Saving Mr. Banks depicts several events that differ from recorded accounts.[61] The premise of the script, that Walt Disney had to convince P.L. Travers to hand over the film rights, including the scene in which he finally persuades her, is fictionalized. Disney had already secured the film rights (subject to Travers' approval of the script) when she arrived to consult with the Disney staff.[61][62][63] In fact, Disney left Burbank to vacation in Palm Springs a few days into Travers' visit and was not present at the studio when several of the film's scenes depicting him to be present actually took place.[31] As such, many of the dialogue scenes between Travers and Disney are adapted from letters, telegrams, and telephone correspondence between the two.[31] Although Travers was assigned a limousine driver,[31] the character of Ralph is fictionalized and intended to be an amalgamation of the studio's drivers.[64] In real life, Disney story editor Bill Dover was assigned as Travers' guide and companion during her time in Los Angeles.[31]
The film also depicts Travers coming to amicable terms with Disney, implying her approval of his changes to the story.[65] In reality, she never approved of softening the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins' character, remained ambivalent about the music, and never came around to the use of animation.[66][67] Disney overruled her objections to portions of the final film, citing contract stipulations that he had final cut privilege. Travers had initially not been invited to the film's premiere until she embarrassed a Disney executive into extending her an invitation, which is depicted in the film as coaxing Disney himself. After the premiere, she reportedly approached Disney and told him that the animated sequences had to be removed. Disney dismissed her request, saying, "Pamela, the ship has sailed."[68]
Although the film portrays Travers as being emotionally moved during the premiere of Mary Poppins,[68] overlaid with images of her childhood, which is implied to be attributed to her feelings about her father, co-screenwriter Kelly Marcel and several critics note that in real life, Travers' show of emotion was actually a result of anger and frustration over the final product.[31][68][69] Reportedly, Travers felt that in the end, the film betrayed the artistic integrity of her work and story's characters.[70] Resentful over what she considered poor treatment at the hands of Walt Disney, Travers vowed never to permit Disney to adapt her other novels for any purpose.[71] Travers' last will bans all American adaptation of her works to any form of media.[31] According to the Chicago Tribune, Disney was "indulging in a little revisionist history with an upbeat spin," adding, "the truth was always complicated" and that Travers subsequently viewed the film multiple times.[72]
English writer Brian Sibley found Travers still gun-shy from her experiences with Disney when he was hired in the 1980s to write a possible Mary Poppins sequel. Sibley reported that Travers told him, "I could only agree if I could do it on my own terms. I'd have to work with someone I trust." Regardless, while watching the original film together, the first time Travers had seen it since the premiere, she became excited at times and thought certain aspects were excellent, while others were unappealing.[73] The sequel never went to production and when approached to do a stage adaptation in the 1990s, she acquiesced only on the condition that British writers and no one from the film production were to be directly involved with the musical's development.[74]
The film also depicts Travers' Aunt Ellie (her mother's sister), who comes to help the family when her father becomes terminally ill, as Travers' model for Mary Poppins, with the actress even using several of Poppins' catchphrases from the film. In fact, Travers identified her great-aunt Helen Morehead (her mother's aunt), as the model for Poppins.[75][76]
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