DISNEY'S BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS (THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL EDITION)

In 2014 during the month of July, I wrote a review on a live action Disney film that gets overlooked by many titled "Bedknobs and Broomsticks". Though the film is an obvious re-trend to its successor "Mary Poppins" that isn't heavy with plot, emotions, and would at times be logically confusing; it still had tons of charm, fun, and magic to it through the performances, songs, and special effects that overall make it a magical journey that the whole family can enjoy. However the version that I reviewed was its theatrical cut, that hadn't been released to DVD until the month after my review. Up until the film's Blu-ray release of its original cut, Disney did what George Lucas did with his "Star Wars" movies, by deciding to only sell DVD copies with newly featured scenes restored to the film instead of giving people the opportunity to choose which version they wished to see. The changes began for its 25th Anniversary in 1996, but didn't fully overshadow its theatrical cut until 2001 since the original version was released on VHS for the "Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection" in 1997. So unless people owned a VHS copy of the film before 2001 and still held onto their VCR, the extended version of the film is what audiences were stuck with. This then lead to mixed results about the film's extension where some viewers felt the newer cut was better, while others (mainly people who grew up with the original version) found the additional scenes to be unnecessary. Are the new scenes a welcoming addition to an underrated Disney classic, or was Disney trying to fix something that wasn't broken to begin with which in the end ruins the overall experience? ON WITH THE REVIEW!

"The 25th Anniversary Special Edition"

And please note that since I will be talking about all the scenes that are added to the film, I will be giving away SPOILERS!

The first added scene in the movie involves Mrs.Hobday (Tessie O'Shea) talking to the British officer Captain Greer (Arthur Gould-Porter)  after hearing him being harassed by a guardsman played by Arthur Malet (who you may recognize him as Mr. Dawes Junior in "Mary Poppins"). In the original cut, Mrs.Hobday left the children alone in the museum when she heard the home guards approaching, which to be honest didn't make much sense since she's never shown to be talking to them, so the idea that she would abandon her post to see what all the fuss is about outside seems more reasonable in comparison. Furthermore, we get to hear the song "The Old Home Guard" in full rather than it being inserted into the scene when she tells the kids to stay put, which is nice to hear. However, there is a good reason why it was originally cut. All we pretty much get out of this conversation is exposition on the war and how the town is keeping themselves safe, which plays a bit more on the dramas going on during the Blitz, but doesn't feel needed. The war plays apart in the film's setting and story, but the way the original version of the film set-up its environment did a fine job without having the need to explain everything. What we got in the original about the war is that the kids are being sent away from London because of the bombings, and that the town they're being forced to live in is guarded by veterans as they fear that the Nazis may invade their homeland. It's simple and basic, but is relevant to the story and easy to follow, unlike this scene where they feel the need to emphasize the Nazi invasion, the home guard, and Mrs. Hobday's position more, that makes it seem like that the film is force feeding us the information as if kids and adults won't be able to comprehend what's going on before and after this scene. What also doesn't do this pointless scene any favors is the newly recorded dubbing. Though the Captain sounds okay, Mrs. Hobday suddenly went from having a Welsh accent to a Scottish accent, and it is distracting for how much the actress dubbing her sounds nothing like O’Shea. And believe me, most of the dubbing in the later scenes are only going to get worse.

When "The Old Home Guard" song ended in the theatrical version, the troops come to a halt and the general introduces himself to Captain Greer that then leads to Miss Price (Angela Lansbury) making her first on-screen entrance by clouding the streets with green exhaust from her motorcycle. So what deleted scene was brought back between the end of the song and Miss Price's introduction; the home guard sergeant asking the general for permission to dismiss the marching parade, which he grants. I think the reason why this scene was originally cut speaks for itself. We want to see the film's star Angela Lansbury appear after the first 5 or so minutes, we don't need to wait for the general to give his troops permission to leave after hearing them sing the first song in the movie.

