bkoganbing Summer Magic is one of the few films I can think of where the remake actually improved on the original. Maybe it's the cast here, maybe it's the musical score by Disney house composers the Sherman Brothers.Whatever it is, Summer Magic is nice recreation of times at the turn of the last century when widow Carey, played by Dorothy McGuire moves in to this old house with her three children, Hayley Mills, Eddie Hodges, and Jimmy Mathers. They've had to get used to genteel poverty since Mrs. Carey's husband was killed in the Spanish American War.This remake of Mother Carey's Chickens is so laid back in style and spirit it makes The Music Man which covers the same era look like its on steroids. The score by the Brothers Sherman doesn't contain anything as memorable as what comes out of Mary Poppins, but those two guys suffered their entire careers from the rest of their work being compared to Mary Poppins.This was Hayley Mills's height as a Disney star and she certainly was lovely and winsome as the oldest of the Carey brood who gets a little romance from not one, but two sources in that first summer in Maine.Presiding over the whole film avuncularly is Burl Ives, playing a role Walter Brennan originated in Mother Carey's Chickens. Ives and Una Merkel and their son Michael J. Pollard make a trio of wise down home rustics. Well with Pollard you can skip the wise part.Summer Magic is one of the Magic Kingdom's best films and who knows, maybe it will get yet another remake. I can see Ashley Tisdale being the Hayley Mills of the 21st century.

vonnablady This movie (based on a book called Mother Carey's Chickens) is for anyone who spent their Sunday nights watching The Wonderful World of Disney while growing up and wants to share that same feeling with their own children. Turn on the closed caption, gather up your little girls and sing along with the movie.The Carey family is saved from having to live in "a hovel...that's not in a very nice neighborhood, either" by a mysterious "Mr. Hamilton" via the town postmaster/constable/general store owner Osiam Poppham. The eldest daughter Nancy's (Hayley Mills) boundless enthusiasm and interaction with a fun assortment of characters such as a homeless cousin that "Thinks she's the pink of perfection" to Mrs. Poppham (Una Merkle-whom Hayley Mills fans will recognize from the original Parent Trap movie) who believes in a "good solid black cloud with no silver linings"

jmhv417 I absolutely love this movie. I saw it for the first time when I was about 5 or 6 and I am 27 now. It has some great songs and it is quite funny in some parts. Kids will especially love "The Ugly Bug Ball." It is entertaining enough to keep adults interested, but not too adult for young children. There are lots of actors that appear in other Disney movies from the same era, so most of the people are pretty recognizable. My husband is not a big fan of most "kid's" movies, but he really enjoyed Summer Magic when I made him watch it. I highly recommend this movie to anyone that likes old Disney movies or has children.

Faith Stencel 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.