SUMMER MAGIC is a sickly sweet Disney vehicle designed around blonde starlet Hayley Mills, fresh from the success of THE PARENT TRAP. The plot sees three spoilt city kids moving to the countryside, where they must adapt to rural life.This is twee indeed and the heartwarming messages certainly weren't appreciated by this viewer! Indeed, Disney is so fond of thrusting 'life lessons' down the throats of its child audience that I generally avoid their movies like the plague. Still, it could be much worse: SUMMER MAGIC is colourful, has some funny scenes, a lovable animal, and Mills actually displays some traces of acting talent here and there. However, by far the best thing about the movie is Burl Ives, a larger-than-life actor playing a larger-than-life character, and his rendition of the 'Ugly Bug Ball' is a real hoot.

I really liked "Summer Magic". Maybe not as good as "Mother Carey's Chickens" but what I did like about the film was its good nature and how lovingly rendered it was. I mean, the cinematography, scenery and costumes are truly lovely. The music was another pleasant surprise, soothing and whimsical, with "Ugly Bug Ball" being a definite highlight as it reminded slightly of "Lavender Blue" from "So Dear to My Heart". The script was above average, the characters were like the epitome of innocence(think along the lines of Meet Me in St Louis) and the direction is cheerful. What stood out though were the performances. Hayley Mills mayn't have been at her very best, as she gave one of the best child performances ever in "Tiger Bay", but she is appropriately fresh-faced and sweet in the title role, and Dorthy McGuire was very nice as the mother. Burl Ives, who was absolutely brilliant in "Rudolph,The Red Nosed Reindeer" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is perfect as the kindly caretaker Osh Popham. The film may be a little too long but essentially it is a very nice little film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

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.

I adored this movie- I bought it because when I was on vacation I had seen all but the last half hour of it on TV and wanted to see the end. I bought it and have watched it at least 5 times. My 5 year old granddaughter also loves it. You should hear her sing Ugly Bug Ball! The songs are wonderful catchy tunes- especially the one's Burl Ives from an innocent time. How I long for the days when movies were made like this. So much better than what is considered acceptable today. The dresses were just beautiful. There are some hilarious scenes- such as when Burl Ive's character is looking for a picture of Mr. Hamilton's "Mother". If you listen to the comments from his wife about the woman in the picture. ( a prohibitionist) "Insisted on going down with the ship everyone else was saved- crew and captain"