He bluffs his abilities to the Baron to avoid being executed. Grandpa is taken to the castle, and has been ordered by the Baron to make another floating car just for him. Caractacus, Truly, and the children see their Grandpa Potts, being taken away by airship, following it to Vulgaria, which involves the car sprouting wings and propellers to fly. The Baron then sends two spies to capture the car, but they capture Truly’s father, Lord Scrumptious, then Caractacus’ father, Grandpa Potts by accident, mistaking each for the car's creator. The story starts with the quartet escaping Bomburst's pirates. Caractacus tells them a tale about nasty Baron Bomburst, the tyrant of fictional Vulgaria, who wants to steal Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In the first trip in the car, Caractacus, the children and a wealthy woman they've had awkward encounters with before, Truly Scrumptious, picnic on the beach. He purchases the car and rebuilds it with a new name, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" for the unusual noise of its engine. When they learn the car is due to be scrapped, they beg their father, inventor Caractacus, to save it he makes lots of unsuccessful attempts to sell his inventions to raise money to buy it, until he earns tips from a song-and-dance act at a carnival. 8.4 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's Adventure in TinkertownĪt a rural English garage, two children, Jeremy and Jemima Potts, find a car formerly used for racing in Grand Prix in Europe until it crashed and burned in 1909.Their wacky antics and in-jokes really involved the audience, gaining lots of laughs along the way.
Surprisingly though, our favourite characters in the stage show were the Vulgarian spies Goran and Boris. Only around 10 years of age, both children showed extraordinary confidence and talent (and bravery to climb into that flying car!). The performers selected for the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stage show were just amazing. Casting for children Jeremy and Jemima involved auditioning over 300 local Brisbane Kids. Rachael played the wind-up doll to perfection and David’s puppet was very reminiscent of Dick Van Dyke’s performance in the original movie. The test for me was definitely the life-size toy scene. Rachael Beck was incredible in her role as Truly Scrumptious. The casting was tremendous, with David Hobson putting his own mark on eccentric inventor and father Caractacus Potts.
CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG FULL MOVIE MOVIE
Not only was the stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang full of the songs we knew and loved, but it actually felt far more concise and action-packed, with none of the parts that seem to drag a bit in the movie (let’s face it – it’s a LONG movie). The show we saw completely surpassed our hopes. When seeing the stage version of one of your favourite movies, there’s always the worry that it won’t live up to expectations. IMAGE CREDIT: Chitty glides onto the stage Both of our girls have followed in their parents’ footsteps with an inherent love for music and we couldn’t be more proud. Our four year old can recite whole sections of dialogue and, unexpectedly, her favourite song from the movie is not the recognisable theme song, but ‘The Roses of Success’ (a song performed by a group of elderly men in the movie). So when I heard that the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang stage show was coming to Brisbane, I knew that it was time that we introduce this old favourite to our children.īased on the story written by Ian Fleming (author of James Bond), and with a screenplay by children’s author Roald Dahl and director Ken Hughes, there’s no wonder that, from the first viewing, our girls were hooked! They’ve since watched the movie approximately five THOUSAND times. Fast forward a couple of decades and my daughters too have a keen appreciation for these movies (yes, even Grease!). I can even tell you where the ad breaks were when watching Grease to this day. My cousins, sister and I would re-enact musical scenes, playing the Von Trapp children semi-regularly. Our VHS copies of the ‘classics’ (for my generation, anyway) like the Sound of Music, Mary Poppins and Annie were VERY well worn. As a child I loved watching family musicals.