The Boys: The Sherman Brothers’ Story, contrary to what its advertising campaign would have you believe, is significantly more than an paean to the Magic of Disney—it’s an instructive example of how art can be created under tumultuous circumstances. And the multi-decade collaboration between two personable but behaviorally incompatible brothers, Robert B. (a romantic) and Richard M. Sherman (a sentimentalist), saw its fair share of tumult. Immensely popular in their day, the Shermans were the only fulltime songwriters at Disney throughout the ‘60s, scoring such cherishables as Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Jungle Book, The Sword in the Stone, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Though the issue isn’t pressed as far as you’d like, various divergent tensions led to the brothers disbanding and leading separate lives for a number of years, even keeping their respective families secreted from each other. Two of their sons (one from each side of the family, Gregory and Jeff) decided it was high time for the full story to be excavated, and the resulting labor of love is an educational if slightly diffuse examination of the artistic process. For Disney fans, there’s a useful historical overview of some of the boys’ most memorable work, ranging from the magnificent (“On the Front Porch” from Summer Magic) to the magnificently irksome (“It’s a Small World”). For the philosopher, there are meatier themes poking around: roads not taken, broken vessels transcending their brokenness to heal others, the mystery of art and of life itself.