In my review of "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", I questioned why Roddy McDowall was listed third in the cast after its stars Lansbury and Tomlinson when he only had two very brief scenes in the movie, where he only speaks in one scene. Clearly it was because he was the third most famous actor in the movie at the time, but his presence was overall pointless, as his character only exists to get into mishaps from Miss Price's actions, whether it would be from the green exhaust from her motorcycle blowing at his face; or having him being spooked by Miss Price's floating nightgown after casting a spell. They're funny scenes, but casting a powerhouse actor like McDowall feels wasted since he does so little that anybody could easily play the role of a frightened vicar. Well as I also mentioned in my original review, he has more to do in the extended cut of the film. He's given a subplot of wanting to take Miss Price's property for his own, that's instantly revealed after she rides away with the children. Roddy McDowall was alive and available to do the dubbing for his character which his voice has very little signs of aging (but to be fair, maybe that's because he barely said a word in the original version). However, his plans of wanting her property just happens right out of nowhere, and if the politics in the last few added scenes were entertaining for you, there's more of it here. Because we hear about another vicar who got injured during the war, and why McDowall is not going to aid the troops himself. Why do we need to know any of this? I get that it's trying to play up the dramas of the war, but there's already enough of that which connects to the film's plot, while this piece of war information isn't, which is pointless and only delays the first time we get to view Miss Price's house. I'll gradually talk about the rest of this subplot as I go through every new scene.

When the kids have their first dinner at Miss Price's house, we get two newly added scenes. The first scene is where we learn a little bit about the children's past. Miss Price tells them to write to their parents after supper, until we discover from Carrie that they don't have parents and have been looked after by their Aunt Bessie until she got killed by one of the bomb's falling in London. Truth be told, I found this added scene to be quite interesting. When I watched the original version, I always wondered what happened to the kids' parents or if there is anybody watching them back in London. I did assume they were orphans (or else why would they be so excited about having Mr. Browne for a Father), but I wanted to learn what their backstory is. And after finding out this piece of information it was ultimately depressing that nicely fits with the war element surrounding the film, as the actress dubbing Carrie sounds very much like the original actress playing her. Angela Lansbury coming back to dub her younger-self is also just as good as McDowall's dubbing. Still there is one problem with this added scene, and that’s when it ends. The music and dramatic acting supporting the emotion for this scene ends so abruptly where they're back to having a casual conversation, that it almost feels as if they never talked about what happened to their poor Aunt. It just gets brushed off and forgotten very quickly. As for the second newly added scene, Miss Price points out that she has mango-wurzel jam as she mentions the food that she eats, where they then say grace and the scene concludes with new shots of the kids looking disgusted at the food they're given to eat. This addition is unnecessary since the kids in the original cut already show dissatisfaction in the food, and simply pointing out that she has a condiment that's not to their liking doesn't really say anything different. On top of it, the dubbing for the kids (including Carrie) are far from sounding anything like the kids, especially Charlie who sounds much younger than he is in the film.

Skipping past a brief and pointless added scene when Miss Price informs the kids that no one has ever seen her workroom, before letting them in; we get to the second scene involving McDowall's subplot of wanting to buy Miss Price's home. The person who gives Miss Price the letter from Emelius Browne that informs her about the college closing, is McDowall's character, who is seen to be testing how sturdy her property is and tries to seduce her into letting him in, until she closes the door on him after thanking him for the letter. There's so much awkwardness going on in this scene that I simply don't find anything funny about it. If anything I find McDowall's presence and mannerisms in this scene (as well as his first scene) to be unnatural. I'm not sure if he's trying to be funny given how desperate he is to charm Miss Price only for him to be tossed aside; or creepy since his charm and glares come off as menacing; or both. If he's is trying to do both it doesn't quite balance out-well, it's almost as if McDowall himself is not sure how to play this character given how short his scenes and subplot is, which is painful to watch.

As the characters get ready to try out the traveling spell for the first time, we have two short little scenes before their flight. When Miss Price asks Paul to give her the bedknob so that she can use it to go to London to meet Emelius Browne, Charlie butts in and tries to extort money from her. DID CHARLIE NOT LEARN ANYTHING AFTER BEING TURNED INTO A RABBIT! Okay, even after being turned into a rabbit Charlie attempts to gain something from Miss Price, but he's making a reasonable request. She gives them one of her spells to keep them quiet, and if they tell anyone that she's a witch they'll be forced to give it back. It's a fair compromise that Miss Price willingly agrees to. And I get that Charlie is trying to stand-up for his brother since to him she seems like that she's breaking the deal they made, but what makes him think that extorting money from her is going to work a second time when it didn't go well the first time? Hell, he should be lucky that the witch he's forced to stay with isn't wicked. All this scene does is make Charlie look like an idiot, and delay the flight. And that's exactly what the following added scene does, since Paul didn't tell the bed where they want to go and thus can't take off. It's scenes like this that make me wonder what egghead at Disney thought it was a good idea to put these cut scenes back in the film?

