Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
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Bedknobs and Broomsticks Movie Review
Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 family fantasy musical film directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson. It’s a pretty solid Disney flick.
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“Treguna, Makoidees,
Trecorum, Sadis Dee!“
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It follows a witch who takes care of three children during World War II. First and foremost, let’s get the obvious out of the way first. This movie emulates ‘Mary Poppins’ way too much. That hurt it in the long run. I am not just talking about the somewhat similar premise, but the execution is particularly similar to that movie, and unfortunately it never came close to that level of magic and/or endearment.
But evaluating it on its own terms, it’s solid enough, and it’s one of the sweeter of the Disney live-action/animated hybrids for sure. I found the fantasy elements here okay. Yes, magic is kid stuff here in its incantations and execution, but it worked for this type of movie, and it was genuinely charming and old-fashioned.
I would have gone without those WWII additions, but otherwise the film really worked for the most part. It got a weaker ending and a slower beginning, but the entire middle part with the quest for that magical element was wonderful and very adventurous.
Let’s talk about the characters. Miss Price is a genuinely likable, but also very funny woman. I loved her relationship with the children as well as his romantic relationship which was so well executed. Angela Lansbury absolutely killed it in this role, and created a truly wonderful character.
I found David Tomlinson also sweet in this role which is very different from the one in ‘Mary Poppins’, but he’s still great, showing a lot of comedic talent in the progress. The kids themselves are much less interesting, though overall quite interestingly feisty and honest.
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The animation is excellent, and we got a lot of those segments here which I loved, but unfortunately that lion character was too much inspired by ‘Robin Hood’. Those segments overall felt like a rip-off in that regard, though they are still charming. The pacing is weak, the runtime is overlong and the direction is just serviceable. The dialogue is good as is the humor, but the soundtrack is surprisingly weak with only The Age of Not Believing and Substitutiary Locomotion being memorable in any way.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks tried to emulate ‘Mary Poppins’ to its detriment as it’s never as magical. It’s also overlong and pretty forgettable in its soundtrack. But the animated segments, though familiar, are charming, the overall story is sweet, the acting is excellent and the characters are for the most part very endearing. It’s a flawed, but pretty solid Disney flick.
