Most of us are familiar with the movie Mary Poppins—the magical nanny who flies in one day and takes two children on whimsical adventures. We remember the great Julie Andrews as the titular nanny, the comical perfection of Dick Van Dyke as jack-of-all-trades Bert, and especially the timeless songs. Saving Mr. Banks tells two stories of Mary Poppins that most people haven’t heard: firstly, the struggle between entertainment titan Walt Disney and the author of the original Mary Poppins books, P.L. Travers, over the rights to make the iconic movie; secondly, it tells the story of P.L. Travers’s troubled childhood and the events that led to the arrival of her own Mary Poppins figure. The result is a film that both tickles our funny bones and tugs at our heartstrings.

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