Bedknobs and Broomsticks 
Released seven years after Disney’s Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticksshared much in common with that film. Both were period pieces set inLondon, both involved precocious children and their magic caregiver,both combined live action with animation, both featured frequentspontaneous musical numbers and both featured supporting performancesfrom David Tomlinson. The stories, however, were quite different.
Angela Lansbury plays Eglantine Price, an eccentric woman forced tocare for orphans Charlie, Carrie and Paul during the early stages ofWorld War II. The children are bored with the quiet village until theydiscover that Eglantine is actually an apprentice witch, studyingthrough the Correspondence College of Witchcraft in London.
The children promise to keep her hobby a secret if she enchants anobject for them. The subsequent casting of a “famous magic travelingspell” on one of the children’s bedknobs sets off a magical journeythat takes the group on their flying bed to London, to an underseakingdom, to a grudge soccer match between animated jungle animals andfinally to a climactic magic battle with invading Germans.
Unfortunately, the unfair comparisons to the classic Mary Poppins overshadowed the film in its initial release. Time, television and the rise of the VCR redeemed Bedknobs and Broomsticks, giving it a place of its own among favorite children’s films.
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