10 Huge Movie Moments That Didn't Matter At All
5. They Had The Spell All Along - Bedknobs & Broomsticks (1971)
In this beloved Disney family fantasy musical set during World War II, trainee witch Miss Eglantine Price is searching for a spell that can help the British war effort. She’s learned all of her magic from her correspondence course from Professor Emelius Browne’s College Of Witchcraft, but the final installment hasn’t arrived.
Aided by three orphaned evacuee children in her care, Miss Price heads to find Professor Browne, who doesn’t have the spell. In trying to find it, the five of them travel the length of London doing song and dance numbers, are kidnapped by a British light entertainment legend and finally travel to the otherworldly island of Naboombu to find the Star Of Astaroth, a medallion which has the magic words inscribed upon it.
In a mixture of live action and animation they take part in a rigged football match against talking animals, steal the Star and leg it back to England with their prize! They’ve won World War II!
Unfortunately, this moment of triumph is immediately invalidated when they find that the cartoon medallion can’t exist in this world. It vanishes, making their animated adventures a wild goose chase.
It’s then that they discover that in fact the whole last hour of the film was a wild goose chase, as the picture book one of the kids stole from Professor Browne’s house way back in the first act has a picture of the Star Of Astoroth in it that shows the magic words. They had the spell all along. Good grief.