Film / Bedknobs and Broomsticks

"Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee!"

"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!"

Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a Disney film from 1971, based on a pair of novels by Mary Norton. The film is often regarded as a Spiritual Successor to Mary Poppins — a live action fantasy musical with a substantial segment incorporating animation, with the same production company, same director, same scriptwriters, same songwriters, one actor in common, etc.

It's August 1940 in the British coastal village of Pepperinge Eye, and among the children evacuated here from the ongoing Battle of Britain are three orphaned siblings: Charlie, Carrie, and Paul. They're reluctantly taken in by Miss Eglantine Price (Angela Lansbury), a spinster who's secretly taking mail-order witchcraft lessons in hopes of being able to aid the war effort with magic. Miss Price doesn't want the kids and the kids don't want Miss Price, so they try to get rid of each other as quickly as possible. But when the children see her flying on a broom at night, they strike a bargain: in exchange for keeping her secret, the children get to live their lives at Miss Price's home any way they like. To seal the deal, Miss Price gives little Paul a transportation spell which enchants the big bed into a magical travelling bed.

When the witchcraft school abruptly closes, leaving Miss Price without the all-important Substitutiary Locomotion spell she needs, she and the children travel to London via bed. They discover the "professor", Emelius Browne (David Tomlinson), is a fraud who was just selling her the pages of an incomplete spellbook, which he didn't even know was working. So begins a greater journey, from the market at Portobello Road to the Isle of Naboombu (land of animated Funny 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 Those Wacky Nazis.

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Tropeguna Mekoides Tropecorum Satis Dee...

Tropes A-B

• Accidentally Broke the MacGuffin: The characters have retrieved the Star of Astoroth, imprinted with the words for the Substituary Locomotion. But as they arrive home, they find the star has disintegrated during the journey. And it turned out to be unnecessary, as one of the kid's storybooks had an illustration of the star, and more importantly, the words to the spell.
• All for Nothing: The Isle of Naboombu. The star of Astoroth ends up vanishing when being brought to the normal world... ... though the gang still get the formula, from the picture book Paul kept all this time, which happens to be about the Isle of Naboombu and has the star reproduced in it.
• The Alliance: The Imperial and Commonwealth Forces are depicted as this. In the Portobello Road sequence, British, Scottish, Irish, Indian, Carribean and Australian uniformed personnel all end up dancing together and making music.
• Alliterative Title
• All Witches Have Cats: Miss Price, a witch in training, has a cat named Cosmic Creepus. She's also a spinster according to the old archetype.
• Alternate Tooniverse: The universe of the Isle of Naboombu is an animated World of Funny Animals, and the live-action protagonists are transported to it by the magical bedknob.
• Ambiguous Syntax: One of the children asks if "Poisoned Dragon's Liver" means that you poisoned the dragon, or just the liver. (Miss Price doesn't actually know, as the jar was sent to her.)
• And the Adventure Continues: Right before the end credits roll, Paul pulls out the bedknob, and suggests to Charlie and Carrie that they continue their travels.
