Bedknobs and BroomsticksTurns 50 This Year and It’s Way Weirder Than You Remembered

Congratulations toDisney classicBedknobs and broom handle , not just for making it to the half - century gull , but for own a tone of oddball whimsy that feels just as uncanny today as it probably did in 1971.Witchcraft , orphan , Nazis , dancing routines , animated fauna , Angela Lansbury ? Just a few of its extraordinary constituent .

You ’d be forgiven for meld up Bedknobs and Broomsticks with Mary Poppins . Both are Disney musical theater adapted from record book by distaff British authors ( Mary Norton in this case ) and were directed by Robert Stevenson . Both account focus on thin-skinned children and their magical caregiver and feature songs by the Sherman Brothers and sequences that immix lively - activity and animation . Both films also star mustached charmer David Tomlinson . But Mary Poppins , which came out in 1964 and win a bajillion Oscars ( including Best Actress for Julie Andrews , in her characteristic debut ) , has lounge in the culture longer for a variety of reasons . The strain are backstop , the chronicle is more accessible , and in late yr there ’s beena subsequence , amaking - of dramedy , and even amuch - loved referencein a Guardians of the Galaxy movie .

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Image:Disney

Bedknobs and Broomsticks — which was publish by Bill Walsh Don DaGradi and released in December of 1971 in the U.S.—has been dependent toremake rumorsover the days and apparently has a level melodious in the works , but it ’s never get that same sort of nostalgic love . Now that it ’s hang out on Disney+ , it may widen its audience , specially since it ’s tick such a major milepost this twelvemonth . But if you watched it as a kid , just get laid that it ’s way weirder than you might remember . And if you ’ve never seen it , well , surprise — there are Nazis !

The Nazi content bookends the story , which is set in 1940 , and also provides its need , since eccentric champion Eglantine Price ( Lansbury , who is arrant ) decides to become a enchantress specifically to assist the British war elbow grease . She ’s less than enthused about another World War II - neighboring Robert William Service she ’s require to leave , caparison orphan who ’ve flee the Blitz in London , but she agree to do it anyway . That ’s how she encounter the scrappy Rawlins sibling : Charlie ( Ian Weighhill ) , Carrie ( Cindy O’Callaghan ) , and Paul ( Roy Snart ) .

The kids presently discover her secret and have gravid plans to pressure her , so she diffuse a bedknob with a spell that allows the kids ’ bed to as if by magic zip around . In London , where they ’ve gone to give chase down the conjuration Miss Price needs to put her anti - national socialist plan into gambling , they conform to Professor Emelius Browne ( Tomlinson ) , a chipper con man who ’s sort of a Wizard of Oz type . He admits he mostly made up the spells for Miss Price ’s witchery commensurateness course and is shocked to see how well they lick — especially the one she uses to turn him into a white rabbit on multiple social occasion .

All very normal.

All very normal.Image: Disney

While Bedknobs and Broomsticks did n’t torment up as much acclaim as Mary Poppins , it did pluck up an Oscar for ocular consequence , and you’re able to apprize why . There ’s some creative use of lights and television camera effects ( remindful of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory , which also came out in 1971 ) to show the wondrous bed in flight of stairs ; there ’s also that illustrious animated / live - natural action sequence set on the Isle of Naboombu , where Prof. Browne and Miss Price saltation “ underwater ” in a fish club and Browne referees a soccer equal between animals who all seem like prototypes for Disney ’s Robin Hood ( which arrive out in 1973 ) . In the picture ’s big culmination , the entire content of a war museum , including dozens of suit of clothes of armor , are enchanted so they can help hold off a cloud of Nazi invader . Though the core are plainly outdated by today ’s standards , they match the story utterly ; by the time Bedknobs and Broomsticks gets to that third - act battle , it seems utterly acceptable that a bunch of disembodied uniforms from several eras would come to life and kick back some very lost Nazi butts .

Those bizarre , dare we say trippy , details are what make Bedknobs and Broomsticks more than just standard kiddie fantasy menu . The quirky hooey also allows you to forgive some of the movie ’s more frustrative aspects — like the way everyone shrugs off the fact that the group operate all the way to Naboombu to steal a medallion inscribed with the words Miss Price want for spell , only to see the medallion evaporate as shortly as they return to the “ existent world , ” and then further shrug off the fact that they could have just grow the words out of the Naboombu painting Scripture Paul ’s been carrying around the entire time . It ’s press - for - sentence storytelling in a movie that somehow creates rich room for an outside dance showcase when the mob visits the Portobello Road flea market . It arrive at no sense , though it feel like it should — kind of like Miss Price ’s tippy black computerized tomography , Cosmic Creepers , who skulk around hiss at everyone but end up having as much shock on the plot as Angela Lansbury ’s twiglike - style lash .

Like Mary Poppins , Bedknobs and Broomsticks finish when the family bonds are sufficiently strengthened , though in this case , the orphans regain their permanent home plate with Miss Price , who — having saved her coastal village by leading the commission on her flying broomstick , as you do — is felicitous to put her witchcraft day behind her ; she does n’t really have a pick , since her workshop was leveled by Nazis . Considering the movie takes post in 1940 , you kind of wonder why she did n’t return to cast spells as World War II dragged on , especially with her Modern flaming Prof. Browne serving in the Home Guard — and maybe she did ? The door is left wide open for a continuation that ’s yet to materialize , and probably never will . It ’s surd to envisage a Mary Poppins Returns - stylus rehash that could ever in full capture the vintage , off - kilter spirit that propels Bedknobs and broom handle from start to finish .

Screenshot: YouTube