# The great Bedknobs and Broomstick vs Mary Poppins debate **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 5, 2003, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143 "2003-03-05T02:09:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/41 "2003-03-06T14:31:26Z")
So **Fenris** purports to do a song-by-song comparison, and conveniently neglects to mention the masterpiece Step in Time. An accident? I think not. 😉 I originally would have said Julie Andrews wins cause she’s so damned hot! But a couple of years ago I was eating BBQ in a dive in Cincinnati (The Barn Rib Pit), and they had all these old pin-ups on the walls. My eyes kept being drawn to this one fantastic set of gams. Then I saw the name - Angela Lansbury! Hubba hubba! The movie Mary Poppins is certainly not simply sweet. Can’t really put my finger on it, but there certainly seems to be some dark inner dominatrix thing going on there. Finally, MP has several “laugh out loud” moments, to none in B&B save the final battle. MP is a much funnier movie. How’s that for an unassailable objective assessment? ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/42 "2003-03-06T17:47:20Z")
A question! When I was growing up my family had a bunch of Disney records and story books (the kind where the record fits inside the front cover of the book). Some of them had recordings of the movie songs, and some of them had the songs re-done especially for the records. I rather suspect B&B was the latter. Anyway, in the Beautiful Briny song, there’s a bit at the end where it goes “bobbing along… singing a song… (boom) on the bottom of the beautiful briiiiiiiny, shimmery shiiiiiiiiiny, beautiful briny sea…” and then the guy says something that I always heard as “hev a ba-na-na,” and then back into the beautiful briny part again. I do not know if it’s in the movie or not, but that “hev a ba-na-na” part has always bothered me. What is he saying here? (These records had a few songs that didn’t appear in the movies–“Playful Melody” from 101 Dalmations, for example–the music is played in the opening credits but you never hear the words. Great song!) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/43 "2003-03-06T17:55:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Yookeroo \* > \*\*“Soccer” is an English term. \*\* Yes, I know, derived from “As **soc** iation Football”. I guess I should drop my quibble about that, unless someone can tell me whether in WWII Britain it would have been an anachronistic for Doctor Emelius Brown to prefer this term. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/44 "2003-03-06T20:02:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by kaylasdad99 \* > **Yes, I know, derived from "As** soc\*\*iation Football". I guess I should drop my quibble about that, unless someone can tell me whether in WWII Britain it would have been an anachronistic for Doctor Emelius Brown to prefer this term. \*\* Is it even an anachronism now? One of the biggest soccer magazines to come out of England still uses “soccer” in the title ( **World Siccer** ). I know “football” is more common, but is soccer never used? back to the topic, **Mary Poppins** has Dick van Dyke, Julie Andrews, far better music and penguins. It’s a much better movie. ---
**Author:** ![MusicJunkie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@MusicJunkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MusicJunkie)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/45 "2003-03-06T21:25:16Z")
Portobello Road is not too long! It’s the best song in both MP and B&B. Too me it’s the best part of the movie. And the end of course. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/46 "2003-03-06T21:32:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Otto \* > \*\*Of course her Oscar for MP was her consolation prize for being passed over for the part of Eliza Doolittle in the film version of _My Fair Lady_. Andrews could have starred in a driver’s ed film that year and won the award. \*\* I’m having a wonderful time mentally writing and directing a driver’s ed film with Mary Poppins as the driver’s ed instructor, singing away merrily while a frightened 16-year-old grips the steering wheel. Eventually, of course, the car takes flight. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/47 "2003-03-06T21:33:20Z")