• Animal Reaction Shot: During the "Substitutiary Locomotion" number, Cosmic Creepus gets several cutaway shots. At one point, he seems to do the cat version of headdesking.
  • The first flight practice scene also has a number of these.
• Animal Stereotypes: The Island of Namboobu is full of these, but the soccer game consists of almost nothing but—the laughing hyena, the temperamental (and arrogant) lion whose roar literally blows everyone away, the ostrich with its head in the sand, the elephant afraid of a mouse, the menacing crocodile who constantly snaps his jaws, the cheetah so fast he sets the ground on fire (and who eventually gets his spots blown off), etc. Justified in that the animals are magically anthropomorphized, and were likely given these "personalities" by their enchanter.
• Animated Armor: Miss Price animates a whole army of English knights, Vikings, Cavaliers, Roundheads and Redcoats at the climax. A scene from the film currently provides the page image.
• Anthropomorphic Transformation: It's mentioned that the Star of Astoroth is what turned the animals on the Island of Naboombu into intelligent animated Funny Animals, implying that they were regular live-action animals beforehand.
• Anti-Air: During the Final Battle, a German machine gun crew tries to shoot Eglantine down with their MG-34 while she's leading the animated armors from the air on her broom. The Executioner armor then cuts the machine gun's barrel off and they run for dear life.
• Army of The Ages: The army that Miss Price assembles to ward off the Nazi invasion, although they are really living suits of armour, not actual people.
• Art Imitates Art: The art style of the opening credits imitates the style of The Bayeux Tapestry.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: While the German soldiers mostly speak actual German, the colonel utters some German-sounding gibberish during the battle against the animated armors.
• A-Team Firing: Averted. The problem isn't that the Nazis miss their targets; it's that their targets are magically reanimated suits of armor that are completely immune to bullets.
• Badass Adorable: Mr. Browne manages to avoid Nazis and infiltrate a heavily fortified castle to rescue Miss Price and the children. And he does all of this after turning himself into a fluffy white bunny.
• Barefoot Cartoon Animal: The Naboombu soccer players.
• Bazaar of the Bizarre: Portobello Road.
• Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...: When Eglantine is rummaging through the extremely disorganized Portobello Road bookseller's stall, and instead finds a bunch of increasingly useless and irrelevant books which - amusingly - the seller and Emelius both list as though they're the most worthwhile things ever, to Eglantine's increasing irritation. This includes "A History of Potting" and "A Yearbook in Yachting."
• Blitz Evacuees: This aspect of the plot has something of a Reality Subtext to it. Angela Lansbury was herself a Blitz evacuee during the war.
• Bowdlerization: The German dub removed much of the Nazi plot and things that relate to World War II, effectively cutting out a whopping 29 minutes of the movie. The Masterpiece Collection release fixes this.
• Brownface: The Indian dancers during the "Portobello Road" sequence are white actors in dark makeup that isn't even done particularly well.
• Bullying a Dragon: Charlie tries to blackmail Miss Price by threatening to tell the town that she's a witch. Her response is to turn him into a rabbit (although she meant to turn him into a toad).

