Bedknobs and Broomsticks (30th Anniversary Edition)

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Summary: Disney Classic showing the latest (1971) cinema technology!
Review: "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" is a delightful family feature, encorporating the "interaction" of animated figures with regular actors. Angela Lansbury is perfect as "house-mother" to English WWII orphans. Together with "Mary Poppins'" David Tomlinson, she and the children out-smart the nazis who thus fail at an attempt to capture the town. The love story between the middle aged Lansbury and Tomlinson is a palatable side plot. This is a must in any Disney Collection! DVD version superb!

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Summary: What a great movie!
Review: You will love every minute of this film. It's a classic Disney title with some of Disney's best characters. Songs are warm and cheerful, sets are so detailed, and the animation and effects (considering how long ago this was made) are fantastic - it won Disney awards! Landsbury is a delight and it is a pretty faithful adaptation of the stories from which the film originates. Watch out for great guest stars too! It's a fun packed film which I guarantee you will have great delight in watching over and over again. I must mention the song 'The age of not believing' - it is one of the most heart-warming songs I have listened to. A great film. 5/5!

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Summary: Wonderful Video
Review: This is a really good movie one that your whole family will love. Its one of my favorite movies. I remember staying up late just so I could watch it on Disney. My favorite scene is when the eels are dancing and Angela Landsbury and her partner are swimming with the 4 fish piece band playing.

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Summary: You have to love this Disney insanity!
Review: I enjoyed this movie a lot better than Mary Poppins. It's a lot more fast paced, interesting, and loveable. Forgive me for saying so, but it's my opinion. Like all other Disney movies that match reality with animation, this is a very insane movie too but seems to promise more fun than Mary can.

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Summary: the best disney musical
Review: When I was young,there were things about this film that PETRIFIED me.One was the opening credits with the eerie bagpipes and the Nazis. The second thing was the invisible soldiers at the end.If I watched this part I had to turn the lights on and grab something to put over my ears. Bloody silly,right? Well,to change the subject,as a child,despite the fears,it was one of my fave Disney flicks. Angela Lansbury is the most spunkiest witch,and the kids are so cute! Wimpy David Tomlinson obviously won't tame the red-headed vixenish Angela,so I really don't pin too many hopes of him getting back together with her after the war. The best songs are 'Age of Not Believing','Portobello Road'and the song that triggers the flying clothes sequence. Needs a sequel!(Hint-Hint,Disney!)

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Summary: The Sweetest musical
Review: This movie has been one of my favorites since i was a little girl, its one of those movies you never forget its just so wonderful, your never to old for this movie

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Summary: Very Entertaining!
Review: We saw this movie on The Disney Channel in the wee hours of the morning and my 2 year old daughter laughed so hard she woke up the whole family. She especially enjoyed the underwater soccer game and the invisible soldiers.

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Summary: It's my Mother's favorite film
Review: Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a film that Iwas brought up with. My house was always full of Disney movies, ans this is one that should be in everyone's collection.

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Summary: This is a great movie!
Review: I watch this movie every chance I have. The dancing clothes are soo funny! And when they're at the bottom of the sea and the soccer game. This is a great movie for younger childeren.

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Summary: Poppins-lite
Review: Made during the Disney wilderness years following Walt's death, Bedknobs is a re-tread of the hugely successful Mary Poppins. However, if you're going to re-tread a film, it might as well be a classic! Check off the ingredients: - initially cold matronly female lead who the children and audience quickly warms to, capable and charming child leads, a perky male side-kick, an animated/live action interlude that has nothing to do with the plot, a Sherman brothers score, an episodic structure, a general magical story-book quality to the film etc.
Angela Lansbury gives her most likable screen characterisation (apart from perhaps Jessica Fletcher!) and shows to those not familiar with her Broadway career that she can sing and dance. David Tomlinson brushes off the stuffy ghost of Poppins' George Banks and plays a buffoon with great relish. The children are all well cast and shine in slightly cliched and under-written roles. Special mention must go to Roddy McDowell for a lovely cameo as a scheming cleric and to British-favourite Bruce Forsyth as a flick-knife toting 'spiv'.
The animated sequence involving the 'Beautiful Briney' is wonderful and, once the characters reach dry land, the soccer game with the animals is as 'Looney Tunes' as Disney would probably dare be! The rest of the film is slightly slow in places but has some excellent set-pieces, in particular the Portabello Road musical interlude, the clothing being 'magic-ed' to life and the final 'Armour vs. Nazis' showdown. The special effects are very good for the age, especially the animated object scenes. The score, by the Shermans, isn't a patch on their Mary Poppins but includes some real gems including the afore-mentioned 'Beautiful Briney' and 'Portabello Road' as well as the catchy 'Substituciary Locomotion'.
This edition includes around fifteen minutes of previously cut scenes and lines of dialogue that have been re-inserted into the main body of the film. Unfortunatly, the audio from these clips has been lost, and so the lines had to be re-recorded with varying degrees of success. Lansbury and McDowell have supplied their own voices but Tomlinson's, the children's and Tessy O'Shea's have been 'impersonated' quite poorly, meaning that those with relatively keen ears can tell when a newly inserted scene is playing. The audio for the songs survived, meaning that 'Eglantine' and 'Portabello Road' have been extended, although some of the film quality in the latter also draws attention to the cut scenes. These quibbles do not, however, spoil the film and the re-inserted scenes at least clarify McDowell's character's intensions towards Miss Price. Prior to this edition, we were not aware that he was wanting to marry her for her 'nice, sturdy house' - which is why he is jumping up and down on her porch when she answers the door to him!
Overall, this is a film that plays well to all ages (I loved it as a child and now sit and watch it often with my son). It's unfortunate that it will forever live in Mary Poppins' substantial shadow (along with the weaker Pete's Dragon), but at least it lives as one of the better Disney films made in those wilderness years prior to The Little Mermaid'.
Thouroughly recommended.