I was just shopping for Bedknobs and Broomsticks only to discover that the only cut on DVD is a recently extended one with variable quality footage, and noticeable new overdubs.
Is anyone considering recutting this film back to the original theatrical version, I can't find my old VHS to use as a guide. I have to rely on someone else to do this. Any takers?
Here is what UltimateDisney.com had to say about the new cut:
I'm not sure that the restorations do the movie any favor. Oh, it is surely a treat to see songs and footage shot and edited for the film (how many other pre-DVD age Disney flicks have given us any?). But besides introducing picture and sound inconsistencies, the reinserted sequences also appear to wreak havoc on the movie's pacing. "Portobello Road", the fun musical number set in London's incomparable antiques marketplace area, is probably the film's best song. Here, its joys are tempered by minutes and minutes of cultural dances that move the film nowhere and feel quite out of place. The climax, in which Eglantine enchants museum war gear, runs far too long as well. With the couple of tunes that are undeleted, the total song count becomes nine, a lot for viewers with no specific liking for the genre.
The reason that the places in which Bedknobs drags gain notice is because the film is quite sharp and satisfying in most other spots. The visit to Naboombu, which finds Professor Browne officiating an anything-goes soccer match for a lion king, delights. The experiments with witchcraft divert, as do many of the interactions born out of the makeshift family and out of Eglantine and Emelius' eccentric, underplayed romance. The highlights may be easy to appreciate and identify spread out, but the film as a whole would play much better without slow, saggy bits. At the very least, the studio ought to give viewers the choice to experience Bedknobs and Broomsticks as it was in its original theatrical run and the next 25 years. Disney has not. And though it seems illogical to want less than what's given, I feel like Bedknobs would benefit from having scissors taken to it in the right (i.e. wrong) places.