Tropes C-D

• Calvinball: Soccer matches on the Island of Naboombu. "Don't they have no rules?" "'Course they do. King makes 'em up as he goes along." All that's really known about the rules is that there must be a referee, but said person doesn't have the authority to do anything other than end the game once somebody scores (As both sides ignored Mr Browne whenever he tried to call a penalty).
• Canis Latinicus: Most of the spells sound Latin, but are really just made up to sound Latin. The only real Latin used is a Word Salad to turn people into white rabbits "Filigree^note ornamental work of fine wire made of gold or silver Apogee^note the point in the orbit of the moon or a satellite at which it is furthest from the earth Pedigree ^note a register recording a line of ancestors Perigee^note the point in the orbit of the moon or satellite where it is closest to the earth."
• 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.
• Can't You Read the Sign?: Can't you read readin'? No Peopling Allowed!
• Carry a Big Stick: One of the suits of armor is carrying a spiked mace, with which he dents the helmet (and probably skull) of the Nazi wearing it.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Mr. Browne repeatedly tries to dismiss Swinburne and getting pretty annoyed, thinking him to be an unscrupulous peddler of stolen goods, but as soon as he pulls a switchblade, Mr. Browne almost jovially responds: "Aah, now you've got my attention!"
• The Cavalry: The finale.
  • Literally. With some British Proud Warrior Race porn. They drive off the Germans, however, a bomb blows up and knocks Price off her broom. Before the Germans realize that the armour is inert, the home guard come and force them to retreat.
• 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.
• Children Raise You: The adventures Price must undertake through her bargain with Paul lead her to Mr. Browne, and they are a family by the end of the movie.
• Circling Vultures: During the animals' soccer game, vultures serve as medics, waiting on the sidelines for the referee (Mr. Browne) to be trampled by the players. A Running Gag is made of them rushing into the field to "treat" Mr. Browne, only to be waved away after he turns out to be alive.
• 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. That's not the whole story however; when the house with all its various magical knickknacks is bombed, all of the spells run down like their batteries died. The bedknob still sparkles at the end of the film, likely still powered by Paul's own belief.
• Coat Full of Contraband: "Hey, it's (Sir) Bruce Forsyth, (CBE)!"
• Contrived Coincidence: The house Professor Browne chose to live in just happened to have a book about the Island of Naboombu in its nursery, the very place his torn book from the marketplace told them they needed to go.
  • That the tiny village the Waffen SS choose to invade not only has a museum that contains hundreds of suits of armor and centuries-old British military regalia, but the one person in the entire world who knows how to animate them.
• Convenient Decoy Cat: Cosmic Creepus acts as this for Professor Browne when he sneaks into Miss Price's cottage just before the climax—after first drawing the Nazis' attention by making angry growls and yowls at Emelius, he is found by the Nazis amongst the wreckage of the items Browne had knocked over and smashed. They dismiss the noise (until Browne makes more from the next room) and even show affection for the "naughty" cat.
• Conveniently Interrupted Document: Miss Price sees Mr. Browne 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.
• Cool Old Guy: General Sir Brian Teagler and his Old Home Guard all qualify. Old as they are, they have sworn to defend their nation to the very last, and are ready to take on the Nazis no matter the cost.
• Correspondence Course: The entire plot is based on Eglantine taking one (in witchcraft!) and needing to finish the final lesson.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: The purpose of the journey to Naboombu was to find the royal star with the magic words on it, so Eglentine could perform the substitutiary locomotion spell. They fail to retrieve the star but then Paul points out that one of his books already had a picture of the star, with the magic words clearly visible on it, from the very beginning.
• Covers Always Lie: On the 30th anniversary DVD cover◊, the talking 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.
• Crescent Moon Island: The main characters visit the Isle of Naboombu, which is inhabited by Uplifted Animals, to find the Star of Astoroth. As they approach it, it looks like a crescent, with a large lagoon; they first crash into the lagoon and encounter anthropomorphic sea life before going up to the surface.
• Crowd Song: "Portobello Road," to a rather ridiculous extent.
• Cute Witch: Miss Price. A bit older than standard, but no less cute.
• 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.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: Non-romantic example: Price initially doesn't really like kids and the fact that she has to take care of them, even saying they won't get dinner if they don't wash up. After the kids learn about her being a witch and they all have to work together, she warms up to them, and when they get an opportunity to go to a different home, they decide they'd rather stay with her after all.
• Detachment Combat: One armor suit defends itself from a bayonet this way, having its upper half, helmet, and arm pop off and leave a gap when a Nazi soldier tries to jab it in the belly, face and shoulder.

