The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story

The 2009 documentary by Gregory V. Sherman and Jeffrey C. Sherman is about Richard and Robert Sherman, the brothers who wrote Disney's best-known songs. Their collaboration, from Mary Poppins to The Jungle Book, lasted forty years; across that time the two barely spoke to each other. The two who made the documentary are the brothers' own sons, which gives it an odd closeness: the people asking come from inside the matter. At the centre is the question of why two people who worked perfectly as creators in the same room came apart personally, and the film cannot fully answer it. The archive material is rich. Who it's for: viewers interested in the history of film music and Disney's classic period. Who it's not for: anyone wanting critical distance, or who will find the account of a family rift scattered.