Product Details

• Actors: Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Benny Hill, Gert Fröbe
• Directors: Ken Hughes
• Format: Full Screen, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Original recording remastered, THX
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: November 10, 1998
• Run Time: 144 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (485 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792839749
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,767 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #15 in Movies & TV > DVD > Musicals
• Learn more about "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Full Screen Edition)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This remastered, pan-and-scan 30th-anniversary edition of that kiddie-car caper is flawed but solid family fare. It retains a quaint charm while some of the songs--including the title tune--are quite hummable. A huge plus is Dick Van Dyke, who is extremely appealing as an eccentric inventor around the turn of the century. With nimble fingers and a unique way of looking at the world, he invents for his children a magic car that floats and flies. Or does he? The special effects are tame by today's standards, and the film is about 20 minutes too long--but its enthusiasm charms. The script was cowritten by Roald Dahl and based on the novel by Ian Fleming, best known for his James Bond adventures. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Product Description

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls start your engines. You're about to take an incredible ride with one of the most wonderful family films of all time! Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has never looked or sounded better. Dick Van Dyke stars as eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, who creates an extraordinary car called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It not only drives but also flies and floats as it leads him, his two children and his beautiful lady friend, Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), into a magical world of pirates, castles and endless adventure.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

86 of 95 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Not So Special Edition November 25, 2003

By W. Moore

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

Well...after all the waiting, it's finally landed. I wish I could say that it's truly scrumptious, but in truth, from the ashes of disaster (the previous DVD release) grow the roses of mediocrity. Like so many DVD "special editions" of late (A Christmas Story, Willy Wonka, etc), this one is a bit short on the "special".

The film itself is presented in two formats on the first disc. Both widescreen and pan & scan. The widescreen transfer is just slightly wider than the laserdisc release and the colors seem to me to be about the same, though my laserdisc is rotting and the colors are a bit compromised. It might be worth getting for the widescreen alone if you don't already have at that aspect ratio. Also on disc one is the "sing along" feature and a preview of the musical which only succeeds in demonstrating how fat Michael Ball is.

Disc two (home of the real disappointments) has a conversation type "documentary" with Dick Van Dyke (and ONLY Dick Van Dyke) where he reminisces about some of the cast. Another new feature is with Pierre Picton, owner of the nicest of the on-screen cars and it's kind of a fun look at the eccentric who owns and cares for the car. There are 3 vintage featurettes, one with designer Rowland Emett which is interesting, another which is apparently a press conference with Dick Van Dyke (boring) and the last "featuring the children" (but not really). One excellent special feature (and kudos to the person responsible!), is the inclusion of more than a dozen of the Shermans original demos for the film.

There are about 7 trailers for the film, both theatrical and television, but not the one which followed the film on the laserdisc version which, to me, seems like the genuine trailer. It is presented on the DVD in French, but not in English.

The remainder of the special features are kiddie things like digital coloring book, inventor games, etc.

I'm sure money may have been the reason for not presenting a more professional and interesting supplement. Sally Ann Howes is alive and well...I've seen her in NY. The kids, Heather Ripley and Adrian Hall, attended the premiere of the stage show in London, so they're definitely locateable. Very little is said about the locations or the production of the film. I was expecting a documentary of the caliber on MGM's Bond DVD releases given that the production company was largely the same. At least pay Dick enough to do a running commentary! Shame on you, MGM.

Perhaps what disappointed me most of all is that I feel that I could have made a better effort.

70 of 78 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Still a fun film but a disappointed in this DVD release December 11, 2002

By David M. Diamond

Format:DVD

This is one of the last big budget fantasy musicals before these films became just too expensive to produce. But Dick Van Dyke was at his zenith here and Sally Ann Howes was marvelous as well. Note that Ian Fleming wrote the original story and as a tribute there were two Bond actors in the cast. Gert Frobe as the King and Desmond Llewyn as Mr. Coggin. But I was very dissappointed to see this DVD released in the Pan and Scan format. I really don't understand why MGM/UA remastered the film in the THX process and used a clean beautiful video transfer and doesn't present the film in its original widescreen format. At one-third of the film is missing and its really difficult to watch this now considering I had owned the widescreen laserdisc of this film.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Benchmark In Transfer Quality For BLU RAY November 13, 2010

By Mark Barry, Reckless Records, London TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Blu-ray

Little prepares you for the print on this - it's simply extraordinary.

It's been frame-by-frame restored using the Lowry Digital Restoration Process which was used on all 20 of the Bond films, the three Godfather movies, the original Star Wars Trilogy, the Indiana Jones films and even the transfer of Avatar (all to much acclaim).

But this 2010 Blu Ray/DVD Combination pack reissue of 1968's "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" has to be a benchmark - even for them.

After the excellent 2DVD set issued a few years back, I didn't think that much more improvement could be wrenched out of the negative, but it has been. This transfer is practically faultless - BEAUTIFUL to look at for the whole duration of the movie. Directed with style and flair by Ken Hughes and filmed in 70mm Super Panavision Technicolor - it's a sumptuous feast of colours - you see their period clothes anew, the details in the inventions inside Caractacus Pott's hillside home, the uncluttered English countryside, the Scrumptious Sweet Factory, the seaside scenes, the two bumbling spies, the toy dance at the King's Birthday Party in the Palace where their love shines out and almost gets them caught - all of it - gorgeous to look at. There's old and 'New Extras' also...

Sally Ann Howes looks suitably wholesome and lovely, Dick Van Dyke is as likeable as ever (a much underrated leading man) and the songs are excellent if not a little twee in places. The quirks of Sixties movies remain intact too - the patience-sapping Overture at the beginning where a black screen sits there with only the roaring of car engines before the picture finally appears - the "Intermission" break in the middle (so you could go and buy sweets) where Chitty goes over the cliff-edge and you don't find out what happens until the film starts up again and you're back in your seats - all there - as it was in the cinema - and the original aspect retained too.

The child-catcher is still the scariest monster ever created in cinema (with Benny Hill being strangely creepy too) and the interplay between Gert Frobe and Anna Quayle as the bickering King and Queen of Vulgaria is still pricelessly funny. All this and Stanley Unwin speaking "...horribold..." English to Lionel Jeffries - which always makes me pine for The Small Faces 1967 album masterpiece 'Ogden's Nutgone Flake' (he spoke in between tracks on Side 2).

Sure it'll be too saccharine for our "Call Of Duty" teenagers to enjoy nowadays, but there's something timeless and lovely about this 'magical car' movie - and that beautifully evocative "Hushabye Mountain" melody always renders me a quivering mush whenever I hear it.

This 2010 BLU RAY of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" is a superlative reissue of a family classic. Ian Fleming would indeed be shaken - and possibly even stirred.

Recommended like a duet with the wife on "Chu-Chi Face".

PS: for other superb restorations on BLU RAY, see also my reviews for "The Italian Job", "Saturday Night, Sunday Morning", "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner", "Goldfinger", "North By Northwest", "Cool Hand Luke", "The Dambusters", "The Prisoner - The Complete (TV) Series In High Definition", "Braveheart", "Snatch", "The Ladykillers" and "The African Queen"