{"id":12474,"date":"2014-07-29T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T07:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=12474"},"modified":"2020-01-04T23:02:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-05T07:02:58","slug":"something-fishy-bedknobs-and-limpets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/something-fishy-bedknobs-and-limpets\/","title":{"rendered":"Something Fishy: Bedknobs and Limpets"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week we listen to a cover version from the Disney studio’s follow up to Mary Poppins<\/em> – and from the soundtrack of the big-screen swan song of the original Warner Bros. animation unit, a fishy little film starring Don Knotts. Both get the spinning vinyl treatment on today’s Animation Spin<\/em>. <\/p>\n\"bedknobs600\"\n

<\/p>\n

Songs from Walt Disney Productions\u2019 BEDKNOBS AND BROOMSTICKS<\/strong>
\nDisneyland Records STER-1326 (Stereo)<\/em>
\n(12\u201d 33 1\/3 RPM LP \/ 1971) <\/p>\n

Executive Producer:<\/strong> Jimmy Johnson. Producer\/Conductor: Camarata. Orchestrations: Brian Fahey. Running Time: 26 minutes.
\nPerformers:<\/strong> Mike Sammes, Judy Carne, The Mike Sammes Singers (Enid Heard, Irene King, Marion Madden, Mike Redway, Mike Sammes, Ross Gilmour, Valerie Bain).
\nSongs:<\/strong> \u201cThe Old Home Guard,\u201d \u201cA Step in the Right Direction,\u201d \u201cThe Age of Not Believing,\u201d \u201cWith a Flair,\u201d \u201cEglantine,\u201d \u201cPortobello Road,\u201d \u201cThe Beautiful Briny,\u201d \u201cSubstitutiary Locomotion,\u201d \u201cThe Old Home Guard (Reprise)\u201d by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because of the type of conflict suggested in Saving Mr. Banks<\/em>, Walt Disney bought the rights to Mary Norton\u2019s Bed-knob and Broomstick<\/em> in case the tense negotiations with prickly Mary Poppins<\/em> author P.L. Travers broke down. Norton wrote the adventures of Miss Price, the three children and Emelius Browne originally as two books The Magic Bedknob<\/em> and Bonfires and Broomsticks<\/em> (for some reason, the Disney film\u2019s credits only mention the former) before they were combined into one volume. She is also the author of The Borrowers<\/em>, most recently adapted for Studio Ghibli as The Secret World of Arriety<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Bedknobs_Codfish259\"Mary Poppins<\/em>, of course, made it to the big screen, but there were several sequences considered along the way that did not make it to the screen, including an adventure with a magic compass. The Sherman Brothers\u2019 proposed song for this Poppins sequence was adapted for use in Bedknobs and Broomsticks\u2014as \u201cThe Beautiful Briny\u201d.<\/p>\n

Such circumstances keep Bedknobs<\/em> inextricably linked to Poppins<\/em>, therefore constantly subjecting it to comparison. Like Cubby Broccoli\/United Artists\u2019 adaptation of Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang<\/em> (1968), key members of the Poppins<\/em> team linked the films. Indeed, several magazines and newspapers referred to Chitty<\/em> as a Disney film. But unlike Chitty, Bedknobs<\/em> featured an animated sequence, leaning it more into Poppins<\/em>\u2019 shadow.<\/p>\n

It is doubtful any film could duplicate the alchemy of creative forces that came together for Mary Poppins<\/em>, Walt Disney\u2019s presence chief among them. After his passing, apparently there was no one with the power to insist that every detail be perfect, regardless of time or cost. The very length of Bedknobs and Broomsticks might have been different had Walt been around to stand up to Radio City Music Hall management that insisted the film be trimmed by 26 minutes to allow for more playing times (causing the loss of still-lost audio and an entire song and dance number (\u201cA Step in the Right Direction\u201d). In a way, we will never really see the finished film as it was meant to be seen, but what we have is still impressive.<\/p>\n

The Disney organization was already in the throes of an identity crisis when production began on Bedknobs. The Shermans were no longer under contract. The general atmosphere was very different, with various factions in their respective corners and the infamous invocation of \u201cWhat would Walt have done?\u201d a common phrase (even actor\/singer John Davidson attests to hearing this frequently as Disney staffers filmed that 1968 musical, The One & Only, Genuine, Original Family Band<\/em> \u2014 he says this in the DVD commentary track).<\/p>\n

The entertainment business had also transformed by 1971. The Hollywood that embraced Mary Poppins<\/em> and The Sound of Music<\/em> had been burned by less successful big-screen musicals, virtually leaving family fare for the \u201cnew realism\u201d of emerging filmmakers.<\/p>\n

All things considered, Bedknobs and Broomsticks<\/em> is a memorable, entertaining movie spectacle with an intriguing storyline (almost completely independent of the book) that places fantasy in wartime England during the Blitz, much like the Narnia stories and Disney\u2019s Return to Never Land<\/em>. Every adventure in the movie is firmly tied to the central goal of Miss Price\u2019s (Angela Lansbury) efforts to help the War effort with her gift for magic, much as others on the home front saved household fats and rolled bandages.<\/p>\n

\"Substitutiary250\"It will be interesting to see how Bedknobs<\/em> looks on the upcoming Blu-ray release (along with The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Hercules, Tarzan,<\/em> and Mickey, Donald & Goofy in The Three Musketeers<\/em>). As for the soundtrack album, it was released on CD a few years ago and is now available for download on iTunes and amazon. <\/p>\n

For this week\u2019s Spin, however, the emphasis is on what Disneyland Records called a \u201csecond cast\u201d recording, and what some other labels call a \u201cstudio cast.\u201d These are not soundtracks, but separate audio productions with some or none of the actual cast members. \u201cCover versions\u201d were very common in the early to mid-20th century, as stage and screen musicals spawned songs just as popular when recorded by favorite singers and orchestras as those in the originals themselves.<\/p>\n

Disneyland and Buena Vista Records had great success in creating a variety of vinyl products from a single film, Park attraction or TV show. The soundtrack album could be available as several single 45 RPM records, the \u201csecond cast\u201d would appear on a budget album, Storyteller album, read-along record and more singles. This allows for coverage in other store areas in addition to the record department (particularly alongside toys and books).<\/p>\n

\u201cSongs from Bedknobs and Broomsticks<\/em>\u201d was the very last Disney album for Disney Legend Tutti Camarata and for the prolific British vocal group, The Mike Sammes Singers (who had been recording for Disney at Abbey Road since the mid-\u201860s). <\/p>\n

An interesting note about this LP: when Bedknobs was first released to theaters, Walt Disney World was recently opened. The first three-dimensional Emporium window dioramas ever to appear on Main Street, U.S.A. in Florida told the story of the film. Inside the Emporium, the sheet music book for the Sherman score was on sale, but the soundtrack album was not. This \u201cSongs From<\/em>\u201d LP was the only Bedknobs album available at Walt Disney World.<\/p>\n

GIVE A LITTLE LISTEN<\/strong>
\n\u201cSubstitutiary Locomotion\u201d<\/em>
\nActress\/singer Judy Carne was an up-and-coming star in the 1960\u2019s, gaining international fame as the \u201cSock-It-To-Me Girl\u201d on the mod, mod Rowan & Martin\u2019s Laugh-In<\/em>. Carne was among the leading ladies in the running for the role of Eglantine Price. Somewhere during this period she recorded this song. Note the additional lyrics and the wonderful progressive build of the arrangement\u2014which to my mind suggests a much more elaborate treatment as a production number. <\/p>\n