The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

A tough one to review here. Reappraising a film that I watched quite a lot when I was a kid, but now are watching for the first time in around 25 years. Despite some lovely pangs of nostalgia, and some highspots from the animation team, objectively it's pretty average. The film centres on Miss Price, who is training to become a witch via correspondence course from Emelius Brown, who, unbeknownst to her, is a conman, sending out spells from a book he's found and assumes are mumbo jumbo. Her training is interrupted by the arrival of three young evacuees from London, who have been sent to the country to avoid the Blitz. Together they begin an adventure to find the remains of the book, and the last spell. Where the film works; it really works... the animation scenes, consisting of an undersea dance and a game of Football on a nearby island are Disney at the height of the 70's era style. Angela Lansbury is excellent, as is David Tomlinson in the final of his three main Disney starring roles. The climatic scenes, where the small Nazi invasion force are repelled by the contents of the nearby museum coming to life is really well done. My main gripe is that, watching it with an adults perspective, the story doesn't really hang together that well. Rather than a plot, with a story arc, it's more like a bunch of things that happen and are mostly unconnected. I'd imagine that the novel, written by The Borrowers writer Mary Norton, did a better job of that, but the narrative thrust is missing from the film. The subplot with Bruce Forsyth and Sam Jaffe as an aging book enthusiast and his hired muscle appears briefly, before both characters disappear and are never seen again. The kids (particularly the boys) are horribly grating, with their delivery. Roddy McDowell, I assume, took the role as he was contractually obliged too, as despite his third billing he must be in the film for about four minutes. There are a couple of bits that you view differently as an adult, those are clearly prostitutes in the Portobello Road scene and my biggest laugh came at the end when David Tomlinson (54 at the time of the film's release) joins the army (ran close by the number of times the youngest kid makes reference to "his knob" . . . which perhaps only really is funny to a British audience). It was a nice nostalgia buzz to see it again after all these years, but it may be another 25 before I choose to watch it again.

This is movie is magical, musical and fun. Three young children moved from London and met Ms. Price. If you're a Disney fan like me, you'll love this movie. I've seen some wonderful magical spells and things that came to life. I recommend this movie because this movie is a classic. You can't beat this classic Disney movie.

This movie has been compared to Mary Poppins as it features a nanny of some sorts who possesses magical powers and is assigned to babysit some children. However, I think it stands well on its own and it is somewhat more entertaining that Mary Poppins was. The plot is set in World War II England, where apprentice witch Eglantine Price (Angela Lansbury) journey, with orphans Charlie, Carrie and Paul, to meet Emelius Browne (David Tomlinson), headmaster of the Correspondence College of Witchcraft. There, Miss Price tells Mr. Browne of a plan to find the magic words for a spell known as Substitutiary Locomotion, which brings inanimate objects to life.There are tons of songs in this movie, and my favorites include the solemn but meaningful "Age of Not Believing," the mysterious "Portebello Road," the whimsical and fun "Beautiful Briny Sea" and the catchy "Substitutiary Locomotion." Angela Lansbury sang a large number of the songs and her beautiful singing voice made the music that much more enjoyable. I also enjoyed the combination of live action with animated sequences - cleverly done special effects, especially the under the ocean sequence.Unlike Mary Poppins, I thought the overall movie was somewhat more entertaining. While the film is saturated with songs, there are a lot more adventurous scenes such as the flying bed, royal court, the under the sea and climatic soldier battle sequences. The acting was more believable and less childishly annoying compared to Dick Van Dyle's character in Mary Poppins. And, Miss Price (Lansbury) took on a more nurturing role than Julie Andrews did with her Mary Poppins character and seemed to care for the children more. However, I do find the bratty Charlie character very teeth-cringing.Overall, this is a song-saturated movie and has its boring moments, but kept mostly pretty entertaining with the many uses of magic, good vs. evil aspects and imagination.Grade B-

this film certainly belongs in the category of family friendly.there's absolutely nothing here that is unsuitable for children.in fact,very young children will really enjoy it.older children may not have the attention span to sit thorough as it is pretty sedate at times.adults might fall sleep,or the film might bring them on a trip down memory lane.but patience is really a virtue,because in between the sedate moments though there are some pretty funny moments especially during the animated sequences.most children will no doubt giggle with delight at these moments and even the adults will probably find them funny.i laughed out loud during these moments.for family fare,you could do a whole lot worse.for me,Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 5/10