Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Release Date: 19th December 1968 - Australia
Production Companies
Dramatic Features
Warfield
Genre: Family/Musical
Rating: G
Runtime: 144 minutes
Budget: $10,000,000
Box Office Gross: $7,500,000
(USA) (Rentals)
Plot Summary
An eccentric professor
invents wacky machinery,
but can't seem to make
ends meet. When he
invents a revolutionary car,
a foreign government
becomes interested in it,
and resorts to skulduggery
Cast
Dick Van Dyke - Carcatacus
Potts
Potts
Sally Ann Howes - Truly
Scrumptious
Scrumptious
Gert Fröbe - Baron Bomburst
Anna Quayle - Baronness
Bomburst
Bomburst
Benny Hill - The Toymaker
Heather Ripley - Jemima
Adrian Hall - Jeremy
Lionel Jeffries - Grandpa
Potts
James Robertson Justice -
Lord Scrumptious
Potts
James Robertson Justice -
Lord Scrumptious
Robert Helpmann - The
Child Catcher
Child Catcher
Crew
Screenplay/Director - Ken Russell
Based on Book "Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang" - Ian Fleming
Screenplay - Roald Dahl
Additional Dialogue -
Richard Maibaum
Producer - Albert R. Broccoli
Production Designer - Ken Adam
Creator: Potts Inventions -
Rowland Emett
Creator: Potts Inventions -
Rowland Emett
Colour Costume Designers -
Joan Bridge and Elizabeth
Haffenden
Director of Photography -
Christopher Challis
Special Effects - John Stears
Stagers: Musical Numbers -
Marc Breaux and Dee Dee
Wood
Songs/Lyrics - Richard M. &
Robert B. Sherman
Conductor/Music Supervisor -
Irwin Kostal
Awards
1969 Academy Awards
Best Music, Original Song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" -
Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman (Nominated)
Awards
1969 Academy Awards
Best Music, Original Song "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" -
Richard M. & Robert B. Sherman (Nominated)
Review
As most of you viewers are probably too young to recognise or have heard the name "CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG" when the feature was already well-known to movie buffs since 1968. Through all my years, I have grown from this family-musical and I wasn't keen to review this ever since family films from nowadays like recent ones have lost the adult appeal for example, the abysmal trilogies of 'The Smurfs' and 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'. Behind the wheels on this jovial musical, there lies the comic brilliance from screenwriter Roald Dahl as he adapts the book from James Bond creator, the late Ian Fleming and added a few signature styles to make the movie very childish. Of course having the heroes as slightly comical and the antagonists as laughably immature fits his capable ground of foretelling a story or character.
I don't mind Dick Van Dyke as well as the songs from The Sherman Brothers, I'm not exactly above enjoying their work in 'CHITTY CHITTY' since they all previously worked with Dick before in 'Mary Poppins'. Though few of their tunes have some catchiness in between them. My main favourite part that I definitely find interesting is the Child Catcher character, looking back now, he was really creepy for his appearance and enjoys kidnapping young kids. Australian actor Robert Helpmann did an incredible job in mastering the villainous character to feel as sinister although the character does come out as seemingly in a over-the-top villainy when in front of children.
It's a price to pay that there aren't any more non-Bond films made from the makers that did the series. It's a good way to give the people for extra credit when they're not doing more films of the spy-saga in favour of this cheerful tone of the musical. Likewise for myself, I find 'CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG' as one of the two singing films to be very uptight respectable to revisit. So remember to skip the film's intermission when some of the kiddies are bored!
I don't mind Dick Van Dyke as well as the songs from The Sherman Brothers, I'm not exactly above enjoying their work in 'CHITTY CHITTY' since they all previously worked with Dick before in 'Mary Poppins'. Though few of their tunes have some catchiness in between them. My main favourite part that I definitely find interesting is the Child Catcher character, looking back now, he was really creepy for his appearance and enjoys kidnapping young kids. Australian actor Robert Helpmann did an incredible job in mastering the villainous character to feel as sinister although the character does come out as seemingly in a over-the-top villainy when in front of children.
It's a price to pay that there aren't any more non-Bond films made from the makers that did the series. It's a good way to give the people for extra credit when they're not doing more films of the spy-saga in favour of this cheerful tone of the musical. Likewise for myself, I find 'CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG' as one of the two singing films to be very uptight respectable to revisit. So remember to skip the film's intermission when some of the kiddies are bored!
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