Well it's been 2 years since I last posted a review for this movie... I have just purchased the "Special Edition" version mainly because at last there is a wide-screen DVD version now available! This was one movie that suffered very greatly from a standard T.V format transfer ..... Now in wide-screen,it is possible to see the cinematography as it was intended to be viewed from the original Super Panavision format,even though there is still some "enhanced" format alteration to bring it into line with 16:9 ratio and luckily it was shot in Technicolor,which was easily the best analogue colour system around. Perspectives can now be seen as intended and the beautiful sets and the dance routines look vastly better... you can actually see all the dancers ! Take for instance one scene in Caractacus Potts windmill laboratory,where he shows Truly Scrumptious one of his inventions with which he intends to transmit "pictures and sound".....in the standard format half of the shot is missing so the machine cannot be fully seen and it makes no sense.. however in wide-screen you can see the "picture" and also the whole machine; so now you can enjoy one of Emmet Rolands fantasy machine creations in full. All through the movie the scenery and sets are set up framed with objects in the foreground and back ground which lend to perspective and depth of the image. The sound track seems also to have been worked on .. in previous releases the children's voices seemed to "squeak" but now they sound much more natural. You can see how much we have been missing with previous releases and it is a lot. The Special Edition also has some featurettes on the making of the movie and other related information plus a lovely booklet as well.

As to the movie itself .... it has never lost it's magic for me. I see reviews which pan the musical numbers or say it's too long or that

after seeing it as an adult they were disappointed from what they remember as a child ... but is that not the point ? It is a movie for children and/or those adults who can still view it remembering the child in themselves. It has no coarse language , no mindless violence (except the pantomime variety).. no cynicism ...just fun. In short it is a type of movie that Hollywood can no longer make because they no longer know how ... so it should be treasured more for it. People criticize Dick Van Dykes "American" accent but I find it not intrusive at all ... in fact he would probably have been better off using his normal voice in "Mary Poppins" than attempting the cockney accent which he obviously had some difficulty with.

Kids love this movie .. let them be the judges.

Thank-you Cubby Broccoli ..we miss you. Thank-you Ian Fleming / Roald Dahl / Richard Maibaum and Ken Hughes. Thank-you Ken Adam ... a genius in design for Chitty.

A delightful fantasy for the whole family to watch. There really is something for everyone here. A cartoonish story with "comic book characters" like the "Child Catcher" (Robert Helpmann) and "Baron Bomburst" (Gert Frobe) that the kids will love, and some marvelous song and dance routines from Sally Ann Howe as "Truly Scrumptious" and Dick Van Dyke as the inventor "Caractacus Potts" that the grown ups will marvel at. I never realized until I watched this movie as an adult what a marvelously talented man Van Dyke is, but his dance scenes are absolutely amazing (particularly "The Old Bamboo" performance at the carnival.)

The story is imaginative. A flying car whisks Truly and Caractacus, along with the two Potts children Jeremy and Jemima (Adrian Hall and Heather Ripley respectively) off to the fictional kingdom of "Vulgaria" (where children are forbidden) to rescue eccentric Grandpa Potts (played absolutely perfectly by Lionel Jeffries),who has been kidnapped by Bomburst in the mistaken belief that he's the inventor of the car. This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and you have to think like a child to watch it and appreciate it as an adult. Until today I had never actually seen the movie unedited, and I found it just a delight.

It's true that there are weaknesses. Although Dick Van Dyke put on a marvellous performance, he ironically seems totally out of place with his American accent. I truly can't figure out how Caractacus' father can have a British accent, and Caractacus' children can have British accents, but Caractacus himself has an American accent? It's something you wouldn't notice as a kid, but as an adult I found it somewhat distracting. Also, Hall and Ripley didn't blow me away (I know - give them a break; they were just kids. Still, I've seen better performances from children that age.)

But why nitpick. Suspend disbelief, think like a kid, sit back and enjoy the ride.

8/10.

The only criticism is that at 2 and a quarter hours it is probably too long, I personally could have done without the spies, whose antics were rather silly rather than funny. Mind it is only two minutes longer than Mary Poppins, which I also love. Films like Mary Poppins, Wizard of Oz and this were my childhood favourites, and if you want some entertainment in a musical, look no further than this. It has a witty script, anything the Grandfather says is enough to crack anybody up and Gert Frobe as the Vulgarian king is hilarious. The songs are unforgettable, and beautifully staged, the car looks glorious and the performances are first-rate. Dick Van Dyke is brilliant here. Personally I think he was better than he was in Mary Poppins. Sally-Ann Howes is beautiful as Truly, and she has a beautiful voice(apparently she has perfect pitch) Unlike some people, I thought " Lovely Lonely Man" was lovely, and the imagery was as if you were in a fairytale. Lionel Jeffries is really entertaining as the Grandfather, I couldn't believe he was younger than Dick Van Dyke. The children can't sing, but they can act and are cute. Finally, Robert Helpmann's child catcher, competes with Tim Curry's Pennywise in It as the scariest character on film, and I genuinely mean that. This film is beautiful with fabulous costumes- Howes never looked lovely than in her stunning white dress in "Lovely Lonely Man" and sets(especially the castle and Truly's garden),a must see. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox