Bedknobs and Broomsticks: Difference between revisions

The 1971 Disney film '''''Bedknobs and Broomsticks''''', a take on [[Bedknob and Broomstick|a pair of novels by Mary Norton]], is often regarded as a [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Mary Poppins]]'' -- a—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 -- inbed—in exchange for the children keeping her secret, she enchanted one of its bedknobs for them with a travelling spell -- andspell—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.

* [[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 -- includingmovie—including the ''entire climax''.

* [[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—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.

* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: Variation -- theVariation—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.