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Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Apr. 13th, 2020 04:03 pmShockingly, before last night I had never seen Bedknobs and Broomsticks. How did I miss it? Not only does it take place during World War II, one of my childhood obsessions (also one of my adulthood obsessions; a constant obsession over the course of my life), but it's based on a book (actually two books) by Mary Norton, who wrote The Borrowers, ALSO a beloved childhood obsession, ever since my mother read them to me.
But then again, at that tender age I had not yet realized that it was possible to see if an author you liked had written other books. And also, knowing Disney's adaptation proclivities, I am 99% sure that if I had read Bed-knob and Broomstick at a tender age and then seen the adaptation, I would have been OUTRAGED! by the way they warped the book in the adaptation process, just as I was OUTRAGED! by the 1997 adaptation of The Borrowers (in fact, I wasn't even completely happy with the Studio Ghibli version. I may just love the book too much to be pleased with any movie adaptation), so perhaps it was better all around this way, because I found the movie delightful.
The story goes like this: during the Blitz, three children sent out of London discover that they are staying with an apprentice witch (Angela Lansbury, delightful). Unfortunately, her witchcraft correspondence course is canceled before she gets the final spell - the spell that she thinks might be useful to help defeat a potential German invasion. So she enchants a bed-knob so that the whole bed will magically travel when the bedknob is turned, and she and the children set off for London to find the final spell.
It's a jolly magical adventure - sort of like a wartime Mary Poppins (Mr. Banks is in it! As a most un-Mr. Banksian character, a mountebank who started the witchcraft school of correspondence as a con and is most surprised to learn that his spells work). I found the scene where Miss Price animates an army of suits of armor (conveniently resident in the local museum) to rout a German landing party deeply satisfying.
But then again, at that tender age I had not yet realized that it was possible to see if an author you liked had written other books. And also, knowing Disney's adaptation proclivities, I am 99% sure that if I had read Bed-knob and Broomstick at a tender age and then seen the adaptation, I would have been OUTRAGED! by the way they warped the book in the adaptation process, just as I was OUTRAGED! by the 1997 adaptation of The Borrowers (in fact, I wasn't even completely happy with the Studio Ghibli version. I may just love the book too much to be pleased with any movie adaptation), so perhaps it was better all around this way, because I found the movie delightful.
The story goes like this: during the Blitz, three children sent out of London discover that they are staying with an apprentice witch (Angela Lansbury, delightful). Unfortunately, her witchcraft correspondence course is canceled before she gets the final spell - the spell that she thinks might be useful to help defeat a potential German invasion. So she enchants a bed-knob so that the whole bed will magically travel when the bedknob is turned, and she and the children set off for London to find the final spell.
It's a jolly magical adventure - sort of like a wartime Mary Poppins (Mr. Banks is in it! As a most un-Mr. Banksian character, a mountebank who started the witchcraft school of correspondence as a con and is most surprised to learn that his spells work). I found the scene where Miss Price animates an army of suits of armor (conveniently resident in the local museum) to rout a German landing party deeply satisfying.
