this is such a beguiling little film that i'm aware i have a tendency to overrate this. it's not really about much of anything in particular, and it's far too cozy to be profound or very deeply thoughtful. it also isn't the legitimate work of great cinema that Disney's 'So Dear to My Heart' was. but there's something about it that is so simplistic, genuine and delicately feminine that it wins over the sentiments completely.this could be one of the best made "girl" movies ever. it focus and appeal seems primarily aimed at a target audience of young girls, and it's basically a story of female maturation. however, there are enough varying elements here to make it watchable and even appeal to other viewers. there is enough of the fab (and fat) Burl Ives here to make any nostalgia buff go for broke. and even though males here seem mostly perceived through the eyes and mind of the feminine, like as in the brothers are perceived of as siblings and not entirely autonomous, the males are masculine enough as not to scare away male viewers. i mean hey, one of the brothers is former Hollywood bad boy Michael J. Pollard. you don't get much meaner than that.the 'Ugly Bug Ball' musical moment is also quirky and weird (if not a little creepy) enough to be amusing to little kids.the production design, photography and other elements are delivered with accomplished professionalism that it often seemed only Disney could pull out of a modest budget like this.i grew up watching this film at the movies and then again on the 'Wonderful World of Disney' television show. it still hasn't lost it's basic sentimental charm for me. and yes i know this film is gooey and icky, but it's done with more panache and level headedness, and a sense of comic fun, than movies like the old time, original 'Cheaper by the Dozen' film, were usually instilled with. as a matter of note, this film is a lot better made than these kind of films usually are.this will always remain one of classic Disney's sweetest and sentimental films. and there is so much of Walt'sensibilities in it. if you love old school Disney, you gotta delight in this airy fluff.

Widow Dorothy McGuire has to grab her three kids and leave their neat home for a dilapidated house in Maine. Cue songs and eight hundred weight of syrup as Hayley Mills, Burl Ives and co work out this Disney adaptation of Kate Douglas Wiggin's novel Mother Carey's Chickens. Yes a family film that is as safe as the house that Dottie and brood do up, yes I understand it's a kids film, and a musical to boot. But the screenplay from Sally Benson is as dull as dishwater and the cast are way too animated. Particularly Disney's safe card, Miss Mills. The songs from Robert and Richard Sherman are barely memorable, except for the Ives warbled Ugly Bug Ball. While the Technicolor looks off and not in keeping with the Disney stamp of quality.Harmless is fine, most musicals are just that. But there's a ream of far better harmless musicals than this one. Certainly ones that involve the audience all the way thru the running time. Whatever the age and sex of the viewer may be. 3/10

My sister and I discovered this movie at least 20 years ago, and fell in love with it instantly. It is just utterly delightful. Hayley Mills plays the oldest daughter of a newly impoverished family that moves to an old yellow house in Maine. Dorothy McGuire plays the widowed mother; Burl Ives is at his incomparable best in the role of Osh Popham, the town's general factotum married to what has to be the gloomiest woman in the state of Maine, if not the United States. Based on the book "Mother Carey's Chickens," by Kate Douglas Wiggin, the story was well adapted for the screen, maintaining the integrity and heart of the novel while making the cast a little more manageable. This truly is a feel good movie that you'll want to add to your collection.

Summer Magic is Disney's somewhat dated 1963 semi-musical, semi-melodramatic fantasy. It is a showcase for two talents: the iconic British water sprite, Hayley Mills (Nancy Carey) and the kindly folk singer with a heart, Burl Ives (Mr. Poppem). Nancy's family moves from Boston to New England after their much beloved patriarch dies. Precocious and determined, Nancy manages to convince Mr. Poppem to rent her family a modest but stately home for $60 a year – where can I get one of those? But the family's idyllic existence is soon threatened when an absentee landlord discovers this rental agreement. Tension also mounts after Nancy's cousin, the priggish Julia (Deborah Walley) arrives with preconceived notions of her own. These culminate in an inadvertently painful little scene where Julia and Nancy discuss how to accentuate femininity for the benefit of making a man happy, while concealing and/or sacrificing one's own feelings for 'his' ultimate soul of happiness – oh please! Eventually Nancy learns to live with Julia's prattling and Julia gets a clue to become Nancy's best friend.Resident Disney song writers, Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman penned the charming "Summer Magic", "Lavender Blue, Dilly-Dilly" and the corny "The Ugly Bug Ball," with incomparable rag time nostalgia brimming from every note. The direction by James Neilson is adroit and easy on the mind. But on this occasion, the poignancy one is likely to derive comes entirely from seeing the young Haley Mills and elderly Burl Ives, emphatically and musically sparing off of one another's formidable talents, and leaving us all a little bit better for their joust. Summer Magic has been remastered on DVD with considerably good results. The image is very clean, crisp and smartly rendered. Colors are rich, vibrant and bold. Blacks are deep and solid. Whites are generally white. Only occasionally does film grain hint around the edges. Certain matte shots belie their faux reality on larger monitors. Overall, the picture will surely not disappoint. The audio is another consideration all together. Apart from the songs, which have been lovingly remastered, dialogue on the whole sounds more than strident and completely unnatural. The songs thus appear almost independent in their spread and sonic resonance – offering one a sort of stereo concern buried under a mono melodrama.