Led by Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson, the movie follows three young evacuees from London during World War 2, who land in the care of a not-so-ordinary woman with a broomstick and a few spells up her sleeve.
Set in England during the 1940s, the film puts a magical twist on a serious time in history. Children were being sent to the countryside to escape bombings, and that’s where the adventure begins.
Miss Eglantine Price, played by Lansbury, is secretly studying witchcraft in hopes of defending her country against the threat of invasion.
She’s joined by Tomlinson’s Emelius Browne, a streetwise showman who gets swept up in the spellcasting scheme. Together with the children, they discover the secrets of enchanted transportation using a bedknob and the art of “substitutiary locomotion” — animating lifeless objects to fight in their place.
The movie leans into Disney’s special effects and animation to bring the fantasy to life. Viewers are taken to the animated Isle of Naboombu, where animals play soccer and fish swim alongside human characters.
Musical numbers like “Portobello Road” and “The Beautiful Briny” give the film a stage-like quality, echoing the success of earlier Disney musicals like Mary Poppins. But Bedknobs and Broomsticks holds its own by blending wartime themes with light comedy and visual magic.
Angela Lansbury gives a grounded performance, balancing whimsy with a quiet strength that fits the wartime backdrop. The child actors hold their own, especially Ian Weighill as Charlie, who delivers his lines with a quick wit that never veers into precociousness. And while some of the special effects feel dated — as you’d expect — they still add to the charm, especially in the era before CGI took over family films.
Below, we’ve gathered a collection of photos and articles from when Bedknobs and Broomsticks first hit theaters, offering a closer look at the cast, the costumes, and the unique mix of live-action and animation that made the film stand out!
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall (Actors)
- Robert Stevenson (Director) - Bill Walsh (Writer) - Bill Walsh (Producer)
“Bedknobs and Broomsticks” is a fun film
By Susan Beach Vaughn, Pensacola News (Florida) April 27, 1972
Its only pretense is in being a vehicle to combine live-action and Walt Disney Production cartoons. Highlights are the singing and dancing of Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson. The film is aided by credible performance of three young actors, Ian Weighill, Cindy O‘Callaghan and Roy Snart.
“Bedknobs and Broomsticks” takes place in 1940 England. Escaping German bombings of London, the children have been evacuated to the countryside. Three waifs — Charlie, Carrie and Paul (Weighill, O‘Callaghan and Snart) — are war charges of stranger Eglantine Price (Miss Lansbury).
The colorful Miss Price is a secret apprentice witch with a plan to save England from German invasion. Her mentor, Prof. Emelius Browne (Tomlinson) is an amateur shyster and master of public relations.
He, the witch and children search for (and discover) various magic spells including how to make a bed fly — with a “Bedknob”; how to make Miss Price fly — via ‘“Broomstick;” and how to create a flying army — with “substitutiary locomotion.” The latter Miss Price defines as “the art of causing inanimate objects to take on a life force of their own.”
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Miss Lansbury and Tomlinson’s dancing movements are not intricate. Much aid comes from special effects, but the verve in songs such as “I’m Your Man” and “The Briney Deep” (which combines animated fish and human characters) shows a flair to brighten an already light-hearted move.
Miss Lansbury is especially impressive in early scenes with the children. Her subtle facial changes and the grace with which she tackles an unwieldy flying broom begins the picture with fine acting. Young Weighill as the city child — full of skepticism and craft — is most effective in early scenes with Miss Lansbury. His adult lines about business enterprises and ways to outfox adults come across as witty, not brattish.
Special effects and animation play an important part in the film: it is to “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” credit that they are not used much until the characters are firmly established in viewers’ minds. When the witch and associates take a back seat to the fish, the lion, the secretary bird and the animal soccer team — creatures of Naboombu land — the audience can enjoy “knowing” the humans who have the fairy tale experiences.
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Two types of special effects don’t work too well in “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.” One is the flying bed visualization, cheapened by over-skill in animation and lighting. Flashing lights, colored filters, cartoon geometric abstracts are all mixed together, and it’s too much.
The other area of special effects that lessens the film is the flying army of medieval armor — activated by the witch’s substitutiary locomotion spell. Here the problem is not in the execution of creating the magic; it is rather that the confrontation between the invading German and the magic English armies brings the picture too close to reality with real machine gun bullets and military tactics.
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Harsh sounds and sights of war are a bit shattering for viewers still laughing over antics of the Naboombu animals or over Miss Lansbury’s comment on her prowess as an apprentice witch, when she transforms an angry lion to a rabbit, but the rabbit retains the lion’s tail, she remarks, “Oh, bother. I do hate shoddy work.”
Shoddiness is never a problem in the Robert Stevenson directed film. And except for being a bit overdone visually, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” is a happy movie experience.
- Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)
- Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall (Actors)
- Robert Stevenson (Director) - Bill Walsh (Writer) - Bill Walsh (Producer)
The Bedknobs and Broomsticks books that inspired the series
Bedknobs and Broomsticks was inspired by two books by Mary Norton: The Magic Bedknob (1944) and Bonfires and Broomsticks (1947). These quirky little stories follow three kids and a witch-in-training named Miss Price as they set off on magical adventures aboard a flying bed.
They’re a bit different from the movie, with a more laid-back, episodic feel, and there’s no big war subplot like in the film. But the books still have that mix of magic and mischief that makes the movie so fun to watch.
- Norton, Mary (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 240 Pages - 09/01/2000 (Publication Date) - Clarion Books (Publisher)