Emelius' Browne's introduction has three additional scenes including a musical number that has been added in. When the kids see a man carrying a suitcase with Professor Browne's name attached to it, we cut to him starting his magic show, and see the kids push the bed forward rejoicing that they have found him. In this cut, the kids start to chase him down the dark streets of London, but stop and decide to take the bed with them. Did we really need a scene explaining why they need to take the bed with them? I'm sure we can figure it out for ourselves since that's their means of...oh I don't know, transportation! Anyway, in the original cut, Mr. Browne performs a magic show that ends up being a failed attempt to dazzle the pedestrians in London when one of his tricks goes wrong, which causes them to flee. However, if you watch the original cut and look carefully when the crowd leaves, you may notice some of his magic props being left on the ground for no rhyme or reason, as well as a well-dressed man looking filthy as if something had happened to him off-screen. This was because his magic act was originally longer and had a song attached to it titled "With a Flair". This whole song changes everything from what was being told in the theatrical version. You see, instead of it being a bad magic show, he simply tells his audience right off the bat that he is a phony as he exposes his secrets to his parlor tricks, but as long as he performs these tricks "with a flair" they'll love him, which he in turn offers to sell his magic props so that they can make money off of doing magic tricks. David Tomlinson does a fine job singing the song, it’s just a shame that the song is nothing that you'll find yourself humming when compared to the other songs in the movie, though to be fair it's not thee worst song in the movie (will get to that later). The sequence itself doesn't help make it fun either since most of the jokes involving him revealing his illusions and failing to create some of them in-front of an unimpressed crowd is awkwardly phoned in. The worst bit is how Mr.Browne puts spoiled eggs and milk in a guy’s hat expecting to make them disappear, until they splatter all over his head when he places the hat on him, resulting with no reaction from Browne or the guy being part of his botched act that just makes the joke feel there and more dull and gross. On top of it, this whole song and scenario makes no sense. I get that he wants to sell magic props and demonstrate how he uses them, but he comes off as rather rude and arrogant to his audience as he pretty much calls them fools for believing in what he says, almost as if he's forgetting that he's trying to sell these items. So when the audience leaves in disgust he begs for them not to go, even though he pretty much insulted them and told them that he's a fraud. It's quite understandable why this sequence was cut, since Mr. Browne comes off as an idiotic fool, rather than a charming but manipulative con-artist who just fails at being a good magician. Browne gets more idiotic when we get to the third deleted scene where he asks an obvious question that if the children belong to Miss Price. My question is how does he not figure out that the kids are with her after seeing her talk to the children, and telling them to stop him from leaving so that she can turn him into a rabbit?