Tropes E-H

• Embarrassing Pyjamas: Ms. Price is very upset when Mr. Browne is dancing with her nightgown and again when it attacks and lands on top of the local Anglican priest. This is still a time, after all, when only closest family and friends would even see a woman's nightclothes, even if (as in this case) it's full length and completely opaque.
• Elephants Are Scared of Mice: During the animal soccer game on the Island of Naboombu, an alligator uses a mouse to scare the opposing team's elephant goalkeeper.
• Enhanced on DVD: Home video releases from 2014 onward have strings removed from flying and Substitutionary Locomotion scenes.
• Everything's Louder with Bagpipes: The army of Animated Armor which Miss Price summons during the climax happens to have a bagpipe-player with it (because the castle where they were imprisoned happened to include a museum which held military garb from various periods of English history).^note Not only could said museum have included garb from English enemies, such as the Scots prior to the countries' unification, but after said unification, the Scottish divisions within the British army did indeed have bagpipe players among their ranks. When they start playing all of the other armor stops in place and looks around at each other in a confused "are those guys with you?" manner.
• Expy: Astoroth and his star seem to be inspired by the medieval alchemist and magus John Dee, with some cross-pollination with Faust. His attempts to make animals sentient, on the other hand (as well as his ultimate fate) are rather reminiscent of Dr. Moreau, only with magic instead of science and (presumably) out of benevolence rather than For Science!.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: One night, Charlie sees Miss Price riding a broomstick. The next morning, she changes him into a rabbit. Minutes later in the film, Charlie refuses to believe that the traveling spell will work. After the traveling spell proves successful, Charlie claims he still isn't convinced because Emelius Browne has not appeared yet. His skepticism is given something of a Hand Wave when Miss Price explains 'The Age of Not Believing,' but by the time Charlie claims that 'fish don't talk,' it's almost facepalm-worthy.
• Flying Broomstick: Right there in the title; really.
• Football Hooligans: Subverted, in that it's not the team supporters who engage in hooliganism but the players themselves during the match; the football is rarely propelled by actual feet, with one participant even dribbling it with his tail. The players also cheat, beat each other up, trample the referee numerous times and his foul calls go ignored.
• Forced Transformation: Miss Price's spells tend to turn people into rabbits instead of toads — and in Mr. Browne's case, leaves a twitching of the nose after it wears off.
• Fourth-Date Marriage: Without even any dates, the children seem to be expecting a marriage between Prof. Browne and Miss Price after having met no more than two days prior. And for them to be adopted as well.
• Gale-Force Sound:
  • At the end of the soccer game after King Leonidas sees the ball blowing into the air, he roars "STOP... THAT... BALL!!!" so loudly that he literally blows everyone away.
  • Then after the game after Miss Price, Browne, and the children take the star and place the whistle around Leonidas' neck, and the Secretary Bird tries to tell him so:
  Leonidas: (to the Secretary Bird, laughing) Don't be ridiculous. What do you think this is? (shows the whistle without noticing)
  Secretary Bird: (blows the whistle, making Leonidas realize he's been had)
  Leonidas: (roars) WHY! DIDN'T! YOU! SAY SO?!?!?!?! (blows the Secretary Bird away)
• Girlish Pigtails: Carrie has these.
• Gone Horribly Right: Miss Price's first attempt to use the Substitutionary Locomotion spell worked, but she had only intended to use it on a pair of shoes. She ended up enchanting an entire assortment of clothing throughout the house.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: One of the animated suits of armor removes its lower leg to dump out the German bullets, then hops over and bonks the soldier who'd fired them on the head with the leg.
• Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Miss Price, Professor Emelius Browne, and the 3 children accidentally end up underwater in the ocean by the isle of Naboombu. There they see half-dressed fish underwater; when their bed gets pulled up by a fishing hook, they meet a sailor bear who wears a shirt but no pants or shoes on. They then go visit the Lion King Leonidas who has a soccer match; most of the animals at the game wear both a shirt and shorts, but only one doesn't wear shorts such as the alligator. Also the cheetah's shorts fall down before he pulls them right back up. Some of the animals sitting in the bleachers only wear a shirt but no pants.
• Have a Gay Old Time:
  • The characters going on and on about Paul's knob is bound to inspire a few giggles nowadays.
    Paul: What's that got to do with my knob?
  • At one point Charlie objects to Paul getting involved in magical "hanky-panky."
• Heartwarming Orphan: Charlie, Carrie, and Paul.
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: With a pair of gloves during the aforementioned dance sequence.
• High Turnover Rate: On Naboombu, they have trouble finding soccer referees, "for some reason." The reason becomes evident very quickly.
• Historical In-Joke: The whole plot of "a magic-user during World War II decided to do her patriotic duty and keep the Nazis from invading England" has more than a little in common with the claim made by Gerald Gardner, founder of modern Wicca, that he had witnessed a coven in the town of Highcliffe-on-Sea perform a ritual to project a cone of power into Hitler's brain and convince him not to invade.
• Historical Villain Downgrade: The Nazis are, of course, bad guys. However, due to the nature of the movie, they aren't shown doing much real warfare or any of the other things they were infamous for. Even though, during the climax, a platoon of them is conducting a small-scale invasion/operation of sabotage on British soil, they almost never directly use their weapons on a human. The climactic battle is fought against possessed armor and furniture.
• 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".
• House Squatting: Emelius Browne lives in a house abandoned because of an undetonated bomb in the front yard. Browne made himself at home and discovered books on magic in the library, which he used for his correspondence course.
• Hypocritical Humor: Miss Price, on the name of her cat (although it seems to also be a snide remark regarding the person who did come up with the name):
  Miss Price: I don't believe in giving animals ridiculous names. I call him Cosmic Creepus because that's the name he came with.

