Harlan Ellison Is Not A Fan Of “Saving Mr. Banks”

Harlan Ellison, Angry Man. Est. 1934

Somewhat recently, Harlan Ellison and his wife were invited to a dinner with some wealthy muckety-mucks that ended with a screening of the new moving Saving Mr. Banks, the story of how Disney tried for 20 years to turn Mary Poppins into a movie. Author P.L. Travers took significant issue with the way Walt Disney treated her book property and, despite allowing Poppins to be made, would never agree to allow another of her works to be adapted again. Ellison thinks Travers gets the short end of the stick in the movie, much as she did in life by Walt Disney. He has taken to his YouTube channel to speak truth to the Disney “Octopoidal Matrix” which “owns everything in the world that Geico doesn’t”.

I’ve not seen the movie, but Ellison’s rant kind of makes me want to now. He feels that movie is nothing but propaganda that burnishes “Uncle Walt”‘s image and serve as Oscar bait. As an author with quite fervent feelings himself over how his own work is used, he sympathizes with Travers and disapproves of how she comes off in the movie – even going so far as to say that one particular pivotal scene never happened and that half the movie is made up. The movie struck a raw nerve in the man, who has never been shy about speaking his mind on a good day. Check it out after the jump.

So, Walt Disney only cared about Walt Disney despite trying to come off as more saintly than he actually was? Nothing new there. However, Harlan Ellison sees himself as a cross between Jiminy Cricket and Zorro? I have learned something new today. New, and terrifying.

Saving Mr. Banks is in theaters now.

Via Geeks Are Sexy.