During the scenes that takes place at the empty manor where Mr. Browne is temporarily staying in, we get one new scene, a rearrange of scenes from the theatrical version, and an extended song sequence. After the children find the nursery and play with the toys, we cut to a new scene back in the dining room where Miss Price explains to Mr. Browne why she's looking for the final spell. Apart from telling us what the spell can do earlier in the film, there's nothing really important being said given how the previous film (big shock) did it better without feeling the need to emphasize it. Furthermore, the actor dubbing Tomlinson in the scene sounds nothing like him at all, and makes me cringe every time I hear this voice that obviously isn't his own. Rather than the scene cutting to the study where Emelius sings "Eglantine" to persuade Miss Price to be part of his act, to then cutting to the kids back in the nursery where Paul finds the book "The Isle of Naboombu" (that conveniently has the words to the spell that Miss Price was searching for); the scene order has been reversed since the "Eglantine" sequence is in its entirety. Though I remember the song in the original film and find myself singing it occasionally, it was my least favorite song in the film for how short and brief it is (at least "The Soldiers of the Old Home Guard" was sung in the beginning and finale). It's nice seeing the song in its entirety, and both Lansbury and Tomlinson do a solid job at singing it. However, there are a few things that hold it from being good. First off, the choreography is not well staged as if the choreographers were staging this scene at the very last minute since they were too busy getting the dance sequences for "The Portobello Road" scene right. The second and last problem is Miss Price makes a deal with him. If he helps her find the spell, she'll think about doing showbiz with him. I actually liked that in the original cut she just turns Mr. Browne into a rabbit without feeling the need to strike up a deal. It just greatly shows how serious she is about finding the spell and how much nonsense she'll take from Mr.Browne before resorting to her hocus pocus. But here, she frighteningly warns him to keep away from her when he starts coming uncomfortably close, which is understandable why she would be nervous, but it overall takes away a pretty badass moment from Miss Price. This isn't by any means one of the worst additions brought back to the movie. Frankly if this scene was in the original cut and that I had no knowledge about Miss Price coldly turning Mr. Browne into a rabbit, I wouldn't mind it as much as I do now since it is still well performed (inspite of its lackluster choreography), and is at least coherent with Browne and Price's relationship. I say this because even after when Mr. Browne is being turned down in the original cut, he still offers as well as fantasizes about the idea of doing his magic act with her towards the end of the film which would make better sense why he would still brings up the subject based on their deal. So in essence I can legitimately see this scene working fine in the original cut.

Following after the extended "Eglantine" sequence, is another musical sequence that has a few alterations which is the famous "Portobello Road" scene. Before everyone breaks out dancing, there's a new verse added into the song portion of the sequence. After Mr. Browne shrugs off the prostitutes (in a Disney movie) we see him singing with a clothes merchant as he dresses up a distracted Miss Price who's looking through the book, which causes Miss Price to leave in disgust where we then see Carrie dressed up all glamorous singing with Charlie. There's also another bit of the mishaps that the kids get into at "Portobello Road" involving Charlie and Paul playing Cricket and accidentally smashing "rare alabaster". During the dance sequence after the Scottish dance, the dances have been rearranged to make room for the new scenes. Instead of the girls dancing after the Scottish, we get the Caribbean steel drummers and Miss Price being dragged into the dance which then leads into a couple of new dance scenes. We see an Irish dance; extended footage of the women dancing; and more dancing involving the soldiers and the merchants. Just like the last extended song sequence, it’s interesting to see in it full, and the choreography for the added dance scenes are just as wonderful as the other dances in this number. There's just one major problem, it goes on FOREVER! You can argue that the original sequence was just as overlong, and I can definitely see why people may feel that way. But for me it didn't go on long enough where it got tedious. I always found myself being sucked into this party environment of different cultures the same way how I felt about "The Step-In-Time" sequence in "Mary Poppins". With this cut on the other hand, after the Irish dance I found myself getting bored as I eagerly hoped for it to end soon. I should also note that some of the added footage during the dances weren't cleaned to look as good as the other new scenes due to limitations, where the colors and images appear to be faded, which is disappointing and a bit distracting, but not as bad as the dubbing.

After Miss Price and the gang are forced to meet the mysterious "Bookman" (Sam Jaffe) through his henchman Swinburne (Bruce Forsyth) two added scenes are restored before they meet "The Bookman" and during their encounter with him. I was hoping to learn a little bit more about "The Bookman" like what exactly his racket is, what kind of bad-blood he has with Mr. Browne, and why he cares so much about knowing the spell?  There's just simply so much to be explored about this criminal. Unfortunately though, what we get are two pointless scenes involving his awfully dubbed henchman and Mr. Browne. Mr. Browne lies to Swineburne (who is pushing the bed, rather than making Emelius push the bed since he has a knife) about the bed once belonging to royalty and that he wishes to give it to "The Bookman" as a present, which doesn't add anything since Mr. Browne later on in both cuts tells this fib to "The Bookman" himself. And in the second scene, when they encounter "The Bookman" Mr. Browne like an idiot protests about swapping sections to the spell book, until he remembers that Swineburne has a knife. Yeah...that scene added plenty.

