Knobs & Sticks

We watched Bedknobs & Broomsticks last night. With all due respect to my wife’s cherished childhood memories …

… boy, was that a bad movie.

While based on a book by a different writer, this 1971 Disney production tries to remake the 1964 Mary Poppins (both films share the same director, songwriting team, and adapters from the original books). A magical woman, unloved kids, a ne’er-do-well semi-romantic interest, a father figure who learns an important lesson about love (played in both films by David Tomlinson), a big dance number of street people, an extended animation/live-action sequence in the middle, all the elements are there, bigger and bolder than before.

But while Julie Andrews’ Mary is calm and wise (while still fun-loving), Angela Lansbury’s Eglantine Price is an absent-minded bumbler, an apprentice witch who, having done her duty, dismisses any thought of further magic with the same silly aplomb that Samantha Stevens did. The dance numbers are bigger, the animation more outrageous, the magical stuff more finely crafted, but any sense of heart, let alone plot, gets lost in the mish-mash. Songs and musical numbers (“Greatest Dance Hits of the British Empire!”) seem to flow out the need to insert them hither and thither, rather than being driven by the story.

Oh, and Nazis. We get to fight mildly menacing Nazis.

The only bright spot is that I can only think of the unholy furor that would happen today amongst some more conservative religious groups if Disney created a movie about an apprentice witch who takes in some homeless children …

Kids will probably enjoy this movie. Adults remembering their childhood viewing of it might, too. I … uh, didn’t. Though Margie seemed to like it, and since I got it as a gift to her, that makes me happy.