Chitty chitty bang bang chittty chitty band bang

My girls have always loved this film (so have I) so when I saw the 2 disc special addition available for only £25 I had to have it. I ordered it from Britannia 2 years ago now. It came in a velvet box with a small chitty car model with pull out wings; a booklet telling about the theatre productions a two disc DVD and a discount ticket for the theatre.

The car is a great toy; it is exactly like the one on the film but only about 2 inches long. The theatre ticket was useless because it was for a show in London and I live no where near there. The booklet is a short read but interesting none the less but obviously the thing I was most interested in was the DVD. Obviously it has the wonderful film but also the second the DVD which is filled with extras so I couldn't wait to put it on. I was not disappointed.

DVD one-

The film summery:
A daydreaming inventor Caractacus Potts is about to give up on his inventing when his children temp him to save a rusty old racing car from the junkman's fiery furnace. He restores the car back to all its glory and takes his thrilled children, Jeremy and Jemima on a picnic to the beach.
On the way they pick up Truly Scrumptious the daughter of the local sweet maker who joins the picnic. While sitting on the beach Potts starts to tell a story to his children about the people from the town of Vulgaria, (a terrible land where children are banned) who are coming to try and steal this wonderful car invented by the genius Caractacus Potts. The car is magical because it can fly and float. It is called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang because that is the noise it makes as it drives along.
The film follows the story and see's our four arrive in Vulgaria where the evil Baron and Baroness rule as children, playing with toys but allowing no one else to have any. They send out the evil child catcher to entice the children out with lollypops and ice-cream and then catch them and hide them in the dungeon away from the Baron.
Forgetting it is still a story being told on a beach, we start to wonder if the children will be saved and if the evil Baron and Baroness will get what they deserve.
After the story however the four are back safely on the beach but will the story have a 'happily ever after' for Potts and the beautiful Scrumptious?

The Barron - Gert Frobe
The Baroness - Anna Quale
Caractacus Potts- Dick Van Dyke
Truly scrumptious- Sally Anne Howes
Jemima Potts - heather Ripley
Jeremy Potts - Adrian Hall
The child catcher - Robert Helpman

Credits-
Written by Ian Flemming (the same guy that wrote James bond would you believe couldn't get two more different types of film!)
Producer- Albert R Broccoli
Director- Ken Huges
Music and lyrics - Richard and Robert Sherman

Other features on disc one are
Scene selection
Subtitles
Special features- a fanststicagorical motor car.
This is a short film (about 25 min's long) about the actual chitty car ad its owner.
- Vintage gallery.
Shows TV spot's and trailers from the time it was made.
-sing along
Use this to have a chitty karaoke


Disc two
The second disc has a 25-minute documentary, "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", with Dick Van Dyke

Extracts from Chitty the musical theatre production.

Vintage featurettes (this has a Dick Van Dyke press interview, a short documentary about the real Mr Potts, and a video filmed during the making of the film with the Potts children.

Photo gallery

Sherman brothers demo (this is the Sherman brothers performing their songs for Chitty bang bang) Sound only no picture.

Fun and games- this includes
A read a long
One persons junk is another person's jalopy
Toot sweet special delivery
Chitty colouring book
Unfortunately none of the fun and games features have ever worked so I don't know what they are like.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang received some very bad reviews when it came out, even though it was created by the people who made the James Bond series, and was adapted from Ian Fleming's book by the wonderful Roald Dahl. However almost 40years on, it is a family favourite and I personally love it. If I had to give any criticism it would be that it's quite long, it takes over an hour to get to the Vulgaria story and It takes a full 48 minutes for Caractacus to actually buy the car.
However everything else makes up for this, the great cast and performances and of course the song's including "Me Old Bamboo", "The Roses of Success", "Posh" "teddy bear" and, of course, the theme song (which I haven't been able get out of my head since I started writing this yesterday)

This really is an all time classic and just as my mum and I watched it I'm sure my children and their children will watch it too.
Info- rated U (though the child catcher is quite scary so maybe a PG would have been better)

2hrs 20 min's running time

Subtitles available in Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Danish, Hebrew, Greek, Portuguese

Price- I paid £25 but I haven't been able to see the special set I bought with the car and extras in again so all I can tell you is you can buy the different editions from eBay, play.com, and Amazon prices from £7-£15.

Things to look out for- performances by Benny Hill and Barbara Windsor

More info available from www.chittychitty.com

If you like chitty bang bang you might also like Dick Van Dykes new film "night a the museum" or the old classic "Mary Poppins"

Thanks for reading



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8