A New Benchmark In Transfer Quality For 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...
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Not So Special Edition
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...
Still a fun film but a disappointed in this DVD release
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.
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