Still A Great, Magical Tale
The film takes place in 1941, in Europe. Angela Lansbury stars as Ms. Price, a wise and very astute woman who lives by herself near a old English village. She arrives into town one morning to receive a package, but is asked to provide housing for three young children who were forced to flee London. The children left London after a series of new bombings by the Nazis, and it was thought that an invasion could occur at anytime.
That night, after the children were to be sleeping, Ms. Price opens her package and reveals a broom. It’s obvious by this point that she’s been practicing witchcraft, and apparently from a correspondence college no less. The children catch her in the act of flying and confront her about it the next morning. She doesn’t want her secret revealed, so they work out a pact. Soon after, Ms. Price receives word that her final, and most important lesson — cannot be sent to her due to the war. This final spell, substitutiary locomotion, was to be vital in the war effort against the Nazis, and so Ms. Price decides to use a teleportation spell to visit her ‘professor’ in person.
Fast forwarding a bit, she meets this ‘professor’ who turns out to be nothing more than a kind con artist, and it’s to his surprise that his made-up spells are actually working. After convincing him that the war is more important than a partnership to drum up sales, the two adults and the three children go searching after the details of that final spell. The adventure takes them into an animated world, where a soccer game is being played by personified animals, a wonderful scene. Eventually they’re able to obtain the spell and manage to get it working on a massive museum collection of knight’s armor. The spell brings life to these objects, and when the knights armor begins marching towards the invading Nazis, fear overtakes them.
This is as much a musical as it is a children’s adventure film, but it’s smart and entertaining enough to still be appealing to adults. It’s a true classic and still my favorite Disney film to date.
Enchanted Musical Edition DVD
On DVD, this film looks and sounds very good, no major complaints. For extras, there are several, including:
-The Wizards of Special Effects – Jennifer Stone of Disney’s “Wizards of Waverly Place” hosts a fifteen minute look at the special effects of then and now. A couple of Disney historians talk about the old methods of special effects and then she talks to a present day special effects technician about how effects are done with green screen and computers today.
-A Step In the Right Direction: Reconstruction – The original length of the film was cut by thirty minutes, and while much of that footage is lost, this extra, running about five minutes, features still images playing along with a recording of the song intended for the scene.
-Music Magic – The Sherman Brothers – The talented Sherman Brothers talk about their involvement and memories in “Bedknobs and Broomsticks,” with some great archived video and stills displayed. They even perform shortened versions of some of the tunes, quite good.
-David Tomlinson “Portobello Road” Recording Session – A very brief, less than two minutes, clip of vintage footage in the record studio during this musical act.
While in sheer number of minutes these extra features don’t add up to much, their quality is actually quite good, even the new one with Jennifer Stone.
Overall, this is a great DVD release that is worth the upgrade if you are a previous owner and would make a great gift this holiday to any fan of Disney film.