Tropes I-L

• Immune to Bullets: More "nobody to be affected by them". Since there's no actual living body in the armor animated by Substitutiary Locomotion, being raked by machine guns is but a minor inconvenience, though the bullets do in fact penetrate the armor. Suits of armor which include greaves and boots do seem to be inconvenienced by the weight of collected rounds, to the point where they halt their advance to disconnect a boot and dump out the bullet fragments. This is a move that drives home the fact that there's no legs in the boots and no hands in the gloves, but there it is. Even hand grenades can't keep one down for long (though when the pieces jump back together, they're fairly mismatched, like a boot where the helmet should be - it's not any less effective, however).
• Incongruously-Dressed Zombie: Not actually dressed, but the animated suits of battle-garb include some Scottish bagpipers' costume and a 17th-century duelist's outfit complete with long flowing wig. Justified as the suits come from a museum that has several pieces from various time periods.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After arriving back at Eglantine's house from refereeing a very violent soccer match, the island of Namboombu on a magical bed and finding out the Star with the spell on it has disintegrated, Professor Browne offers to take the children up to town to buy dinner, including that he wishes to stop by the pub for a stiff pint to settle his nerves.
• Ironic Echo: The exchange between Heller and one of his men, when Miss Price turns up on a broom during the final battle.
  German Sergeant: It's a witch, sir!
  Heller: Don't be a fool, there's no such thing as a witch!
  [later]
  Heller: There is the witch.
  German Sergeant: You said there was no such thing as a witch, sir?
• Informed Ability: Part of what gets Mr. Browne involved refereeing the soccer match is that he claims to have captained Tottenham Hotspur and played for Manchester United. This could easily have been just made up by him as part of the plan to get at the Star, though.
• Island of Mystery: The Isle of Naboombu.
• It Was with You All Along: The words of the spell turn 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.
• Jerk Jock: King Leonidas claims to be the best soccer player in the world, and is very arrogant and foul-tempered.
• Keystone Army: Miss Price's army of armour.
• King of Beasts: King Leonidas.
• Knife Outline: Archer suits of armour animated by Subtitutionary Locomotion pull this off with their arrows.
• Knight in Shining Armor: If a whole army of empty medieval armour kicking the ass of Those Wacky Nazis counts.
• Large Ham: Emelius Browne; his Cut Song, "With a Flair," even notes—"It doesn't matter what I do so long as I do it WITH A FLAIR!"
  • Also, the lion king of Naboombu.
• Last-Name Basis: Miss Price insists on being addressed only as such.
• Letting the Air out of the Band: When Miss Price starts to recite the rabbit spell on a Nazi, only to forget how it ends. Also, the bagpipe-player when the Substitutiary Locomotion spell is broken near the end.
• Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: The human actors stick out quite a bit on the all-Funny Animal Isle of Naboombu.
• 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.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: A major part of the comedic tone in the climatic battle. A German soldier removes the upper part of a suit of armour and gets his ass kicked by the lower part. Another soldier gets his ass kicked repeatedly while dangling on a halberd. Another animated suit of armour swings its sword on some fleeing Germans' butts.
  • The heroes get this treatment from the misbehaving animated clothes during the Substitutiary Locomotion dance; Miss Price from Mr. Browne's shoe, and Charlie from his own pants.
• Location Song: "Portobello Road", about the London street where flea markets sell all kinds of interesting things, though a lot of it is just junk too.