I know I’ve seen both - but I cannot remember a single thing about B&B… while I know every word to half the songs in MP, can fake my way through the other half, and have a fair bit of the dialogue down. It made an impression. And I love “Sister Suffragette,” “Chim-Cheree,” and “Step in Time.” OTOH, I cry through “Candle on the Water.” so perhaps I’m not the best judge of “good” and “bad.” ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/48 "2003-03-06T21:37:17Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > **But a couple of years ago I was eating BBQ in a dive in Cincinnati (The Barn Rib Pit), and they had all these old pin-ups on the walls. My eyes kept being drawn to this one fantastic set of gams. Then I saw the name - Angela Lansbury! Hubba hubba!** The critic James Agee wrote in the 1940s that Angela Lansbury looked like the milkmaid in an 18th century pornographic print. And she did! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/49 "2003-03-06T21:44:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NDP \* > **In contrast, when B&B came out in 1971. . . Disney was in period of creative limbo; and Uncle Walt was taking an ice nap.** [Urban legend](http://www.snopes.com/disney/waltdisn/frozen.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/50 "2003-03-06T23:17:07Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dinsdale \* > \*\*Finally, MP has several “laugh out loud” moments, to none in B&B save the final battle. MP is a much funnier movie. How’s that for an unassailable objective assessment? \*\* 😃 I disagree again: from the _opening moment_ when the bloody minded guy is painting out a sign and refuses to tell the British Military type the way to Pepperenge Eye, because he might be “a Nasi” “But I’m with Military Intelligence! You can see that man!” “Thass what you’d say if you wuz a Nasi, innit?” to Roddy McDowell’s utterly slimey character getting embarrassed, to Paul’s reaction to Miss Price’s “health food” dinner (boiled nettles and such) “It’s a reg’lar house o’ 'orrors, it is!” to Miss Price’s conversation with Paul, once he’s realized she’s a witch “O’course there’ll haveta be a few changes around here. Bit o’ sausage on the table, maybe some jam.” Miss Price: (just stares) Paul: “And there’ll be none o’ this wash, wash, wash all th’ time.” Miss Price (coldy): “Go on” Paul: “An’ I could do wit’ a bit o lolly” Miss Price (frostily): “Lolly?” Paul: “Cash. A couple o’ bob. Shillin’s” Miss Price: “I don’t _have_ money. Have you ever heard of a rich witch?” or Charles’s conversation with Paul after he’s been turned into a rabbit. Charles: I liked you better as a rabbit. Paul: Shut up, you. Charles: Well I never had a rabbit before. TONS o’ humor. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/51 "2003-03-06T23:28:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Helena \* > \*\*A question! When I was growing up my family had a bunch of Disney records and story books (the kind where the record fits inside the front cover of the book). Some of them had recordings of the movie songs, and some of them had the songs re-done especially for the records. I rather suspect B&B was the latter. Anyway, in the Beautiful Briny song, there’s a bit at the end where it goes “bobbing along… singing a song… (boom) on the bottom of the beautiful briiiiiiiny, shimmery shiiiiiiiiiny, beautiful briny sea…” and then the guy says something that I always heard as “hev a ba-na-na,” and then back into the beautiful briny part again. > > I do not know if it’s in the movie or not, but that “hev a ba-na-na” part has always bothered me. What is he saying here? > \*\* I’ve got the album in question (Dark blue cover, no Angela Langbury) and you’re right. I’m pretty sure it _is_ “Have a banana”. It sounded like a vaudville-ish thing to say, and since “Bobbing Along” is a sort of vaudville/soft shoe number, I just assumed that that’s what he was saying. The music for those “Story and Song” disks was often the original music that the composers wrote and the songs were recorded while the film was being made so they didn’t reflect many of the changes in the film (although that’s not the case in the B&B disk). That same album has a cool syncopated version of “Substitutiary Locomotion” The most shocking deviation from the disk to the film is that the song “Never Smile at a Crocodile” isn’t actually _in_ Peter Pan, IIRC but it’s on the “Story and Song” disk and everyone remembers it. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Helena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c68b51/32.png) [@Helena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helena)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/52 "2003-03-07T00:15:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > \*\*That same album has a cool syncopated version of “Substitutiary Locomotion” \*\* Oh yes, very cool! I made a mix tapes from all our records a while back, and my whole family would really get into that one, in parts. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lathe\_of\_Heaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Lathe\_of\_Heaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lathe_of_Heaven)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/53 "2003-03-07T01:42:34Z")
