in all of us.”

“The script reads that Walt takes P.L. to Disneyland for a day and that sounded really fun,” says director John Lee Hancock. “You then get into the military precision of trying to plan for this because it’s supposed to be 1961. So, we scouted Disneyland. It seemed like I went down there 20 times, picking specific shots and places to shoot where it looked like 1961. And Michael Corenblith, our brilliant production designer, did so much work that ends up in frame that really reminds us of what Disneyland looked like in 1961.”

As Disneyland has retained much of its original charm and decor, set designers task of taking the park back to 1961 wasn’t as challenging.

Corenblith added: “Disneyland is remarkably unchanged from when it was opened in 1955. Walt was creating these archetypal situations, particularly Main Street, to really encapsulate his experience in small-town Missouri, where he grew up. So, there was really very little that has changed from that. And the entrance to the park, while so iconic, still remains exactly the same, with the exception of the attraction posters, which we added—big colorful posters that talked about the rides. What we discovered was that those existed in 1955 because people did not know what to expect in coming to Disneyland when it first opened.”

Surprisingly, Saving Mr. Banks is only the third feature film to shoot inside Disneyland in the park’s 58-year history.

The first was the 1962 comedy 40 Pounds of Trouble. Ironically, Tom Hanks’ own feature debut, 1996’s That Thing You Do!, was the last film shot at Disneyland until Saving Mr. Banks.

Have you seen Saving Mr. Banks yet? Share your thoughts about the film in the comments section below.

Tags: disneyland