Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

johnstonjames this, for me personally, was really absorbing and fascinating subject matter for a celebrity profile documentary. i'll have to admit i'm one of those persons whose life was profoundly effected by the Sherman Bros. music. not only did i grow up with it practically from the cradle, i sort of majored in it as a quasi-pupil of sorts. i probably am more familiar with pretty much all of the Sherman Bros. works more than anybody i've ever met. i used to listen to their soundtracks over and over and over...get the picture?i remember knowing the difference between their Disney and non-Disney musical scores when i was very young and others hadn't the slightest. i even revered the scores to Disney films like 'Family Band' and 'Happiest Millionaire' when others had long forgotten those movies. 'Family Band' and 'Millionare' were my first soundtracks ever. even before i had the original soundtrack to 'Mary Poppins' i had those. i was probably around eight at the time. so you can imagine the influence these two men have had on my life.funny thing is, i really know little or nothing about their personal life or about who they were. i am familiar somewhat with the chronology of their work and of the various songs and melodies, and i am familiar with the many photographic images, but that's about it. most of the stuff i discovered here in this documentary was news to me and i wasn't sure i liked everything i heard.i was somewhat shocked to learn that the musical duo that gave us so many happy, happy, joy, joy, children's ditties, were so petty, dysfunctional and cranky with each other. i have a brother, and we are close enough, but i know how this sort of thing goes. i guess i just expected more mature behavior from these two. knowing what i do know about personality types, i venture to say the problem might have lay mostly with Robert, God rest his soul, because he is more withdrawn and less communicative. these types are often moody and are often silent because they are secretive and judgmental. he is also the older sibling, and according to Rank, has the whole dethroned king complex. dunno. just guessing. it was sad, but very revealing to know this about them. i mean it really makes you feel like you kind of got to know them.there were some sweet, but overly brief interviews with Lesely Ann Warren and John Davidson. and it was interesting, for me, to hear 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' star Angela Lansbury, talk about Robert and his service in World War II and how it effected his treatment on that film score. it was also of interest to hear that their father was a well known songwriter and a immigrant. never knew any of that.for true aficionados of the Disney classics, this film should be a real treasure. it is done with fondness and warmth without being overtly sentimentalized. for those that don't really respect or truly love the films of Walt Disney himself, this whole thing might not mean much at all.the Sherman Bros. are my favorite song writers for musical theater of the last century. true, a lot of musical theater doesn't always appeal to me, i find a vast majority of it overrated, but musicals are my favorite genre never the less. the Bros. have never gotten the respect of say a Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Lowe or even a Rodgers and Hart, i think it's time. their scores are truly whimsical and delightful treasure. even if the creators were grounded and mired in their own spiteful, crabbiness.

Roland E. Zwick "The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story" is a documentary about Robert and Richard Sherman, the legendary songwriting brothers who composed the music for such films as "The Jungle Book," "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," "Bednobs and Broomsticks" and their indisputable masterpiece "Mary Poppins," which features one of the finest scores ever written for an original movie musical.Though "The Boys" was produced and distributed by The Disney Studios - for whom the duo worked for many years – and was written and directed by their sons, Gregory V. and Jeff Sherman, this is no hagiography designed to provide a whitewashed account of its subject. On the contrary, it provides us with a warts-and-all look at the siblings who, while they could make great music together on a professional level, found it virtually impossible to harmonize on a personal one. In fact, their relationship was so strained that they essentially raised their families in isolation from one another (they even attended separate funeral receptions when their parents passed away) - and still today, the two men, even in the twilight of their lives, have yet to heal the breach that separates them.What's interesting – and, frankly a little maddening - about the film is that we're never quite sure what it is that caused this rupture, mainly because the boys themselves seem unable to account for it (half the time they seem to be unaware it even exists). All we know is that, for decades in public, they were able to put on a happy face and maintain the fiction that they were every bit as close as brothers as they were as songwriters, while out of the limelight and to the awareness of those who knew them, they had drifted irrevocably apart.Through interviews with their children, co-workers and admirers over the years, as well as with Bob and Dick themselves, the movie chronicles their childhood growing up in New York City, then Beverly Hills; their devotion and indebtedness to their songwriting father, Al Sherman; Robert's injury in World War II and the trauma of helping to liberate Dachau; their early years writing pop songs together and with others; their entry into composing for the movies with a song for "The Parent Trap." Then it's on to their years as the only songwriters lucky enough to be under contract to Disney; their close personal relationship with Walt himself; their Oscar-winning triumph with "Mary Poppins;" their eventual split with the studio after the death of Walt; their later work through the '70s and beyond; and their reunion at the London premiere of the stage version of "Poppins" in 2006.Despite the fact that the rift between the two is never adequately explained, the movie provides a treasure-trove of information, clips and snippets from that period in which they produced their work. There are moments of ribald humor and wistful nostalgia as we relive the memories the Sherman boys have provided for those of us fortunate enough to have grown up on their songs (they were even responsible for that most maddeningly memorable of ditties, "It's a Small World"). Indeed, in the face of all the personal animosity between the two men, it's the music and the memories that ultimately "help the medicine go down" while watching "The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story."

T Y Never heard of this movie? That's because it's not very good. For over an hour, it makes the fatal mistake of assuming that the audience is already interested in its topic. It doesn't draw you in or build. And the makers are unfamiliar with the concept of "getting to the point." After 45 minutes all we know is that the two famous song-writing brothers of countless Disney songs don't talk to each other. It teases this forever. We are going back in history and revisiting their childhood home; at a point it still hasn't conveyed anything beyond "they don't like each other." I lost patience waiting for them to get on with it and began to jump over portions. Bobby, a very sympathetic figure, is so difficult to understand they should've put sub-titles on screen when he talks.The aspect of Sherman songs that the movie doesn't acknowledge is that they are delightful to kids, and excruciating to adults. The Sherman brothers didn't write some of the most irritating songs ever written, they appear to have written ALL of them.(Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, It's a small world, Let's go fly a kite, Feed the Birds, Chim chim Chiree, Winnie the Pooh, Hushabye mountain, me ole Bamboo, Toot Sweets) Songs that get stuck in your head in the bad way. The movie is really just an excuse to parade these songs past you.

westegg I don't know about the previous reviewer, but what possibly could have been done better than this superb documentary? Lifeless it isn't, clumsy it isn't. It's touching, and filled with many fascinating insights. The use of seeing parallel home movies by the brothers during their estrangement was an inspired one. It's very well done, people. It does exactly what it sets out to do, and then some. I hope people will seek out this film and see for themselves just how good it is.For a Disney release, it's also interesting to see non-Disney films incorporated to give a more balanced look at the brothers' film scores. For baby boomers, this film will be an added pleasure, since so much of this music here most likely was a strong presence during their growing years. Don't miss this one!