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{{
{{quote| ''"You must face the age of not believing, doubting everything you ever knew.'' <br />▼
''Until at last, you start believing there's something wonderful in you!"'' }}
▲[[File:BedknobsAndBroomsticks_1156.jpg|frame|]]
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.▼
▲This 1971 Disney film, a take on [[Bedknob and Broomstick (Literature)|a pair of novels by Mary Norton]], is often regarded as a [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' - a live action fantasy musical with a substantial segment incorporating animation, with the same director, same scriptwriters, same songwriters, etc.
▲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. 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.
----
{{tropelist}}
* [[All Witches Have Cats]]: Miss Price, a witch in training, has a cat named Cosmic Creepers. She's also a spinster according to the old archtype.
* [[Animal Reaction Shot]]: During the "Substitutiary Locomotion" number, Cosmic Creepers gets several cutaway shots. At one point, he seems to do the cat version of headdesking.
* [[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.
* [[Barefoot Cartoon
* [[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]]
* [[Bowdlerization]]: The German dub removed the entire Nazi plot or anything that relates to WWII, effectively cutting out a whopping 29 minutes of the movie -- including the ''entire climax''.
* [[Calvin Ball]]: Soccer matches on the Island of Naboombu. "Don't they have no rules?" "'Course they do. King makes
* [[Can't Take Anything
** {{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.]
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* [[Carnivore Confusion]]: The Isle of Naboombu. All the animals are anthropomorphic, but apparently the fish in the lagoon aren't seen as equals to the surface creatures, since the heroes' bed is hauled up to the shore when a bear fisherman's hook catches on to its frame.
* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: The spell that turns people into rabbits, {{spoiler|which Miss Price uses to save her and her companions from the enraged lion ruler of Naboombu. From there, Mr. Browne uses it to sneak into the castle the Nazis lock Miss Price and the kids in.}}
* [[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.}}
* [[Con Man]]: "Professor" Emelius Browne.
* [[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.
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* [[Crowd Song]]: "Portobello Road," to a rather ridiculous extent.
* [[Cute Witch]]: Miss Price. A bit older than standard, but no less cute.
* [[Cut Song]]: The film originally ran 139 minutes, but was cut by 22 for its initial theatrical release. Three songs -- "A Step in the Right Direction", "With a Flair", and "Nobody's Problems" -- were dropped in the process, and others were shortened (in particular, "Portobello Road"). The 1996 restoration used for the laserdisc and DVD releases restored most of the cut material, with the exception of the first song, as that scene had been lost.
** The "story and songs" record had "With a Flair" and a full version of "Portobello Road".
* [[Dancing Pants]]: A whole wardrobe's worth of clothes dance in the "Substitutiary Locomotion" number.
* [[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.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Hold on, are those women who sing "[
* [[Have a Gay Old Time]]
** At one point Charlie objects to Paul getting involved in magical "hanky-panky."
* [[Heartwarming Orphan]]: Charlie, Carrie, and Paul.
* [["Hey You!" Haymaker]]: With a pair of gloves during the aforementioned [[Dancing Pants]] sequence.
* [[Home Guard]]: The British Home Guard appears several times in the movie, including firing at the retreating Nazi commandos. They even have their own song, "The Soldiers of the Old Home Guard".
* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: Miss Price, on the name of her cat:
{{quote|
** [[Don't Explain the Joke|The point was that she didn't give him that name, he already had the name beforehand.]]
* [[Ironic Echo]]: The exchange between two of the German soldiers, when Miss
{{quote|
'''Colonel:'''Don't be a fool, there's no such thing as a witch! }}
** Is Followed later by --
{{quote|
'''German Sergeant:'''[[Deadpan Snarker|You said there was no such thing as a witch, sir?]] }}
* [[It Was
* [[Keystone Army]]: Mrs Price's army of armors.
