Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

There's always something special about the classic childrens movies of yesteryear. They have an innocence about them that will never be equalled in today's society so it's refreshing to go back to them with todays technology and relive the enjoyment as best you can. This dvd release features a newly restored print and a remastered 5.1 soundtrack to bring it inline with the quality we expect from todays productions.

Caractacus Potts (Dick Van Dyke) is your eccentric inventor trying to find that new invention that will being him and his 2 kids the riches they've been dreaming about. Alas his inventions are failures even though we know they'll be a success in our time.

When his kids stumble upon a retired and wrecked champion race car, they take it as their own play toy but the real owner has no use for it and has offered to sell it. The kids rush home hoping their father will buy them this rusty bucket in the hope of saving their prized toy. He does and so he begins work on his latest machine, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Whilst on a picnic at the beach with his kids and Miss Truly Scrumptious (Sally Ann Howes), Potts begins to tell a fantasmagorical story of how Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was stolen by a Bulgarian King who has a dungeon full of children. Can Chitty and the gang save the day and return the family to the real world or is the magical Chitty really more than just a fairy tale.

An exceptional transfer for a movie over 30 years old. You'd be excused if you thought the movie was filmed yesterday given it's brilliant quality. The more I watched the movie, the more I thought that somehow the same techniques used to improve the aging Star Wars movies was used here.

It's main strength is the clean image. There is no sight of film noise or dust or speckles to be seen all combined with a crisp image and an abundance of detail. Color is well saturated showing off the chromes and golds of the classic machinery and the vibrancy in the image provides for some even more startling blues and purples. Flesh tones are well balanced and veryone has a nice even coloring.

There is a glaring drawback though. The picture is presented in a pan and scan format and given that the original aspect ratio was somewhere around 2.20:1. The opening is presented in this aspect ratio and once the credits cease the image fills the screen. The original aspect ratio would have been dearly prefered given that some shots show hints of grand cinematography.

The layer change occurs about 5 minutes before the intermission during a fade to black. It would have been better placed during the intermission but even so it is not noticable until you actually look at your player as it signifies the layer change (Pioneers bring up SEARCH on the display panel).

The original sound mix was plain jane stereo but this dvd release has been encoded with a new 5.1 soundtrack. You notice this almost immeadiately as we are treated to the full 5.1 specturm in the opening of the movie. As the screen remains black, a race car can be heard racing around the room through each speaker. Having the screen black gives you a chance to try and pin-point the car in the room.

Throughout the rest of the movie we get hints and accentuations of surround during the musical scenes. The sound stage opens up from the front and filters into the back with backup vocals and ambient music create an enveloping musical experience.

Dialogue on the other hand is always clear and spread across the front stage depending on the persons location on screen. All sound localisation is restricted to the front in non musical scenes.

There are two slight extras here. An animated menu in the theme of the Incredible machine and the theatrical trailer that is presented in a slightly wider than 1.85:1 ratio. Hmm, it's usually the opposite with the feature being widescreen and the trailer full frame.

This is an enchanting movie complimented by the enhanced soundtrack and pristine image. You appreciate the story telling skills of Roald Dahl more when you see his name associated with this picture as he co-wrote the screenplay with director Ken Hughes from the idea of James Bonds Ian Flemming.

Highly recommended to all parents of young children and those of you who grew up with the movie, which is probably all of us.