Tropes M-P

• Magical Foreign Words: Inverted. The incantation of the transformation spell, "Filigree Apogee Pedigree Perigee", is a series of fancy-sounding English words.
• Magical Incantation: This is how Miss Price casts spells, though Mr. Browne's difficulty in performing the comparatively simple "Rabbit" spell indicates there's at least some element of belief or will involved. Even she doesn't get it totally right, since according to the book it's a toad spell. Also see the rightfully famous "Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee."
• Magical Land: The Isle of Naboombu.
• Massive Multiplayer Ensemble Number: Portobello Road. The singers and dancers there are easily a hundred or more.
• Medium Blending: The Isle of Naboombu is almost entirely animated, aside from the humans and the bed.
• Mobile Kiosk: Everything in Portobello Road that isn't nailed down. As well as Professor Browne's nifty suitcase act.
• More Dakka: The German soldiers use machine guns on the advancing armor. For all the good it does them.
• 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.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Mundane is subjective since it takes place during a truly awesome call to arms, but the visors on the suits of armour snapping down one at a time at the build-up to the Substitutiary Locomotion battle is a very nice touch.
• Mustache Vandalism: Paul does this to a clay bust, then accessorizes it with a bowler hat.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Lennie Weinrib based the voice of King Leonidas on that of Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver from Walt Disney's live-action Treasure Island (1950).
• No Indoor Voice: King Leonidas shouts all the time and the force of his voice can literally blow people over.
• No Ontological Inertia
  • After Nazis plant a bomb by Miss Price's workshop, blowing up her workshop and knocking her out of the sky, the spell she cast that animated all of the suits of armour fails. The armour suits all wind down and collapse on the spot.
  • The Star of Astoroth has spent so much time on the (animated) Isle of Naboombu that it has become part of the magic and logic of the island, and it shimmers out of existence when they take it back to England.
• No-Sell: Yes, modern soldiers with machine guns could probably mow down plate-armored soldiers all day. When there's nothing inside the armor, on the other hand...
• Not Now, Kiddo: Basically how his older siblings, and sometimes the adults, treat Paul. Basically, if they had listened to or believed him, much of what the heroes went through needn't have been done.
• Not-So-Innocent Whistle: Charlie does this after jumping on a couch in Portobello Road, breaking it.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Col. Heller is visibly stunned to see animated suits of armor by the hundreds appearing on the horizon.
  • Even moreso when the Executioner armor comes at him with its big axe, prompting him to run for dear life.
• Old Soldier: The home guard is entirely made up of elderly and middle-aged volunteers who likely fought in the first world war like their commander, but are now too old to serve in conventional forces.
  For we wrote the story of the old brigades
  We know the glory of yesterday's parades
• Ominous Latin Chanting: Well, it becomes ominous after Eglantine and company quit singing it: Treguna, Mekoides, and 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.
• Ostrich Head Hiding: During the soccer match the ostrich buries its head underneath the sand, but is kicked against his behind soon afterwards, causing him to tumble forwards and fall on its behind.
• 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.
• Power Echoes: Whenever a spell is cast successfully (which is not always) the words will echo noticeably to indicate the magic is working.
• Power Profit Potential: When Professor Brown discovers that the magic spells he's been selling are real, and that protagonist Eglantine Price can actually perform them, his immediate reaction (once he gets over his initial shock) is to invoke this by suggesting that they go into business together as a magic act, combining his showmanship and silver tongue with Eglantine's abilities to rake in a fortune. Defied by Eglantine herself, who has absolutely no interest in using her powers for personal gain, only agrees to consider the idea just to secure Brown's cooperation, and never brings it up again.