If you've seen the original cut, you may remember seeing Charlie and Emelius leave to go get groceries as Miss Price tries to remember the words to the "Substitutiary locomotion" spell after losing the star to logic that makes zero sense (wouldn't have been funnier and believable if Mr. Browne somehow left the "Star of Astaroth" behind when being scared by the lion king of Naboombu), that then dissolves to Mr. Browne and Charlie returning while listening to the news about the war on the radio. Well apparently there was a scene of them getting groceries from Mrs. Hobday. Mrs. Hobday gets excited to finally meet Professor Browne after hearing so much about him through the packages that she sends Miss Price, which causes her to ask him if the two share a love connection. Mr. Browne begins to speak fondly of Miss Price until he turns down the idea of marrying her when Mrs. Hobday suggests it. Aside from this scene holding us back from witnessing the first use of the "Substitutiary locomotion" spell (along with the other pointless scenes before it that appear in both versions), as well as the horrid dubbing provided for it, it wasn't necessary to give Mr. Browne a scene of him expressing some kind of interest in Miss Price because the relationship worked better without saying that he was interested her. I hear people complain about how long and pointless scenes like the "Portobello Road" sequence and the animated scenes are, which I can understand those criticisms to a certain level. I can easily see people getting bored by these scenes for how long they go; and if Paul were to tell them that the spell was in his book the whole time all the shenanigans that took place on "The Isle of Naboombu" could have been easily avoided. However, aside from how magical, fun, and extraordinarily made these scenes are from a technical level there is one tiny element that prevents them from being pointless, and that's seeing the characters connecting. Sure a lot of the focus is on the dancers, and the animated animals, but as you watch them smile, dance, sing, and interact you get a strong sense that their growing closer and closer to each other as they're having fun which feels natural, as well as working much better without knowing that Mr. Browne made a deal with Miss Price during the extended "Eglantine" scene. I'm not going to act like the writing for their connection is anywhere near as strong and well-thought out as the relationships that the characters in "Mary Poppins" had because it isn't. But sometimes the chemistry that the actors share with the little material that they're given can be more than enough for it to become believable, which is undoubtedly what saves the relationship that these characters have from being boringly average.

This added scene is also the last additional scene with Roddy McDowall, who does nothing except overhear the conversation that Mr. Browne is having with Mrs. Hobday, resulting with him heading to Miss Price's house at the end of the "Substitutiary locomotion" song sequence, where his hat comes flying off and Miss Price's nightgown comes to greet him. In many respects, his reason for coming back to Miss Price's house does make a little more sense here. When I watched the original cut as a kid I did wonder what McDowall was doing at Miss Price's house, and why he looked a bit bitter. As I watched the film over and over, I began to realize that he's a vicar and assumed that he was more than likely arriving to perform his religious duty as he wished to do so earlier but was rejected. Now that I’ve seen this subplot together with his last scene in the movie, I kid you not this honestly makes his spiritual encounter funnier here than it was the original since you know what he's really after and seems like that he's done with charming Miss Price, until he is attacked and runs away believing that the house is bewitched. The punch-line to this subplot pays-off, but I can't say that these added scenes were worth it. In the long run, this subplot goes absolutely nowhere since none of the main characters gain anything out of it for it to be important. It isn't even a funny pointless detour for how odd McDowall's performance is and how much his subplot slows the film down from reaching its key scenes and highlights. Plus a religious person trying to seduce a woman in a Disney film, unless there's something deep and complex about it to make it smart and interesting like Frollo in "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame", this just comes off as a poor attempt of Disney being "risque" and humorous with religion without thinking it through as they waste a great actor in the process.

The last scene that was restored and added to the film's extended cut is a new song called "Nobody's Problem's for me" that Miss Price sings as soon as Mr. Browne leaves. Pretty much most of the main problems that I've pointed out in the other new scenes movie can be found here. It tells us something that we already know where the emotions surrounding Mr. Browne’s departure plays out just as effectively without a song emphasizing it. It keeps us from the climax for when the Nazis go to shore and raid terror until they find themselves fighting against floating suits of armour. The song uses modern music since there was no orchestral track used for when the song was originally recorded, which is just as distracting and out of place as hearing the original actors being dubbed. Angela Lansbury sings the song well, but the song ranks on the same level of forgettable territory of songs written by the Sherman Brothers as "Lovely Lonely Man" from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". And...ooohhh...god why did they put such a bland and needlessly slow moving song back in the movie that was only half-finished?

