There's little to dislike about CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, a fun and colourful musical written by Ian Fleming, no less; it's packed with memorable music, has colourful cinematography, an imaginative script and a decent cast. Of the principal actors, it's fair to say that Dick Van Dyke puts memories of MARY POPPINS and dodgy accents behind him in his enthusiastic turn as madcap inventor Caractacus Potts.
It's rare to find a film which boasts decent performances from the child actors, but they're good here, as are the likes of Benny Hill and Lionel Jeffries in support. The songs are a lot of fun, particularly the titular one, of course.
My only complaint, which isn't too much of one, really, is that it grows more and more fantastic as it goes on, and the last third is more like a silly fantasy sequence; there's Roald Dahl to blame for that, I think. At least the writers saw this and put in an explanation of it being all a dream sequence so that it kind of makes sense.
It's rare to find a film which boasts decent performances from the child actors, but they're good here, as are the likes of Benny Hill and Lionel Jeffries in support. The songs are a lot of fun, particularly the titular one, of course.
My only complaint, which isn't too much of one, really, is that it grows more and more fantastic as it goes on, and the last third is more like a silly fantasy sequence; there's Roald Dahl to blame for that, I think. At least the writers saw this and put in an explanation of it being all a dream sequence so that it kind of makes sense.