CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG - DVD review

I'm not sure why MGM felt the necessity of reissuing this 1968 musical-comedy in an elaborate two-disc special-edition set, but they did. Possibly it has something to do with the new stage musical based on it. Possibly they think it's an important children's classic. I don't know. I've never given the movie much thought one way or the other, and I've certainly never thought of it as a classic. In any case, let me begin by repeating some of the things I said about the film the first time MGM issued it on DVD.

The temptation is to express my critical opinion of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" by substituting a different letter of the alphabet for the first letter of the first two words. I will resist the urge. Instead, I'll be charitable and say that children will probably enjoy this film more than adults. Dick Van Dyke had come off a big winner several years before in "Mary Poppins," and he was obviously trying hard to duplicate his earlier success. In fact, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" itself tries hard to be another musical-comedy fantasy in the "Mary Poppins" vein. Both Van Dyke and the movie miss their mark.

No doubt the film should have been better, considering the people involved in its making. It's based on a story by Ian Fleming (author of the James Bond novels). It was produced by Albert R. Broccoli (producer of the James Bond films). Its screenplay was cowritten by Roald Dahl ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "The Witches"). Its music was written by Richard and Robert Sherman ("Mary Poppins"). It was directed by Ken Hughes ("Casino Royale"). And it stars Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Frobe, Benny Hill, and James Robertson Justice. If that crew couldn't make a good film from this material, no one could. Well, apparently no one could.

Van Dyke plays a crackpot inventor named Caractacus Potts (well, what name did you expect?), who keeps trying to build things that never work. He lives with his two adorable children and his eccentric father in a dilapidated hilltop house in the rural English countryside. Why everyone in the film speaks in an English accent except Van Dyke is anybody's guess. In "Mary Poppins," he affected a silly but amusing English dialect, but here he abandons it. Monty Python's Michael Palin once said that his children adored "Mary Poppins" because Van Dyke talked so funny. Too bad; it would have given "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" more character.

Anyway, Potts's children want him to restore an old car, which he does. Then he meets Truly Scrumptious, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy candy maker. When the car is ready, the whole family, and Ms. Scrumptious, go for a picnic at the seaside where Van Dyke tells a story that makes up the bulk of the plot: All about the car floating and flying and children getting stolen in a foreign country and evil monarchs and goofy spies, and so on.

Interspersed along this meandering, unfocused storyline are some of the most forgettable songs, the most uninspired choreography, and the most unfunny gags imaginable. Still, I think kids will like it, ignoring much of the stuff that grown-ups find objectionable; and the title song is really sort of catchy. But how any kid could possibly stay awake for the interminable length of this film, almost two and a half hours, is a mystery to me. I guess children have greater powers of concentration than I do, since the film went over fairly well at the box office.

Video:
In MGM's earlier DVD edition of the movie, they only presented the picture in pan-and-scan. What a crime that was. Maybe they were afraid if it were in widescreen, children would complain about the black bars at the top and bottom and write in to complain. Anyway, now they present it not only in P&S but in something close to its original Super-Panavision scope, too, a widescreen anamorphic ratio rendered here at about 1.98:1. This is a movie whose vistas, like the location shots of Bavaria's Neuschwanstein Castle, call out for the biggest image size possible. When the picture gets cut down and blown up to fill the screen, it makes one want to cry.

Nevertheless, there's nothing to worry about anymore. The picture quality in widescreen is excellent, the whole film freshly remastered with an increased bit rate to reflect MGM's newfound care in their product. There is a slight overall fade to the image, but the softness tends to add to the naturalness of the picture. Otherwise, the colors are deep, the definition still reasonably good, and the backgrounds free of grain. By contrast, the P&S version is not only incomplete, it's fuzzier and blurrier as well.

Audio:
The stereo soundtrack was remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround for the previous edition, and it continues to come off pretty well, although the rear channels are not fed much signal. The opening prologue displays a nice full surround, but most of the rest of the movie doesn't have a lot of rear-channel information except some minor musical ambience enhancement. The deepest bass and the entire dynamic range seem somewhat compressed, but that may be a fault of the original sonics.

Extras:
The dual-sided, dual-layered first disc contains the standard and widescreen film presentations on flip sides, Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, a sneak peek at "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" the stage musical, thirty-two scene selections, and a sing-along feature. This sing-along (available on the English-language track only) is a carryover from the older edition, and I still like the idea. When it's turned on, it's a kind of follow-the-bouncing-ball affair. Lyrics light up at the bottom of the screen when the actors sing them. However, except for the title song, there wasn't much I felt compelled to sing along with. Oh well. English (DD 5.1), French (Dolby Surround), Spanish (Dolby Surround), and Portuguese (mono) are provided as spoken language and subtitle choices.

In the previous edition, MGM afforded only the sing-along. Now, they've given us a whole second disc of bonus items. The most important, at least for adults, is a newly made, twenty-five minute documentary, "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," in which Dick Van Dyke reminisces on the making of the film and the actors in it. This is followed by a nine-minute bit on the amazing car in the film, "A Fantasmagorical Motorcar," narrated by its real-life owner. Then, there are three featurettes made at the time of the film's production: "The Ditchling Tinkerer," about a Roland Emmett, an actual crackpot inventor (ten minutes); "The Potts Children," about the child actors (three minutes); and a Dick Van Dyke press interview (eight minutes). Next is a vintage advertising gallery with two theatrical trailers, one in English pan-and-scan and one in French widescreen; plus five TV spots.

Finally, there's a read-along storybook feature; a photo gallery; a series of Sherman Brothers preproduction song demos (audio only); some trailers for other MGM family movies; and two games for kids, "One Person's Junk Is Another Person's Jalopy" and "Too Sweet Special Delivery." Also for kids is a DVD-ROM coloring book.

The two discs and a thirty-four page storybook insert are contained in a foldout package, which itself is housed in a beautifully embossed, gatefold slipcase.

Parting Shots:
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is a musical comedy that contains little noteworthy music apart from the title song and even less comedy. Be that as it may, it is colorful and energetic, and if children can stay awake long enough, they will undoubtedly find much of it entertaining.