Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a 1971 Disney musical film. It is based upon two books by Mary Norton. In this film, Angela Lansbury plays Eglantine Price, an English witch-in-training who uses her powers for good purposes. She and three orphan children she is taking care of seek out the assistance of a phony professor, Emelius Browne David Tomlinson, who holds the key to a spell that can be used to fight a potential Nazi invasion.
The film was directed by Robert Stevenson, and songs are written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. The film won an Academy Award for Best Special Visual Effects.
The film has been re-edited several times. The studio cut the film from an intended length of approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes to 117 minutes before release, and from that length to 97 minutes for a 1979 rerelease. Released in 1996 was a 139-minute version featuring footage that was cut before release.
The title of the film is punned in an episode of the TV series The Partridge Family entitled Bedknobs and Drumsticks, and an episode of Beavis and Butthead called Bedpans and Broomsticks.
