Disney Archives - With Just a Bit of Magic

While I was in Chicago for BlogHer I saw a trailer for this new movie, Saving Mr. Banks, that is opening up this winter and it quickly rose to the top of my must see list. Why? Because it’s the story behind one of my most favorite movies…. Mary Poppins. I love everything about that movie and it happens to be one that I watch over and over again.

Two-time Academy Award®–winner Emma Thompson and fellow double Oscar®-winner Tom Hanks topline Disney’s “Saving Mr. Banks,” inspired by the extraordinary, untold backstory of how Disney’s classic “Mary Poppins” made it to the screen.

When Walt Disney’s daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins,” he made them a promise—one that he didn’t realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.

For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.

It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.

Disney presents “Saving Mr. Banks,” directed by John Lee Hancock, produced by Alison Owen, Ian Collie and Philip Steuer, and written by Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith. Executive producers are Paul Trijbits, Andrew Mason, Troy Lum and Christine Langan. The film will release in U.S. theaters on December 13, 2013, limited, and open wide on December 20, 2013.

Check out the trailer when you have some time.

Doesn’t it look like a great movie?

First of all I have to apologize for my homework being late. Yesterday was totally craptastic just read my post about it and you’ll totally agree. And because of that I had a lot to get off my chest so I did that instead of my homework. Sorry.

Week two for Back to School, Back to Blogging has given me some trouble. I was able to quickly do the reading and come up with my list of 10 ideas. Then I started reading the 500 + ideas and could not figure out what one I should write about! There were so many good ones! I finally decided to tell you about the best vacation my family and I took.

In the spring of 2009 my family and I took the vacation of a lifetime! We all went to Disney World, Epcot, and Animal Kingdom for a week. It was the first time that I had ever been there as well!
Now, some wouldn’t say that Disney is the vacation of a lifetime, some visit there on a regular basis, and then there are others who would agree with me and have never been there. And to those who haven’t been there it’s a damn expensive trip! But worth every last penny and I’d do it again.

Us & our ride for the week

Upon arrival in Orlando we gathered our luggage and quickly made our way to where our car was waiting to take us to the Sheraton Vistana Resort where we were staying for the week.

As you can see we had a limo for the entire week! We had the same car & driver while we were there to take us where ever we wanted.

View of the resort from our patio

The resort was huge and we had something close to an apartment with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, living room, dining, kitchen, and laundry. Of course there was all the regular stuff there like a pool & activities, but we didn’t hang out there to much!

Our entire week was planned with various parks, dinner shows, and all the fun stuff that the Disney parks have to offer.

To say that I was just as excited as the kids is probably a very true statement! And for a few reasons I suppose. Like I said before I had never been there and neither had my kids and being able to share that with them was great. To see the awe & wonder, the excitement, their eyes and expressions on their face as we made our way to the Magic Kingdom for the first time was the best thing ever. It’s just so hard to describe it.

I wanted to see every inch of the park, meet all the characters, and ride all of the rides! I mean it was incredible and a once in a life time thing… I think that maybe the kids felt the same way! For my husband this wasn’t the first time that he’d been here. He and his family had been several times before this.

The first characters that we met while there were the wicked step-mother and sisters from Cinderella. The costumes, they way they looked, and the way that they acted was EXACTLY like in the movie! They were in full character too!

One of the best things that we did while there was taking a boat out on the lake around the Magic Kingdom to watch the fireworks over Cinderella’s Castle. The evening was cool, the sky was clear, and we had the absolute best view of the fireworks available. The boat floated around until it was close to the time the fireworks were to start and then parked in full view of the castle which was lit up with ever changing colors.