Angela Lansbury gets another solo song called "A Step in the Right Direction" that takes place before she flies her broom for the first time which didn't make it in the film, and not in the extended cut either. This was merely due to the fact that the film footage of the scene went missing. It's a needless scene like all the others, especially when considering that it's holding back the first use of magic that we ever see in the film. But with that said, the song itself is indeed good, like better than all the other songs that was cut out of the picture. It has a catchy and up-lifting beat, and the song being about the thrill of doing something new and exciting for the first time that may possibly be a failure but is still an attempt of moving a step forward, is just as inspiring as the song "The Age of Not Believing". It’s one of the Sherman Brothers hidden gems that I still find myself humming. Even though the footage of the scene is lost, you can still hear this hidden treasure of a song on the DVD or "YouTube" that's been restored through the use of still photographs of the number, which is worth checking out for fans of the movie or the Sherman Brothers!

One final thing I should mention before summarizing my overall thoughts on the film's alternate cut, are some of the minor alternations. So, minor that unless you've watched the original film over and over as much as I have, you can easily miss them. For example, when the kids enter Miss Price's house in the original for the first time, there's little to no music playing. In this cut though, there is which at first works effectively for when they are startled by Miss Price's pet cat that makes their encounter with him even more frightening. But then when they are shown to their rooms and are upset about Miss Price's strict house policy, the music continues to play up their emotion that results with it being just as forced and the corny as the music that you'd hear in a sitcom like "Full House" as if the actors aren't good enough to carry a scene on their own. Another minor alteration in terms of sound is a brief bubbling sound effect in the famous "Beautiful Briny Sea" sequence that's thankfully used once since it took me a bit out of the enchantment for how incredibly loud it is to the point where I could barley hear Miss Price and Mr. Browne sing as they dance together. Then there's the crocodile during the soccer game at "The Isle of Naboombu" who's been given a lighter-color instead of a dirty brown, that's a needless change, but nothing bad or distracting. Finally out of all the minor changes is the transition to the end credits for "The 25th Anniversary Special Edition". I don't mind seeing end credits to a restoration of a film, it's just the way the film does it takes you out of that bittersweet moment that the film ends on. It takes no time to rush for the end credits for the new scenes being restored that sloppily cuts to a clip of "The Bookman" exclaiming how happy he is "to see it all together at last" (that's supposed to be a direct metaphor for the film being presented in its entirety) where we then see the extra set of credits role on the Tapestry Art seen in the opening credits that is set to music that doesn't sound all that whimsical.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Like seeing any extended cut of a film, it’s always in the very least interesting to see the deleted scenes being added into the film for the viewer to compare and contrast, and there were indeed a few new scenes that I liked such as Carrie telling Miss Price about what happened to her and her brothers caretaker, as well as the extension of three of the song sequences. They didn’t fully work, or fit the film, but in the very least they were a bit enjoyable, and emotionally strong at one point. It’s just a real downer that all the other additions and alterations didn’t come as close as being slightly good as the ones I noted. It’s not the terrible dubbing alone that makes these new scenes fall flat; it’s frankly for how these scenes slow the film down and add nothing to the overall plot. Whether it’s stating the obvious through tedious conversations; making the character’s acting idiotic to the point where they lose their charm and respect; providing awkward and forced humor; or giving us subplots that don’t go anywhere, you can easily understand why these scenes were all cut! And the fact that Disney decided to pull a George Lucas by not re-releasing the original cut on DVD or Blu-ray until 2014 and have its fans being stuck with the alternate version as newer generations would only be exposed to the extended version during that long period time really infuriates me! If you’ve seen the original so many times and are curious to see what it would be like with its new scenes, it’s worth a look. But if you haven’t seen the film yet, then I strongly urge you to buy or rent a copy that has the theatrical version! Thank god that Disney decided to give people the opportunity for current audiences to choose which version to see, because if we were still stuck with "The 25th Anniversary Special Edition" for good, I’d say that Disney was still taking a step in in the wrong direction.