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The Main Characters
--Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke) is an inventor who buys a run down old car and fixes it up into a wondrous fantasmagorical car. Things go wrong when his father is kidnapped, and then so are his children, both taken by the evil Baron.
--Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes) is seemingly a stuck up lady but becomes friends with the Potts family and joins them on their journey.
--Jemima and Jeremy Potts (Heather Ripley & Adrian Hall) are Caractacus’ children. They urge him to buy a run down old car, which he does.
--Baron Bomburst (Gert Frobe) is the evil ruler of Vulgaria. He sees Chitty Chitty Bang Bang floating and wants the car for himself. He kidnaps Grandpa Potts and takes him to his kingdom. The kingdom also bans children and soon Jeremy and Jemima are taken.
The Setting
The magical English countryside.
The Plot
Long ago, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was the fastest racecar in the land. It would win race after race until one day a little kid ran across the track and the car had to swerve out of the way and the car was wrecked. Many years later, Jemima and Jeremy had played around with the old car and were distraught to learn it would be sold to some man for scrap metal. They ran home but a woman named Truly Scrumptious picked them up and drove them there, aghast that they weren’t in school. She would be angry with their father for a while, but later join them in trying to get Chitty. The children, meanwhile, urged their father to buy the car and save it. Their father, Caractacus was a genius inventor but couldn’t seem to sell any of his good, like the TootSweets or the automatic haircut dispenser. He managed to make some money by stumbling into a traveling folk dance group and performing. So they had the money to buy the car, and he did!
He rebuilt the car and it looked beautiful. They took her out for a spin and even invited Truly. The day was going great until a yacht containing the ruthless Vulgarian ruler, Baron Bomburst, floated nearby. He saw Chitty and wanted to steal her for his own. The tide was rising and the car was almost taken over by the waves when it sprouted flotation devices and floated away! Well, you can imagine the Baron was pissed and went over and took the outhouse that Potts was in, Grandpa Potts. Oops. The car drove over to try and get the zeppelin but the car fell over a cliff as intermission hit (no really). We return and we see the car could fly! Grandpa meanwhile was ordered by the Baron to create a replica of the car that could float and he had 24 hours to do this. The car finally landed in Vulgaria and they were horrified to learn that the Baroness had banned children and Jeremy and Jemima were lured away and the car was captured. That left Truly and Caractacus with a mission. They need to save Grandpa, and their children while overthrowing the evil baron and baroness.
Movie Review
There aren’t too many carefree movies made like this anymore. It’s simply a fun little tale about a magical car, and the adventure it brings. Of course, it makes no sense at all, and its completely unbelievable, but for 2 and a half hours, you’re transported to a place where you forget your worries and get to listen to some good songs. It’s a great fun family film. ***1/4.
DVD Features
A) Extras
---Disc One---
1) Sing Along
Basically, when this is on, the lyrics appear on the bottom for you to sing along with!
2) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Musical Trailer
Just a trailer basically.
---Disc Two---
1) Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Dick Van Dyke
This is a 26-minute featurette where Dick Van Dyke basically talks about his experience making the movie, the actors involved, and everything else. Really good interview.
2) A Fantasmagorical Motorcar
This is a 10-minute featurette on the car itself, and the guy who now owns it.
3) Sherman Brothers’ Demos
This is a demo of every song recorded for the album and its in really early form. Really good listen. They call of some information about the song (who sings it, etc). Really great find on MGM’s part.
4) Vintage Featurettes
--A) The Ditchling Tinkerer
This is a 10-minute featurette on an actual tinkerer. They show some of his inventions, the ones that you can see the design for at the end of the car making game, actually. He made 8 of the movie’s inventions.
--B) Dick Van Dyke Press Interview
This was done in 1968. It runs about 9 minutes long and they talk about the movie as well as his other projects. Interesting interview and look back on 1968.
--C) The Potts Children’s Featurette
This appears to have been made back in 1968. It’s just really about the two young kids and what they did on set between scenes. It’s about 3 minutes long.
5) Vintage Advertising Gallery
--A) Theatrical Trailer
It’s a three and a half minute trailer and the VQ looks like it’s from the late 60’s.
--B) French Version Theatrical Trailer
The three and a half minute French version of the trailer.
--C) TV Spot #1
A minute long and it looks like a 7th Gen dub.
--D) TV Spot #2
A little less than a minute long and same type of deal as before.
--E) TV Spot #3
A minute long with the same scenes almost.
--F) TV Spot #4
Shorter commercial spot.
--G) TV Spot #5
Even shorter version.
6) Photo Gallery
Just your average Photo Gallery.
7) Read Along
You can read about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, with or without Jeremy Potts narration.
8) Game: One Person’s Junk is Another Person’s Jalopy
This is a game where you pick things from a pile of junk to build a car. When you get them all right, you get to see the designs of some weird designs (Mechanical Rocking Chair, Lullaby Machine and the Breakfast Machines).
9) Toot Sweet Special Delivery
A game where you fly over in Chitty and drop some Toot Sweets to kids.
10) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Coloring Book
These are just drawings that can be printed out (from a DVD-ROM) and colored in.
11) Family Fun Previews
Previews for: A Very Merry Muppet Christmas DVD, Second Star to the Left, A Christmas Carol, A Freezerburnt Christmas, Good Boy, Hamilton Mattress, Hi5!, Miss Spider’s Sunny Patch Kids and Just for Kicks.
B) Audio/Video
On Disc One, you have the option of viewing it in widescreen (16:9) or Fullscreen. The English is remastered to Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround. There’s also the choice of French or Spanish language (in stereo surround) and English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles.
C) Liner Notes
The DVD is inside a slipcase and the slipcase itself has an opening on the front, sealed with Velcro, and when you open it, it shows a map of the movie’s setting and the special features on each disc. After you slide out the DVD case, it’s a fold open deal with 3 flaps on the front and back. There’s also a 34-page booklet attached to the case with a very good movie summary, pictures of the movie, the musical numbers featured and a chapter index. There’s also a booklet of coupons and an ad to the musical. Really beautiful DVD case/box.
D) Easter Eggs
On Disc One, go to special features and highlight sing along. Hit up to highlight the compass and press enter to learn about a real chitty chitty bang bang car being created in 1967.
Overall Review
This is a total kids movie and it’s an enjoyable one at that. It’s got some pretty good songs, and Andy Van Dyke does well as the lead role, and actually looks like he’s having fun. That’s what best describes this DVD, FUN. If you can just sit and enjoy yourself for 2 and a half hours and enjoy a nice movie and songs, this is a great choice, especially if you have a family with young ones. Trust me, kids will love it and you probably won’t hate it. The extras are pretty good too. The games are for kids of course, as is the narrated story, but the rest of the stuff is a nice surprise, especially since the original release was in the late 60’s. There’s 3 vintage featurettes (!) and though the VQ is not anywhere near the quality of the movie, it’s a great look back. Overall, it’s a really surprising 2-disc set. They spent a lot of time and effort to make this a superb DVD and it shows. Well worth the money you would spend on this.
Overall Rating
8.5
10.0 Perfect
9.0-9.5 Near Perfect, Highly Recommended
8.0-8.5 Really good disc, Recommended
7.0-7.5 Good DVD, Mildly recommended
6.0-6.5 Above Average DVD. Mildest of mild recommendations
5.0-5.5 Decent all around disc, but catch it on TV
4.0-4.5 Great Movie but horrible DVD
3.0-3.5 Horrible movie but great DVD
2.0-2.5 There’s at least some merit to this DVD, but not much.
1.0-1.5 Horrible DVD, don’t even bother
0.0-0.5 Worst DVD ever
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