Was the ending all a dream?

Well it's not really explained but the film seems to indicate that everything actually did happen and Sara was restored to her wealth. I think the reason Sara didn't have any chores to do was because Minchin locked her in the attic and said she would stay in the room all day without food.

It's a little clearer in the books. Ram Dass over a period of months, slowly fills up Sara and Becky's room with the finery. Minchin never actually sees the room in the book, and the climax is prompted by Sara discovering that her father's solicitor is living next door

The film seems to be going with the idea of there actually being magic in the world. Ram Dass appears to have powers of his own, since his role in the film seems to be to reunite father and daughter. The magic being real is probably the only way to explain how the stuff appears in the room - unless Ram Dass snuck in and filled it up by hand. I doubt Sara and Becky are that heavy sleepers

I'm gonna die of long hair!

Have you ever tried to pick up a sleeping child? They'll sleep through literally anything, lol! I could still pick up and move my niece and nephew from the couch to their beds when they were 12 and 13, and these girls were younger. But this is assuming they really did use people to carry them in by hand; I believe it's supposed to be magic.

It's made very clear in the movie that the scene where they were first fantasizing about clothes and food, that they were imagining: the scene switches to Ram Dass watching them giggling, and the room is empty. That was clearly them fantasizing, and he's admiring their ability to fantasize in a poor situation. This admiration for the little girls' optimism in such a situation is what I believe would have been his motive for performing the magic of the real food and decorated room.

I would have continued to believe that the next morning was fantasy, except Minchin walked in on them and obviously saw all of these things. Therefore, they had to be real, unless she was being pulled into her delusion, but there was no evidence or hint of that throughout the film.

I don't think the end with the father was meant to be an illusion. Sure, it's one of those one in a million chances that her dad would end up right next door, but movies do that all the time. All fictional books and movies are about mere coincidence. Heck, the reason you're alive is a mere coincidence...your mom and dad happened to be born where they did, raised the way they were, and happened to run into each other wherever they first met, fell in love, and had you. These two, out of the billions of people in the world, and without them, you wouldn't exist! It's all coincidence!

No, it was real.
It's not too difficult to believe, considering that they were probably dead tired from working all day. And some children are incredibly deep sleepers. I know b/c I used to babysit a lot and had a couple of kids who could sleep through me doing housework (washing dishes, vacuuming, etc), thunderstorms, police sirens, you name it.

It's never shown/explained in this version, but in the original (Shirley Temple), it's more clearly implied/shown that the Hindi man next door is the one who brought them everything (the buildings were more closely connected than in this version, so it was easier there for people to get across from one building to the other). How he got the children's robes and shoes so quickly is never explained in either movie version, and as I've never read the book, I don't know if it's explained there either, but it's very clear that the Hindi man provided them with everything they wore and ate that morning. He felt very sorry for Sarah, and after witnessing both her and Becky imagining food and warm clothes, it seems it was the end of the line for him, and he didn't want to let them go hungry. He showed kindness whereas Minchen constantly showed cruelty.



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