One of the films I remember being taken to see at the movie theatres and as well as watching on tv was this from 1968. The plot kinda gripped me and I recall an Uncle of mine buying me this Corgi model of the flying car from it that I enjoyed playing with others with at the time. Maybe you had one too -I don't know- but often it's these little chinks that come out about your own childhood that I find interesting.
"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was a part of my childhood in a different way! When I was about 8 years old, we had story time in school -- all the third-grade classes at the school would gather into one room, and one of the teachers would read to us, a chapter or so every day, from a children's book they had selected. Ian Fleming's "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was one of the books they read to us, and it was a wonderful book. