Week 11 has arrived. Which means 1971!
I turned down:
Scandalous John
The Barefoot Executive
The Million Dollar Duck
I went with a classic: Bedknobs And Broomsticks!
In England, In WWII, three young children are sent to live with Eglantine Price, an apprentice witch, played by Angela Lansbury. She uses a famous magic traveling spell on a bed so when Paul (and only Paul), the youngest child, activates it, the bed flys. They travel to London where they meet Emelius Browne (David Tomlinson), "headmaster" of Miss Price's witchcraft training correspondence school. Together the group sets out to find the words for a magic spell, in hopes of finishing her traing and maybe help the fight for England against the Germans.
There is a lot going on in this movie, maybe to much, a flying bed, orphans, dancing and singing, mob type people in London, a land called Naboombu with cartoon characters, a touch of romance, a war. All fit into a long 2 hours.
I watched this with fresh eyes, because I have no memory of the story, I just remember a flying bed. I wonder if kids then, or even today would get the war story line. It seems a little deep of a subject for the age group this movie is shooting for 8-10.
What is strange about the movie is the visual effects. This movie won the Oscar for visual effects. The effects while they were in Naboombu were fantastic! Even if the movie was made today they could not have done better. Also the battle scene at the end looked wonderful. At the same time, the scenes when the bed is flying, looks cheap and weird. Flashes of color. While watching I was thinking either two things happened here. They filmed the Fight scene and Nabommbu first and ran out of money for more special effects. Or, it was 71 and they were going for some psychedelic look. Either way, it is strange.
Last note on this movie. Angela Lansbury stars in this movie, but the real star of this movie is David Tomlinson. He is great in this films. Physical comedy, singing, dancing. You may remember him from Mary Poppins or The Love Bug. He is a Disney Icon I think. I wonder if his bust should be at the Hollywoods Studios Park (maybe it is and I missed it). We should start a petition.
Fun fact or not so fun:
This was the last movie Disney won an Oscar for until the Little Mermaid (I find this hard to believe, but as hard as I look I cannot find anything to prove this wrong).
The children, Roy Smart (Paul) and Ian Weighill (Charlie) will never act in a film after this. Cindy O Callaghan (Carrie) was in the East Enders.
The Beautiful Briny Sea was written for Mary Poppins.
Look for a bear wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt during the soccer game.
So Bedknobs And Broomsticks, I give 31/2 Mickeys out of 5. The movie is fun, well acted, I think the family would still enjoy it. Remember it does push 2 hours; and the war scenes maybe confusing.
Speaking of long, real quick, before I go I wanted to mention I saw John Carter in 3D. After losing all that money on Mars Needs Moms, and knowing the price tag Disney shelled out for this, I wanted to love it. Oh brother. Long, not much action, to much standing around explaining things. At one point I lifted my hand up, I made a circle motion like ok, I get it, lets get moving. I was thinking, if you remember Star Wars, the movie had words coming from space explaining the situation before the movie took off, this would have helped. The costumes were kind of corny. I thought of the movie Flash Gordon (funny, I saw a review a week later and they mentioned it looks like Flash Gordon).
The positive-- the 3D look is cool. The story when it moved forward was interesting. Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins did a nice job in the leads. It just needed editing. I would give it 3 out of 5 Mickeys.
Another last note: I know more people probably look at this section than Vacation Homes, Villas, Housing Developments & Living Near WDW section. If you get a chance, look at my question over there and see if you can help with an answer.
Thanks for taking the time to follow 52 in 52.
1972 next week.
I am still a little undecided what to watch.
I turned down:
Scandalous John
The Barefoot Executive
The Million Dollar Duck
I went with a classic: Bedknobs And Broomsticks!
In England, In WWII, three young children are sent to live with Eglantine Price, an apprentice witch, played by Angela Lansbury. She uses a famous magic traveling spell on a bed so when Paul (and only Paul), the youngest child, activates it, the bed flys. They travel to London where they meet Emelius Browne (David Tomlinson), "headmaster" of Miss Price's witchcraft training correspondence school. Together the group sets out to find the words for a magic spell, in hopes of finishing her traing and maybe help the fight for England against the Germans.
There is a lot going on in this movie, maybe to much, a flying bed, orphans, dancing and singing, mob type people in London, a land called Naboombu with cartoon characters, a touch of romance, a war. All fit into a long 2 hours.
I watched this with fresh eyes, because I have no memory of the story, I just remember a flying bed. I wonder if kids then, or even today would get the war story line. It seems a little deep of a subject for the age group this movie is shooting for 8-10.
What is strange about the movie is the visual effects. This movie won the Oscar for visual effects. The effects while they were in Naboombu were fantastic! Even if the movie was made today they could not have done better. Also the battle scene at the end looked wonderful. At the same time, the scenes when the bed is flying, looks cheap and weird. Flashes of color. While watching I was thinking either two things happened here. They filmed the Fight scene and Nabommbu first and ran out of money for more special effects. Or, it was 71 and they were going for some psychedelic look. Either way, it is strange.
Last note on this movie. Angela Lansbury stars in this movie, but the real star of this movie is David Tomlinson. He is great in this films. Physical comedy, singing, dancing. You may remember him from Mary Poppins or The Love Bug. He is a Disney Icon I think. I wonder if his bust should be at the Hollywoods Studios Park (maybe it is and I missed it). We should start a petition.
Fun fact or not so fun:
This was the last movie Disney won an Oscar for until the Little Mermaid (I find this hard to believe, but as hard as I look I cannot find anything to prove this wrong).
The children, Roy Smart (Paul) and Ian Weighill (Charlie) will never act in a film after this. Cindy O Callaghan (Carrie) was in the East Enders.
The Beautiful Briny Sea was written for Mary Poppins.
Look for a bear wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt during the soccer game.
So Bedknobs And Broomsticks, I give 31/2 Mickeys out of 5. The movie is fun, well acted, I think the family would still enjoy it. Remember it does push 2 hours; and the war scenes maybe confusing.
Speaking of long, real quick, before I go I wanted to mention I saw John Carter in 3D. After losing all that money on Mars Needs Moms, and knowing the price tag Disney shelled out for this, I wanted to love it. Oh brother. Long, not much action, to much standing around explaining things. At one point I lifted my hand up, I made a circle motion like ok, I get it, lets get moving. I was thinking, if you remember Star Wars, the movie had words coming from space explaining the situation before the movie took off, this would have helped. The costumes were kind of corny. I thought of the movie Flash Gordon (funny, I saw a review a week later and they mentioned it looks like Flash Gordon).
The positive-- the 3D look is cool. The story when it moved forward was interesting. Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins did a nice job in the leads. It just needed editing. I would give it 3 out of 5 Mickeys.
Another last note: I know more people probably look at this section than Vacation Homes, Villas, Housing Developments & Living Near WDW section. If you get a chance, look at my question over there and see if you can help with an answer.
Thanks for taking the time to follow 52 in 52.
1972 next week.
I am still a little undecided what to watch.