Tropes Q-S

• Reality Has No Subtitles: The members of the German Army commando group speak German to each other during the raid. Sometimes their speech is subtitled in English, and sometimes it isn't.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The film had to have twenty-two minutes cut from it due to the premiere in New York's Radio Music Hall. As the Christmas show ran so long, whatever film came after it had to be under two hours.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mr. Browne gives himself one as he's trying to sleep at the train station, berating himself for walking out on Ms. Price and the children because he's afraid of commitment.
• Removable Animal Markings: During the soccer game King Leonidas roars so loud it blows the spots off a cheetah.
• 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, but the only people he confuses are two Home Guard Officers.
• Rock Beats Laser: Sword Beats Machine Gun when the side wielding the swords is Immune to Bullets.
• Roger Rabbit Effect: Whenever the humans interact directly with the animated animals on the Isle of Naboombu.
• Rule of Symbolism: When the Substitutiary Locomotion spell is broken by Miss Price being hit by the bomb, the armor doesn't instantly drop to the ground—instead it slowly sinks down, allowing the 'soldiers' to stumble, fall, and collapse in a very eerie and sad representation of the army dying on the spot.
• Say My Name: The song "Eglantine", as sung to her by Mr. Browne, much to her displeasure.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: It is explicitly stated that King Leonidas makes up the rules as the soccer game progresses, and Mr. Browne, the referee for the match, has no power to call a foul. See also: Calvinball.
• Screw the War, We're Partying: During the Portobello Road Song, both the London natives and the soldiers from all over the Empire stationed there put aside the fact that they're in the middle of the Battle Of Britain for a couple of minutes of ecstatic dance and merriment (in full uniform, with helmets still dangling on their kit belts). The party is ultimately broken up by the announcement of closing time (and likely the subsequent blackout and curfew).
• "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. Paul actually figured this out almost immediately, but nobody would listen to him.
  • The Portobello Road sequence would be this if not for the one shot of Swinburne turning to look at Miss Price when she mentions the name of the book she wants and then sneaking off. Naturally, the extended cut of the movie takes this sequence with virtually no impact on the plot and makes it longer because that's clearly what it needed.
• Shipper on Deck: Mrs. Hobday.
• Shooting Superman: The Nazis take a while to get it through their heads that shooting Animated Armor is not very effective. Also a case of Stabbing Superman, for the one who tried to stick an animated suit with his bayonet four times before it got tired of dodging via Detachment Combat and bonked him on the head.
• Silent Snarker: The cat Cosmic Creepus.
• Sinister Switchblade: A switchblade serves as Swinburne's weapon.
• Stock Footage: The football game on Naboombu reuses a lot of animation clips for the spectators, the elephant goalkeeper and the players running back and forth as the ball flies over their heads.
• Stock Scream: Only two show up during the football game on Naboombu. The first from the Hyena making the classic Goofy Holler after being kicked a certain distance by the kangaroo, the second from the Hippo after being jabbed by the Rhino's horn, making a very distinct "Ouch!" as heard on the Jungle Cruise.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Played with; the villager painting out the signposts says that "I'm not a Nazi!" is "exactly what you'd say if you WAS a Nazi, isn't it sir"...but the guy really isn't a Nazi. He's the Home Guard officer referred to in Road-Sign Reversal above.

