I love bedknobs and broomsticks! Far prefer it to Mary Poppins, but do remember as a kid the bit in the museum being too slow and dark for my short little attention span.
For what it's worth the second world war is still HUGELY in the consciousness of children and younger adults in the UK (and probably Europe), with no signs of it changing any time soon. It's key in the school curriculum as well as constant cultural references and days like today - Remembrance Day - are still heavily WWII based (my kids are scouts and so they marched to the service at the local war memorial with hundreds of local scouts, guides and cadets - this is just for a small area and my facebook feed is full of friends kids taking part in similar events where they live). I can totally understand though how for an american child the idea of evacuation is just so foreign that they wouldn't relate to it and WWII is just another war in a far off land (unless they're Hawaiian maybe?). Plus the accents - would they even understand the kids?
For what it's worth the second world war is still HUGELY in the consciousness of children and younger adults in the UK (and probably Europe), with no signs of it changing any time soon. It's key in the school curriculum as well as constant cultural references and days like today - Remembrance Day - are still heavily WWII based (my kids are scouts and so they marched to the service at the local war memorial with hundreds of local scouts, guides and cadets - this is just for a small area and my facebook feed is full of friends kids taking part in similar events where they live). I can totally understand though how for an american child the idea of evacuation is just so foreign that they wouldn't relate to it and WWII is just another war in a far off land (unless they're Hawaiian maybe?). Plus the accents - would they even understand the kids?