I was only tentatively planning to see this someday and hadn't expected to right after another Disney movie about kids and non-evil witchcraft. But people have been bringing it up with the passing of Angela Lansbury, so I thought it a fitting way to honor her.
In World War II, Eglantine Price (Lansbury) is legally compelled to host three evacuated siblings in her rural English mansion, however unwillingly and temporarily (a scenario I hope never happens in the U.S.). She has been studing magic via mail-order instructions to help the war effort, but the course ends abruptly before she can learn a key spell. Since youngest child Paul (Roy Snart) has a habit of collecting random things and Miss Price wants to enchant a turnable object, he supplies a bedknob. From then on, he can make a certain large bed travel to any destination, which allows the party to hunt for the needed information.
It turns out that the "schoolmaster," Emelius Browne (David Tomlinson), didn't even think magic was real; he's just a struggling street performer and charlatan. Nevertheless, she makes a compelling case for him to lend what knowledge and skills he has to her quest. I'm not fond of the many moments that suggest a budding romance between them, because he still rather sucks.
Then again, he does have the most personality of any major character herein, becoming less cookie-cutter as he goes along. The others' traits seem to ebb and flow with the plot-driven narrative. Miss Price can't seem to hold onto an emotion or conviction for long, and she flakes occasionally just for the sake of preserving drama. Eldest brother Charlie (Ian Weighill) is a boorish preteen who's sometimes contrary and skeptical and other times just another kid. Paul's aforementioned habit never becomes important again, and while he continues to affect the plot, he mostly complains about not being taken seriously because of his youth. Their sister Carrie (Cindy O'Callaghan) offers little more than moderate maturity for conversations and holding the siblings together, plus some otherwise scarce female presence.
And then there's the oddly named Cosmic Creepers, possibly the least charming housecat I've ever seen on screen. He looks mangy, he's hostile to everyone other than Miss Price, and his only contribution to the story is unhelpful. Only once does he hint at extraordinary intelligence.
Really, lots of elements are inconsistent. The bed even apparently alternates between flying and teleporting. And perhaps I shouldn't be hard on the heroes for getting stupid now and then, because by the time they're breathing and talking underwater without a corresponding spell, we know we're supposed to check our own brains at the door. Or if it's geared toward kids too young to know better, someone really ought to make sure they don't learn the hard way.
The quest takes them to a secret island of semi-civilized cartoon animals who play a wild slapstick version of soccer. Depending on your disposition, this is likely either the highlight of the movie or the part that most makes you cringe. I'd like it better if it didn't feel spliced in, suggesting that someone loved the idea but couldn't sell it on its own merits nine years before Animalympics.
My favorite scene comes toward the end, when the long-awaited spell is put to good use. I hadn't expected to hear so much spoken German, most of it without subtitles. The ensuing antics aren't exactly brilliant, but at least they don't feel out of place or poorly cadenced.
Then there are the songs. While I'm unlikely to come across them again, they're not half badly written. My main concern is that they're few and far between as musicals go.
BaB wasn't the next Mary Poppins, but neither was it quite the next Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in my book. There's just enough fun to vindicate the 117-minute run. I can't speak for the 22-minute extension from 1996, tho.
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