"You must face the age of not believing, doubting everything you ever knew.
Until at last, you start believing there's something wonderful in you!"
This 1971 Disney film, a take on a pair of novels by Mary Norton, is often regarded as a Spiritual Successor to Mary Poppins - a live action fantasy musical with a substantial segment incorporating animation, with the same director, same scriptwriters, same songwriters, etc.It is 1940 in the British coastal village of Pepperinge Eye, and among the children evacuated here from the ongoing London Blitz are three orphaned siblings, Charlie, Carrie, and Paul. They are taken in by Miss Eglantine Price (Angela Lansbury), a spinster whom they discover is secretly taking mail-order witchcraft lessons in hopes of being able to aid the war effort with magic. But the school abruptly closes, leaving her without the all-important Substitutiary Locomotion spell she needs. She and the children travel to London via bed - in exchange for the children keeping her secret, she enchanted one of its bedknobs for them with a travelling spell - and discover the "professor", Emelius Browne, is a fraud who was just selling her the pages of an incomplete spellbook. So begins a greater journey, from the market at Portobello Road to the Isle of Naboombu (land of animated talking animals), in search of the spell. Once Miss Price learns it, she'll have to use its power to bring inanimate objects to life to save her hometown from none other than the Nazis.
Tropes:
All Witches Have Cats: Miss Price, a witch in training, has a cat named Cosmic Creepers. She's also a spinster according to the old archtype.
Animal Reaction Shot: During the "Substitutiary Locomotion" number, Cosmic Creepers gets several cutaway shots. At one point, he seems to do the cat version of headdesking.
Animated Armor: Price animates a whole army at the climax
Baleful Polymorph: Ms. Price's spells tend to turn people into rabbits instead of frogs.
Billing Displacement: Roddy McDowall is third-billed and, in the uncut version of the movie, he does indeed play a significant supporting character. However, in the theatrical cut of the movie, his role was reduced to The Guy Who Gets Attacked By Miss Price's Nightgown, but they still billed him right below Angela Lansbury and David Tomlinson.
Bowdlerization: The German dub removed the entire Nazi plot or anything that relates to WWII, effectively cutting out a whopping 29 minutes of the movie.
Calvinball: Soccer matches on the Island of Naboombu. "Don't they have no rules?" "'Course they do. King makes him up as he goes along."
Can't Take Anything With You: Miss Price goes to the Isle of Naboombu and gets the Star of Astoroth, but once she and her group return home, she realises not only that she couldn't take objects from different worlds, but that she didn't memorize the spell inscribed on the star.
Turns out there's an image of the Star, complete with inscription, in Paul's picture book.
Carnivore Confusion: The Isle of Naboombu. All the animals are anthropomorphic, but apparently the fish in the lagoon aren't seen as equals to the surface creatures, since the heroes' bed is hauled up to the shore when a bear fisherman's hook catches on to its frame.
Chekhov's Skill: The spell that turns people into rabbits, which Miss Price uses to save her and her companions from the enraged lion ruler of Naboombu. From there, Mr. Browne uses it to sneak into the castle the Nazis lock Miss Price and the kids in.
Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Mr. Browne can't use spells himself because, as far as he's concerned, "They're just nonsense words from an old book." At least until near the end of the film when he manages to transform himself into a rabbit.
Conveniently Interrupted Document: Miss Price sees Mr. Brown about a spell book. She gets it and reads about the Substitutiary Locomotion spell, but the part where it talks about the incantation used to activate the spell is on a page that got torn out of the book. The group had to go to Portobello Road to look for it.
Correspondence Course: The entire plot is based on Eglantine taking one (in witchcraft!) and needing to finish the final lesson.
Covers Always Lie: On the 30th anniversary DVD cover◊, the taking animals were rendered much bigger than the leads, which could make some believe most if not all of the movie contains animation as opposed to live-action.
Crowd Song: "Portobello Road," to a rather ridiculous extent.
Cute Witch: Miss Price. A bit older than standard, but no less cute.
Cut Song: The film originally ran 139 minutes, but was cut by 22 for its initial theatrical release. Three songs - "A Step in the Right Direction", "With a Flair", and "Nobody's Problems" - were dropped in the process, and others were shortened (in particular, "Portobello Road"). The 1996 restoration used for the laserdisc and DVD releases restored most of the cut material, with the exception of the first song, as that scene had been lost.
