The film is frequently compared with Mary Poppins (1964), since it combines live action and animation and is partially set in the streets of London. It also features numerous cast members from Mary Poppins, particularly Tomlinson, supporting actor Reginald Owen (in his last film role), a similar film crew, songwriters the Sherman Brothers, Director Robert Stevenson, art Director Peter Ellenshaw, and musical direction by Irwin Kostal.
By 1976, the film had earned rentals of $8.5 million in North America. The movie was reissued theatrically on April 13, 1979, with a shorter running time of 96 minutes and all songs, excluding "Portobello Road" and "Beautiful Briny Sea", muted out.
The film has been released for home several times on VHS and DVD. The initial VHS and Laserdisc is a time-compressed transfer that wouldn't be corrected until the 1986 reprinting for the Wonderland Sale promotion. Upon rediscovering the removed song "A Step in the Right Direction" on the original Soundtrack album, Disney decided to reconstruct the film's original running length. Most of the film material was found, but some segments of "Portobello Road" had to be reconstructed from work prints with digital re-coloration to match the film quality of the main content. The footage for "A Step in the Right Direction" was never located. As of 2009, it remains lost, and it is believed that the footage was possibly destroyed. A reconstruction of "A Step in the Right Direction", using the original music track linked up to existing production stills, was included on the DVD as an extra to convey an idea of what the lost sequence would have looked like. The edit included several newly discovered songs, including "Nobody's Problems", performed by Lansbury. The number had been cut before the premiere of the film. Lansbury had only made a demo recording, singing with a solo piano because the orchestrations would have been added when the picture was scored. When the song was cut, the orchestrations had not yet been added; therefore, it was finally orchestrated and put together when it was placed back into the film.
Some of the alternate actors who re-dubbed the newly inserted scenes had questionable likenesses to that of the original voices (the postmistress, for Example, had a British regional accented voice that changed from Welsh to Scottish and back again on the reconstructed scenes). Elements of the underscoring were either moved or extended when it was necessary to benefit the new material. The extended version of the film was released on VHS and DVD on March 20, 2001, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the film. The reconstruction additionally marks the first time the film was presented in stereophonic sound. A new edition called Bedknobs and Broomsticks: Enchanted Musical Edition was released on DVD on September 8, 2009. This new single-disc edition is an identical transfer to the 30th Anniversary Edition, dropping the Scrapbook and Film Facts to make room for a Wizards of Waverly Place Special Effects featurette and a The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Blu-ray infomercial. The Sherman Brothers Featurette, the lost song "A Step in the Right Direction" and most of the other bonus features are retained from the previous edition.
The musical score for Bedknobs and Broomsticks was composed by Irwin Kostal, with all songs written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman. A Soundtrack album was released by Buena Vista Records in 1971. While the film was released in mono sound, the musical score was recorded in stereo and the Soundtrack album was released in stereo. An expanded Soundtrack album was later released on CD on August 13, 2002.
The movie was released on Special Edition Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD on August 12, 2014, in its 117-minute General Release Version, with the deleted scenes used in the previous reconstructed version presented in a separate section on the Blu-ray disc. Many fans are disappointed that the 30th anniversary version has not been transferred onto Blu-ray as an option, (e.g. a Blu-ray set containing both the 117 -min and 140-min versions), as despite the ADR dubbing, many still prefer the longer uncut version.
The three child stars of the film shared their recollections on an edition of The One Show broadcast on BBC One on 3 May 2016 and Angela Lansbury recorded a short filmed tribute to them. The two boys did not go any further with their film careers; Ian Weighill who played the older boy, Charlie, reportedly became a train Engineer and Roy Snart who played the younger boy, Paul, is the head of a software company. Cindy O'Callaghan, who played Carrie, went on to appear in numerous television productions including "EastEnders" and "Gem".
It was said in the 17th century, a lascar claimed he saw Naboombu. The Bookman, however, does not believe the island exists, as he looked in every chart for it, until Paul confirms its existence via a storybook.
A stage musical adaptation of Bedknobs and Broomsticks featuring a book by Brian Hill, additional musical and lyrics by Neil Bartram (in addition to The Sherman Brothers songs) and will be directed and choreographed by Rachel Rockwell. It will make its world premiere at The Yard at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater from May 30 to July 28, 2019.
