DVD Extras

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)

Angela Lansbury - Miss Price; not a rich witch
David Tomlinson - forever the dad from Mary Poppins

When I was growing up, my parents had two Disney movies on VHS tape that my sister and I used to watch over and over again: Pete's Dragon and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Not surprisingly, though they are two of the lesser known Disney films, they are my favorites. When I made my schedule for October, Bedknobs and Broomsticks was one of the movies I was most excited to watch. This is why I am so very disappointed to admit that I did not enjoy watching the movie.

And this leads me to a bit of a tangential comment. I am not that big of a fan of Ridley Scott. I have a couple of his movies, but I think he peaked with Alien. This is primarily because of his more recent style. I blame him for ushering in the era of shots that don't last for more than 3 or 4 seconds (I'm looking at you, Gladiator). I can't stand that. However, a couple of years ago, I began to respect Scott's artistic integrity. When DVDs finally replaced VHS, special features became a big deal. Movie studios realized that if they put in a ton of special features, they could put out a special edition and charge a higher price, something for which many were willing to pay. This led to the "extended edition" DVD. For some reason that I will never understand, Ridley Scott was asked to give an intro to the extended edition DVDs of Gladiator and Alien. The reason I don't understand is because he was quite explicit in stating that the extended editions were not in any way the way he envisioned his movies. He stated that the deleted scenes were cut for a reason: they hurt the movie. Ever since I saw that, my opinion of Ridley Scott has improved a great deal.

And this leads me back to Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I did not know when I bought it that the only edition of Bedknobs and Broomsticks available is the so-called uncut version. This is why the movie is such a disappointment. The newly-added music scenes are terrible, which is probably why they were cut. Did you know that the professor's introductory scene was actually supposed to be a song? Ugh. I can see that they may have been put back in because it made the story more coherent, especially the relationship between Miss Price and the Professor, but the songs themselves were bloody awful. They completely destroyed the experience of watching a movie I have adored for more than 25 years. The most insulting aspect is that, unlike most films, Disney did not even offer the choice of watching the original version.