The "story and songs" record had "With a Flair" and a full version of "Portobello Road".
Dancing Pants: A whole wardrobe's worth of clothes dance in the "Substitutiary Locomotion" number.
Deadpan Snarker: Miss Price often fills this role, especially with regards to Professor Browne's zaniness. The kids get some snark in at Miss Price's expense at the beginning.
Home Guard: The British Home Guard appears several times in the movie, including firing at the retreating Nazi commandos. They even have their own song, "The Soldiers of the Old Home Guard".
It Was With You All Along: The description of the spell turns out to be in an illustration in the picture book Paul finds at Mr. Browne's place and carries with him from that point on. The words couldn't be read there, though.
Limited Wardrobe: The children wear the same clothes for most of the movie, but most of it takes place on the same day and they finally get different clothes in the last scene, which takes place the next day. Still, they seem to have worn their regular outfits for about three days straight, ending with the day most of the movie takes place on.
Given that they were looked-after children in 1939, it's plausible that they actually have only one full set of clothes each.
Literal Ass Kicking: A major part of the comedic tone in the climatic battle. A German soldier removes the upper part of an armor and gets his ass kicked by the lower part. Another soldier gets his ass kicked repeatedly while dangling on a halberd. Another animated armor swings its sword on some fleeing German's butts.
Mobile Kiosk: Everything in Portobello Road that isn't nailed down. As well as Professor Browne's nifty suitcase act.
Muggles: Professor Browne at first, but he believes once he sees (or rather, once he gets turned into a rabbit). And, amusingly, the Nazis, who don't believe.
No Ontological Inertia: After Nazis plant a bomb by Miss Price's workshop, blowing up all the agents that gave her powers, all of the suits of animated armour wind down and collapse on the spot.
Ominous Latin Chanting: Well, it becomes ominous after Eglantine and company quit singing it: Treguna. Macoides. Trecorum. Satis. Dee.
Especially when the animated suits of armour start chanting it. If the Nazis weren't absolutely petrified before, they were after hearing that echo through the air.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The Nazi officer speaks fluent German with a strong accent even when speaking English. When he orders his men to fire on the enchanted armour a second time however, his accent sounds very much like how a northerner English man would shout it.
Padding / Shoot the Money: The original cut of "Portobello Road" is a serious endurance test, regardless of how talented the performers are.
Plot Coupon: The heroes first seek the remaining pages of the spellbook; when they find it, they learn it doesn't actually have the words to the Substitutiary Locomotion spell. It does say that the Star of Astoroth has them, so now the quest is to find that and get the spell.
Reality Subtext: Supposedly, "The Age of Not Believing" is "really" about the Disney Company's struggle to continue after the death of Walt Disney.
Road Sign Reversal: Something similar in intention is done by a British villager in the beginning of the film. He's painting out the signposts in order to confuse any possible invading Nazis.
Say My Name: The song "Eglantine", as sung to her by Mr. Browne, much to her displeasure.
Shaggy Dog Story: The entire Isle of Naboombu subplot is rendered completely pointless once it's discovered that there's a picture of the Star of Astoroth in the book Paul found with the spell inscribed on it, clearly legible.
But then, Charlie had kept telling his little brother to shut up about his stupid book.
Talking Animal: The Isle of Naboombu is inhabited by these.
Tap on the Head: Two German commandos are knocked unconscious by the animated suits of armor.
Also: "WHY! DIDN'T! YOU! SAY! SO?!?!??!!!!"
Those Wacky Nazis: Variation - the heroine is the Secret Project Leader looking to turn the tide in the war in favour of the British, and the Nazis are flummoxed by her abilities because they don't believe in magic.
The Nazi leader. "Es gibt keine Hexe! (There's no such thing as witches!)" Okay, then how do you explain the floating armour army and the flying lady on a broomstick?
Well, perhaps he thought the army was just another decoy trick (British Intelligence had dozens of such operations set up throughout the war. I hope we all have seen the footage of a soldier tipping over a tank with one hand). And Ms Price on the broom? Perhaps he thought it was an ultra-light spyplane for the British (?).
Charlie at the beginning of the movie. Despite his siblings telling him that maybe trying to blackmail a witch is a bad idea, he persists until Miss Price turns him into a toad rabbit. Then, when he transforms back after almost getting attacked by her cat, he tries extortion again.
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