[sotto voce] I used to love Pete’s Dragon. I’d watch it over and over and over and then one day my mother had had it. It’s been ten or fifteen years, and I still cringe when I think about PD. It’s weird–it’s such a little thing (liking a kid’s movie as a kid, driving parents crazy) but I am still hideously embarrassed by it. I don’t know why; I certainly am not embarrassed about any of my other childhood interests, even the obsessive ones. I still like lighthouses, though, and today I am interested in many facets of maritime history. [/sotto voce] My best friend and I once surprised each other by getting a verse or two into “Beautiful Briny Sea” before our memories gave out. Neither of us had seen B&B in several years. I honestly don’t know which way to vote. I’m more familiar with MP, but I really do like the darker aspects of B&B. I remember as a kid being really impressed with the smoke coming out of Miss Price’s moped at the beginning of the movie–it was PURPLE! ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/54 "2003-03-07T02:02:37Z")
In the restored version it was a weird, sulphery yellow. (And there’s a comment that it smells sulpher too!) Fenris ---
**Author:** ![HeatMiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecd19e/32.png) [@HeatMiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeatMiser)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/55 "2003-03-07T02:40:31Z")
Many excellent points have been made here in support of _Bedknobs and Broomsticks_, but in my humble opinion the combined strengths of the film do not sufficiently compensate for the complete and utter lack of Dick Van Dyke. ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/56 "2003-03-07T05:05:50Z")
Kayla’s Dad, If you’re looking for a contemporaneous use of “soccer” by a Briton, hunt up _Constable Sam and the Ugly Tyke_ by Erik Knight, author of _Lassie_. Sam, who’s patrolling for Nazi spies when he runs into a couple, knows he’s being lied to when they describe the local football field as if it were a soccer field. It’s really a field for something called Northern Cross. The story indicates football was definitely the preferred term for soccer, but it was necessary even within Britain at the time to specify “soccer” on occasion to avoid confusion with other kinds of football. It’s also worth noting that the Secretary Bird is the first character to bring up soccer. Apparently this is the preferred term for the sport in Naboombu, and Brown would be right in using it to avoid confusion. If you must voice a complaint, I suggest this: Miss Price chants that rabbit spell about thirty or forty times, yet completely forgets it when the Nazis show up. Or that she realized she was wasting her time when she got the Poisoned Dragon’s Liver, which is sitting on her shelf at the start of the movie and raises the question of why she was so hot for the Substitiary Locomotion spell if she’d already realized witchcraft was a dry well. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/57 "2003-03-07T06:19:50Z")
Thank you, **donJaime** , you’re a veritable fountain of information. I herewith drop my quibble. Your other points are well taken, too. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/58 "2003-03-07T06:47:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fenris \* > > * * * > > And the books are f\*cking creepy. The Mary Poppins of the book is NOT the Mary Poppins of the movie. She’s a _lot_ less…sweet…in the book. > > Fenris \*\* So was Mary Poppins a witch … or what? ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/59 "2003-03-07T12:23:18Z")
**Astro** : She was like the daughter of the Sun or something. It was never explicitly stated, but she was Mondo-High Ranking. Just about every VIP that they met in the four books bowed or curtsied to her. > [@](#): > > _don Jamie wrote_\*\*If you must voice a complaint, I suggest this: Miss Price chants that rabbit spell about thirty or forty times, yet completely forgets it when the Nazis show up. Or that she realized she was wasting her time when she got the Poisoned Dragon’s Liver, which is sitting on her shelf at the start of the movie and raises the question of why she was so hot for the Substitiary Locomotion spell if she’d already realized witchcraft was a dry well. \*\* This was addressed: 1. She said she had a bad memory and _every_ time she recited the rabbit spell (“Fillagree, apogee, perigee, paragee!”) she had to fumble with her notebook and look it up. 2. She didn’t thing she was wasting her time, she realized that she’d never enjoy being a witch because “Anyone who felt the way I do about poisoned dragon’s liver has no business being a witch” (paraphrased). She was hot for the Substitutionary Locomotion spell because even though she realized that they didn’t want to be a witch, she wanted to do good for her country. By turning the Nazi raid back, she’d served her country and could retire, having at least helping a little. Fenris ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2003, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143/60 "2003-03-07T15:44:17Z")
As for as Angela Lansbury’s relative hotness, look at _Gaslight_, where she played the young maid. If she’d been my maid, that sideboard would have been cleared of dishes and covered with Lansbury before you could say “Good 'eavens!” Maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to watch Disney movies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-great-bedknobs-and-broomstick-vs-mary-poppins-debate/159143.md?page=4)