| Director | Robert Stevenson |
|---|---|
| Budget | $6.3 million |
| Box office | $17.9 million |
In August 1940, during the Blitz, three orphans named Charles, Carrie, and Paul Rawlins are evacuated from London to Pepperinge Eye near the Dorset coast, where they are placed in the reluctant care of Miss Eglantine Price, who is secretly a witch. She agrees to a temporary arrangement. The children attempt to run back to London, but they change their minds after observing Miss Price flying on a broomstick. Revealing that she is learning witchcraft through a correspondence school with hopes of using her magic spells in the British war effort against the German Army, Miss Price offers the children a traveling spell on the bedknob in exchange for their silence, which they accept. Later, she receives a letter from the school announcing its imminent closure, thus preventing her from learning the final spell. Miss Price convinces the children to use the bedknob to head for London and locate her teacher Professor Emelius Browne.
Mr. Browne turns out to be a charismatic street magician, who created the course from an old book as a joke, only to be shocked to learn that the spells work. He gives the book to Miss Price, who is disappointed to discover the final spell called Substitutiary Locomotion is missing the key pages. The group travels to Portobello Road to locate the old bookseller who sold Browne the book; the missing pages reveal that the spell is not in the book. Instead, it is engraved on the Star of Astoroth, a medallion that belonged to the sorcerer of that name. The bookseller explains that Astoroth experimented with magic on certain animals before anthropomorphism drove the animals to kill the wizard, take the medallion, and flee to a distant island called Naboombu. According to the book's final notation, a 17th-century lascar had claimed to have seen Naboombu, but the bookseller never found it. Paul confirms its existence by revealing a picture storybook that he found in Mr. Browne's townhouse.
The group travels to Naboombu and lands in the lagoon, where Mr. Browne and Miss Price enter a dance contest and win first prize. However, the bed gets fished out by a bear, who informs the group that humans are forbidden on the island by royal decree. They are brought before the ruler King Leonidas, who is revealed to be wearing the Star of Astoroth. Mr. Browne acts as referee in a soccer match in order to appease King Leonidas and the animals' desire for the game. The chaotic match ends in King Leonidas' self-proclaimed victory, but Mr. Browne swaps the medallion with his referee whistle. The group manages to escape back to Miss Price's house.
Miss Price exercises the Substitutiary Locomotion spell, which imbues inanimate objects with life. Unfortunately, they quickly go out of control. When she is informed that the children can be moved to another home, she decides to let them stay, realizing she has come to care for them and vice versa. The children even beg Mr. Browne to become their father so they can become a family, but Mr. Browne later bids farewell to the group, and then sleeps at the train depot so that he can catch a train back to London in the morning.
A platoon of German commandos land on the coast via U-boat, invading Miss Price's house to use as their headquarters for a fear-spreading raid, while imprisoning her and the children at the local museum. At the train station, Mr. Browne subdues two German soldiers and heads back to Miss Price's house. There, he turns himself into a white rabbit to avoid the soldiers. Reuniting with Miss Price and the children at the museum, Mr. Browne inspires Miss Price to use the Substitutiary Locomotion spell to enchant the exhibits into an army. The army of knights' armor and military uniforms chases the German commandos away, but not before destroying Miss Price's workshop, breaking the spell and ending her career as a witch. Despite this, Miss Price is glad to learn that she played a small part in the war effort.
Afterwards, Miss Price decides to adopt the children with Mr. Browne. He departs with the Home Guard he previously enlisted in. While the soldiers leave for duty, the children become despondent their lives will not be as eventful anymore, but Paul reminds them he still has the magical bedknob, hinting at more adventures to come.