Bedknobs and Broomsticks: Difference between revisions

''Until at last, you start believing there's something wonderful in you!"'' }}

 

 

It is 1940 in the British coastal village of Pepperinge Eye, and among the children evacuated here from the ongoing London Blitz are three orphaned siblings, Charlie, Carrie, and Paul. They are taken in by Miss Eglantine Price ([[Angela Lansbury]]), a spinster whom they discover is secretly taking mail-order witchcraft lessons in hopes of being able to aid the war effort with magic. But the school abruptly closes, leaving her without the all-important Substitutiary Locomotion spell she needs. She and the children travel to London via bed -- in exchange for the children keeping her secret, she enchanted one of its bedknobs for them with a travelling spell -- and discover the "professor", Emelius Browne, is a fraud who was just selling her the pages of an incomplete spellbook he bought off a used book dealer. So begins a greater journey, from the market at Portobello Road to the Isle of Naboombu (land of animated [[Talking Animal|talking animals]]), in search of the spell. Once Miss Price learns it, she'll have to use its power to bring inanimate objects to life to save her hometown from none other than the Nazis.

* [[Animated Armor]]: Price animates a whole army at the climax

* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: Ms. Price's spells tend to turn people into rabbits instead of frogs.

* [[Bazaar of the Bizarre]]: Portobello Road.

* [[Billing Displacement]]: Roddy McDowall is third-billed and, in the uncut version of the movie, he does indeed play a significant supporting character. However, in the theatrical cut of the movie, his role was reduced to The Guy Who Gets Attacked By Miss Price's Nightgown, but they still billed him right below Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson.

* [[Blitz Evacuees]]

** {{spoiler|Turns out there's an image of the Star, complete with inscription, in Paul's picture book.}}

* [[The Cavalry]]: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0rRPU_cvGg The finale.]

* [[Children Raise You]]

* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]: Mr. Browne can't use spells himself because, as far as he's concerned, "They're just nonsense words from an old book." {{spoiler|At least until near the end of the film when he manages to transform himself into a rabbit.}}

* [[Conveniently Interrupted Document]]: Miss Price sees Mr. Brown about a spell book. She gets it and reads about the Substitutiary Locomotion spell, but the part where it talks about the incantation used to activate the spell is on a page that got torn out of the book. The group had to go to Portobello Road to look for it.

* [[Correspondence Course]]: The entire plot is based on Eglantine taking one (in ''witchcraft!'') and needing to finish the final lesson.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Miss Price often fills this role, especially with regards to Professor Browne's zaniness. The kids get some snark in at Miss Price's expense at the beginning.

* [[Flying Broomstick]]: Right there in the title; really.

* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]/[[Accidental Innuendo]]: The characters going on and on about Paul's knob is bound to inspire a few giggles nowadays.

** At one point Charlie objects to Paul getting involved in magical "hanky-panky."

* [[Muggles]]: Professor Browne at first, but he believes once he sees (or rather, once he gets turned into a rabbit). And, amusingly, the Nazis, who don't believe.

* [[No Ontological Inertia]]: After Nazis plant a bomb by Miss Price's workshop, blowing up all the agents that gave her powers, all of the suits of animated armour wind down and collapse on the spot.

** ''Especially'' when the animated suits of armour start chanting it. If the Nazis weren't absolutely petrified before, they were after hearing that echo through the air.

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]]: The Nazi officer speaks fluent German with a strong accent even when speaking English. When he orders his men to fire on the enchanted armour a second time however, his accent sounds very much like how a northerner English man would shout it.

* [[Padding]]/[[Shoot the Money]]: The original cut of "Portobello Road" is a serious endurance test, regardless of how talented the performers are.

* [[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!]]: STOP! THAT! '''BALL!'''

* [[Reality Subtext]]: Supposedly, "The Age of Not Believing" is "really" about the Disney Company's struggle to continue after the death of [[Walt Disney]].

** Charlie at the beginning of the movie. Despite his siblings telling him that maybe trying to blackmail a witch is a bad idea, he persists until Miss Price turns him into a <s>toad</s> rabbit. Then, when he transforms back after almost getting attacked by her cat, he ''tries extortion again''.

* [[Unnecessary Roughness]]: In the animals' soccer/football match.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Forties]]

[[Category:Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]