Bedknobs and Broomsticks

During the Blitz three siblings are evacuated from London to the countryside and placed with Miss Eglantine Price. She has a secret: she is learning witchcraft by correspondence. When the children find out they strike a deal. A spell on a bedknob sends the bed wherever they want. The aim is to find the missing words of a spell that could help the war effort, and the road leads to the con man Professor Browne, an enchanted island and a world of animated animals. Robert Stevenson directed. Angela Lansbury plays Miss Price and David Tomlinson plays Professor Browne. The Sherman Brothers wrote the songs. The film mixes live action with animation. It received five Academy Award nominations and won Best Special Visual Effects. Critics praised the animated sections, with one assessment finding in it the best of Disney going back to the first Silly Symphonies. It originally ran 139 minutes and was cut to under two hours before the Radio City Music Hall premiere. In 1996 restorers recovered most of the removed material and put it back, reinstating the missing musical numbers. On a 6.3 million dollar budget it took 17.9 million. Who it is for: viewers who like classical Disney musicals and the mixing of live action with animation. Who it is not for: anyone wanting pace. It is long, and the middle section moves heavily for a child audience today.