By: debbie lynn elias
Could SAVING MR. BANKS have been made by anyone but Walt Disney Studios? Probably not; especially when one considers the film was shot at not only the Disney studios in Burbank, which have remained relatively unchanged since 1961 when this story takes place, but also at Disneyland.
Only the third time in history that a film has been lensed at Disneyland, the magnitude – and magic – of the event was not lost on SAVING MR. BANKS director, John Lee Hancock.
Being “very prepared” for the Disneyland shoot, it was executed with a “kind of military precision. . .We knew when we could come in before it opened. We knew at 9:17 we needed to be on Main Street, and here by there.” Readying for the Disneyland scenes, “we carefully went down there and scouted it many, many times with lenses, because if you would pan this far over here, it would be something from 1981. Pan to the left and it’s 1969.”
But beyond the logistics was the magic. “Being there on Main Street before the park opened and the sun is just coming up, and everybody’s moving stuff around, I remember a moment there where you’re so worried and prepared for the day, and you’ve got that ahead of you. ‘Are we gonna do it? We gonna get everything done?’ But then there was just that moment with the sun coming up, and I thought, ‘Damn, this is cool. I got a great job.’ And then I looked over, and there was Tom [Hanks] sitting there, and I go, ‘This is Walt Disney and it’s all too great.’ It was fantastic.”
11/8/2013
