Production notes

English author Mary Norton published her first children's book, The Magic Bed-Knob, in 1943. In August 1945, Walt Disney purchased the film rights to the book. Norton then published Bonfires and Broomsticks in 1947, and the two children's books were then combined into Bed-Knob and Broomstick in 1957. In 1961, Disney was in negotiations for the film rights to Mary Poppins with P. L. Travers; a film adaptation of Bedknobs and Broomsticks was suggested as an alternative project in case the rights were refused. During the meantime, Disney instructed Robert and Richard Sherman to begin development on the project. Sometime later, the Sherman Brothers held a story conference with producer Bill Walsh and screenwriter Don DaGradi, in which the Shermans sang a demo version of the song "Eglantine". During the conference, Disney fell asleep in his chair, a moment DaGradi later immortalized in a sketch. Richard Sherman explained, "[Disney] might have been tired that day..." When Disney purchased the rights to Mary Poppins, the Bedknobs project was shelved. In April 1966, the project (re-titled as The Magic Bedpost) was placed back into development, with the Sherman Brothers and Irwin Kostal set to resume their musical collaboration. However, the project was shelved again because of its similarities to Mary Poppins (1964). As the Sherman Brothers' contract with the Disney studios was set to expire in 1968, they were contacted by Bill Walsh in their office to start work on the film. Then, Walsh, DaGradi, and the Sherman Brothers re-assembled to work on the storyline for several months. Although there was no plan to place the film into production at the time, Walsh promised the Shermans that he would call them back to the studio and finish the project. He eventually did in November 1969. Throughout 1970 and 1971, the Sherman Brothers reworked their musical compositions for the film. The song "The Beautiful Briny" was originally written for Mary Poppins, for a sequence where Mary sends the Banks children to several exotic locations by spinning a compass, but the sequence was deleted. The song was ultimately used in Bedknobs and Broomsticks instead.

Leslie Caron, Lynn Redgrave, Judy Carne, and Julie Andrews were all considered for the role of Eglantine Price. Andrews was initially offered the part, but hesitated, afraid of being typecast. Walsh later contacted Angela Lansbury, who signed onto the role on Halloween: October 31, 1969. Shortly after, Andrews, feeling she owed Disney for her film career, contacted Walsh to accept the role, only to learn that Lansbury had been cast. Although Peter Ustinov was considered, Ron Moody accepted the role as Emelius Browne. However, Moody dropped out of the project before filming began. He was replaced by Mary Poppins alumnus David Tomlinson. The three Rawlins children—Charlie, Carrie, and Paul—were played by Ian Weighill, Cindy O'Callaghan, and Roy Snart respectively. Weighill had previously dropped out of school and began his acting career in an uncredited role as a schoolboy in David Copperfield (1969). He auditioned before Disney talent scouts for one of the child roles in Bedknobs and Broomsticks in London, and was cast as Charlie. Before Bedknobs, Snart was a child actor appearing in numerous commercials, and was cast as Paul for his "impish, cheeky look". For the part of Carrie, O'Callaghan had previously acted in television commercials and later made her stage debut as Wendy in a production of Peter Pan at the Scala Theatre. There, she caught the attention of Disney's talent scouts.

Filming took place at the Disney studios in Burbank, California, from early March to June 10, 1970. The coastal scenes featuring German soldiers were shot on location at a nearby California beach. The opening village scenes which features Corfe Castle and long shots of Miss Price (Lansbury) on her motorbike were created using matte paintings by artist Alan Maley. Filming lasted fifty-seven days while the animation and special effects required five months each to complete. For the Naboombu soccer sequence, the sodium vapor process was used, which was developed by Petro Vlahos in the 1960s. Animator and director Ward Kimball served as the animation director over the sequence. Directing animator Milt Kahl had designed the characters, but he was angered over the inconsistencies in the character animation. This prompted Kimball to send a memo dated on September 17, 1970, to adhere to animation cohesiveness to the animation staff. Because of the heavy special effects, the entire film had to be storyboarded in advance, shot for shot, which Lansbury later said resulted in her acting being "very by the numbers".

By January 1974, the film had grossed $8.25 million in box office rentals from the United States and Canada, with its final domestic rentals totaling $8.5 million. The 1979 re-release increased its North American rentals to $11.4 million.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film is a "tricky, cheerful, aggressively friendly Walt Disney fantasy for children who still find enchantment for pop-up books, plush animals by Steiff and dreams of independent flight." He further highlighted the Naboombu live-action/animated sequence as "the best of Disney, going back all the way to the first Silly Symphonies". Variety wrote that "what it may lack in the charm of [Mary Poppins] it more than measures in inventiveness. Indeed, it is doubtful if special effects or animation have been ever bettered or used to greater advantage. Alone they are a reason for seeing the film", and the reviewer praised the Naboombu sequence as containing "not only sheer delights but technical masterpieces." Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times awarded the film two-and-a-half stars out of four, claiming that, while the film has the "same technical skill and professional polish" as Mary Poppins, it "doesn't have much of a heart...and toward the end you wonder why the Poppins team thought kids would like it much." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave Bedknobs two stars out of four, calling the film "a mishmash of story ideas and film styles". He further added that the live action/animated sequence was "one bright spot in the story", but felt "the difference between scenes of sea horses and storm troopers is so great that probably no story could manage it. Bedknobs tries and fails." Pauline Kael of The New Yorker panned the film, writing that there is "no logic in the style of the movie. It tries to integrate early-period Silly Symphony animation (climaxed here in a frenzied—and, I thought, ugly—animal soccer game) with a story that dribbles on so long that it exhausts the viewer before the final magical battle begins." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the film was "pleasant enough and harmless enough. It is also long (almost two hours) and slow. The songs are perfunctory (nothing supercalifragi-whatever) and the visual trickeries, splendid as they are, are sputtery to get the picture truly airborne. By the standards Disney has set for itself, it's a disappointing endeavor." On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 66% based on 35 reviews, with an average score of 6.1/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "Bedknobs and Broomsticks often feels like a pale imitation of a certain magical guardian and her wards, but a spoonful of Angela Lansbury's witty star power helps the derivativeness go down." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 59 out of 100 based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.