* [[Knight in Shining Armor]]: If a whole army of empty medieval armors kicking the ass of [[Those Wacky Nazis]] counts.
* [[Large Ham]]: Emelius Browne; his [[Cut Song]], "With a Flair," even notes -- "It doesn't matter what I do so long as I do it WITH A FLAIR!"
* [[Last-Name Basis]]: Miss Price insists on being addressed only as such. But then, if your name was ''[[Unfortunate Names|Eglantine]]'', so would you.
* [[Letting the Air Out of
* [[Lions and Tigers
* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: The children wear the same clothes for most of the movie, but most of it takes place on the same day and they finally get different clothes in the last scene, which takes place the next day. Still, they seem to have worn their regular outfits for about three days straight, ending with the day most of the movie takes place on.
** [[Fridge Brilliance|Well, she told them to wash. She didn't tell them to change.]]
** Given that they were looked-after children in 1939, it's plausible that they actually ''have'' only one full set of clothes each.
* [[Literal Ass
* [[Magical Incantation]]
* [[Magical Land]]: The Isle of Naboombu.
* [[Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number]]: Portobello Road. The singers and dancers there are easily a hundred or more.
* [[Medium Blending]]
* [[Mobile Kiosk]]: Everything in Portobello Road that isn't nailed down. As well as Professor Browne's nifty suitcase act.
* [[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.
* [[Not Now, Kiddo]]: Paul spends close to half the movie trying to tell the adults that he has an image of the Star of Astaroth, complete with inscription, in the picture book he found in the nursery. No one listens until their attempt to get the star from Naboombu fails.
* [[Ominous Latin Chanting|Ominous Pseudo-Latin Chanting]]: Well, it becomes ominous after Eglantine and company quit singing it: ''{{
** ''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]]
* [[Plot Coupon]]: The heroes first seek the remaining pages of the spellbook; when they find it, they learn it doesn't actually have the words to the Substitutiary Locomotion spell. It ''does'' say that the Star of
* [[Punctuated!
* [[Reality Subtext]]: Supposedly, "The Age of Not Believing" is "really" about the Disney Company's struggle to continue after the death of [[Walt Disney]].
* [[Road Sign Reversal]]: Something similar in intention is done by a British villager in the beginning of the film. He's painting out the signposts in order to confuse any possible invading Nazis.
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** But then, Charlie had kept telling his little brother to shut up about his stupid book.
** The Portobello Road sequence would be this if not for the [[Chekhov's Gun|one shot of Swinburne turning to look at Miss Price when she mentions the name of the book she wants and then sneaking off]]. Naturally, the extended cut of the movie takes this sequence with virtually no impact on the plot and makes it longer because that's clearly what it needed.
* [[Shipper
* [[Shooting Superman]]
* [[Silent Snarker]]: The cat Cosmic Creepers.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: To ''[[Mary Poppins]]''.
* [[Talking Animal]]: The Isle of Naboombu is inhabited by these.
* [[Tap
** Also: "WHY! DIDN'T! YOU! SAY! SO?!?!??!!!!"
* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: Variation -- the ''heroine'' is the Secret Project Leader looking to turn the tide in the war in favour of the British, and the Nazis are flummoxed by her abilities because they don't believe in magic.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: The ostrich in the soccer match.
** The Nazi leader. "Es gibt keine Hexe! (There's no such thing as witches!)" Okay, then how do ''you'' explain the floating armour army and the flying lady on a broomstick?
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** 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.
* [[Words Do Not Make the Magic]]: Professor Emelius Browne, despite having sold a correspondence course in "witchcraft" based on the (half of a) medieval grimoire he owned, could not use the spells in it, but Miss Price could because she actually believed in magic. It took a great deal of concentration before he could finally get a spell to work after being shown numerous times that magic existed.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Films of the 1970s]]
[[Category:The Forties]]
[[Category:Bedknobs
[[Category:
[[Category:Films Based on Novels]]
[[Category:Film]]
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