Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971) is a Disney musical fantasy you can watch online on iFILM. With World War II raging, three children are evacuated out of London and parked with the prim Miss Price, who turns out to be teaching herself sorcery through a mail-order correspondence course.

The trick that changes everything is a small one: a magic bedknob that sends an ordinary bed soaring wherever its rider wishes. Together with a fraud of a magic professor played by David Tomlinson, Angela Lansbury's apprentice witch and the kids set off after a missing spell, dropping into an animated lagoon and an island of talking animals along the way. Back home, a sharper idea takes hold, that her half-learned magic might just hold off a German landing.

Director Robert Stevenson made Mary Poppins, and it shows here in the way flesh-and-blood actors share the frame with hand-drawn animation. The film took the Academy Award for visual effects. It is a good pick for anyone who enjoys unhurried, old-school family movies. Stream Bedknobs and Broomsticks online on iFILM.