DVDizzy Forum

I just watched Bedknobs & Broomsticks, and listened to A Step in the Right Direction in the special features, I really heard a strong similarity to A Spoonful of Sugar from Mary Poppins

Did anyone else catch the similarities?

It almost sounded like the same song (different lyrics, of course, and the melody was a bit different here and there.)

Obviously, the Sherman brothers wrote both songs.

I need to hear it again, been a while since I watched that movie.

Yes the two songs are similar but there is some reason for this. One being that the songs from both "Mary Poppins" and "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" are written by the Sherman Brothers. Aside from that the two films also share other similarities including cast members David Tomlinson and Reginald Owen; both Peter Ellenshaw [art director] and Robert Stevenson [director] also worked on the two films. You are not alone in noticing a similarity among the two movies; these two films are constantly getting compared to one another, sadly though it's not always a fair comparison in the respect that "Bedknobs" often gets downplayed as being a lesser version of "Poppins" and even a rip-off though both are produced by Disney. In fact there was even a DVD set released on PAL in the U.K. containing both films. Also, one interesting note is that Julie Andrews was once considered for the role of Eglantine Price which was ultimately given to Angela Lansbury.

While there are similarities in the songs, I find Spoonful of Sugar to be way "lighter" than A Step in the Right Direction. I think that's just Julie Andrews' voice, though. I love both, but I gotta say, there's a certain appeal to Step that Spoonful doesn't have.

And of course, there's the whole question of whether or not that footage still exists..... Maybe they'll find it someday!