P.L. Travers and Mickey Mouse

[Big Disney Fan]

From reading about P.L. Travers' experience with Walt Disney on the making of "Mary Poppins", such as those articles written by Jim Korkis (such as here) or even from "Saving Mr. Banks", I have noticed a consistent pattern: that she was no fan of Disney's work at all, that she disliked animation and especially loathed Disney animation, which accounts for her resistance to animation being included in "Mary Poppins". According to Korkis:

It was not until after Travers was long gone from the Disney Studio that [the waiters in the "Jolly Holiday" segment] morphed into animated penguins so she couldn't have gotten upset like she did in the film ["Saving Mr. Banks"] because at the time it was a non-issue.

Yes, Travers disliked animation and, in particular, Disney animation. Among other things she gave a very unfavorable, condescending review to the animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs when it was first released in 1937-38.

A part of that review included the following: "Oh, he's clever, this Disney! ... The very pith of his secret is the enlargement of the animal world and a corresponding deflation of all human values. There is a profound cynicism at the root of his, as of all, sentimentality."

To that end, I can't help but wonder how Travers felt about Mickey Mouse. My guess is she had even less kind things to say about Mickey than "Snow White", that she could not understand for the life of her the appeal of vermin, much less giant, talking vermin.

That's my guess, but it's probably not too far off from reality. Does anyone else know?

[thedisneyspirit]

The very pith of his secret is the enlargement of the animal world and a corresponding deflation of all human values. There is a profound cynicism at the root of his, as of all, sentimentality."[/b]

What does this even mean

[JeanGreyForever]

From what I've gleaned of her statement, it seems as though Travers felt as though Walt Disney elevated the role of animals and their natural world over the human world, thus betraying his "true" feelings of disdain towards the human mind and spirit. In other words, he thought humans were trash and animals far preferable.

[Big Disney Fan]

She also does not like how the works of literature by others become "Walt Disney's" works, as if by making the stories in his own way, the original versions are morally inferior and no one would ever read them again. At least that's what I got from those articles on the topic. Along the same lines, Travers suspected that the reason Walt made movies based off of stories written by dead authors was so that, because they were dead, he would not have to worry about being controlled by them, like Travers was trying to do.

But nobody answered my question about how she felt about Mickey Mouse. I gave my speculation on the matter, which is probably not too far off, but what do others here say?

[JeanGreyForever]

I'm not really sure how exactly she would have felt about Mickey Mouse. She certainly seemed to despise cartoon characters from her scene in Saving Mr. Banks and admittedly enough, animals aren't a big part of her Mary Poppins books so it's possible that she wouldn't have liked how mere vermin has been elevated by the public. I think the cartoonized aspects would have bothered her moreso than Mickey being a mouse though.