Tropes T-Z

• Talker and Doer: Mr. Browne proposes this setup with Miss Price when he suggests that they use her magic to go into show business, with him as the talker and her as the doer, and sings a whole song about it. They never actually pursue it, but he describes it to a T.
  Emelius: Let us strike a bargain.
  You possess a gift,
  But I can speak the jargon
  That will give your gift the needed lift.
• Talking Animal: The Isle of Naboombu is inhabited by these.
• Talk Like a Pirate: The king of Naboombu, for some reason.
• Tap on the Head: Two German commandos are knocked unconscious by the animated suits of armour.
• Technician/Performer Team-Up: The song "Eglantine" centers around Emilius Brown proposing such a partnership with Eglantine Price. Eglantine, with her genuine magical powers, would be the technician; and Emilius, with his showmanship and and silver tongue, would be the performer. Eglantine, who needs the rest of Emilius' spells, agrees to discuss the proposal if he helps her obtain them. Ultimately subverted, as while they do team up for the rest of the film, it's not in a way that really showcases the dynamic as Emilius had envisioned.
  Let us strike a bargain
  You possess a gift
  But I can speak the jargon
  That will give your gift the needed lift
  You possess the know-how
  And I command the show-how
  Oh, how successful you could be with me
• That Russian Squat Dance: One of many dance segments during "Portobello Road" is this.
• 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 soldiers from Nazi Germany are flummoxed by her abilities because they don't believe in magic and get their butts kicked by her army of Animated Armors.
• Too Dumb to Live: The ostrich in the soccer match.
  • Colonel Heller. "Es gibt keine Hexen! (There's no such thing as witches!)" Okay, then how do you explain the floating armour army and the flying lady on a broomstick?
  • 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.
    • He did at least learn to be a little more clever about it the second time - rather than demanding she give them something fancy, he makes the deal that they receive a precious object (the travelling spell), and if they break their end of the deal, they have to give the object back. Miss Price even comments that it's an excellent idea.
  • Professor Browne, after having already been turned into a rabbit once before, continues to annoy Miss Price with his constant coaxing, after she warns him several times to stop. Let's just say, after she was done with him, he hopped back to helping her find the book.
  • Paul in the meeting with the Bookman; sure, he's just a small child, but when Namboombu comes up in the conversation Paul eagerly explains that it definitely exists, taking the word of a children's picture book to prove it. Ignoring how the Bookman is prepared to use deadly force to get what he wants, Paul then refuses to let him see the book after having just blabbed on about it, in that moment needlessly endangering himself and his friends. Lucky for them all that the traveling spell was able to take them to the real thing or the Bookman and his partner would most definitely have used more violent means to get the answers they sought.
  • The kids' first attempt to run back to London; keep in mind, this story takes place during the German Blitz, where the constant bombings in the city forced the government to relocate most of its children to the countryside. As difficult as being forced to relocate may be, the kids are much too eager to return to the city as it was being torn apart by the ongoing war. Thankfully, they abandon this plan when they get to know Miss Price.
• Took a Level in Badass: Emelius Browne, who upon his first introduction is little more than a smarmy con artist, only to become a valuable friend and ally to Miss Price when their paths do cross. When the Nazis show up, he sucker punches two Nazi soldiers and knocks both out cold, and transforms himself into a rabbit to rescue Miss Price and the children from imprisonment. After all is said and done, he elects to join the Royal Army, having found a new sense of purpose.
• Two Halves Make a Plot: Professor Browne has one half of the book that mentions the Substitutiary Locomotion spell, which appears to cut off just as it is about to mention the magic words that activate it. A bookseller has the other half, and has been looking for Browne's half, thinking it has the spell. It turns out neither half has it and never did, with the wording which implied it did a complete accident. The assembled sentence says "...these words are [next page] written on the star pendant he wore....
• Unexpectedly Real Magic: Miss Price isn't an example of this trope, she is a spinster who enrolled for mail-order witchcraft lessons so she can use the mailed spells to aid Britain's war efforts during WWII. However she receives a letter informing her that the remaining classes were canceled, just before she gets the one spell she really needs. She (along with some children assigned to her care) travel to London via a enchanted teleporting bed to confront Mr. Browne, the administrator of the classes, so she can get that spell. However it turns out that Mr. Browne is a fraud, who is an example of this trope because he doesn't think magic actually exists and was just selling transcripts of the spells he found in an incomplete 'spellbook', hoping that gullible individuals will pay for 'fake' magic spells from a faraway 'headmaster' they've never met. The idea that the spells would actually work for anyone, such as Miss Price, never occurred to him to be an actual possibility. After being convinced of the existence of magic by a temporary bout of Forced Transformation, much of the plot afterwards is for the group to search for the other half of Browne's spellbook for clues for the one spell Miss Price seeks.
• Unnecessary Roughness: In the animals' soccer/football match.
• Vile Vulture: During the soccer match in the Isle of Naboombu, vultures serve as medics, eager to carry off Mr. Browne (as the referee) whenever he gets trampled, only to walk away dejected when Browne turns to be still very much alive.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Professor Browne pulls this off when he turns himself into a rabbit, so that he may bypass the Nazis to rescue Miss Price and the children.
• Wham Shot: At the end of the film, when it looks like all Miss Price's spells have gone away thanks to the Nazis blowing up her workshop, Paul reveals to his sibling that he still has his bedknob, which is shown sparkling, revealing that it's still enchanted.
• World of Funny Animals: The Island of Naboombu is inhabited entirely by anthropomorphic animals.
• Would Hurt a Child: Swinburne and the Bookman threaten Paul with knives at one point.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Mr. Browne gives one to himself, when trying to turn himself into a rabbit to save Miss Price and the children.
  Mr. Browne: (to himself in the mirror, after initially failing the spell) Now come along my boy, just for once in your life, you've got to believe in something... That's it, good lad. (concentrates and succeeds at the spell, turning himself into a rabbit)

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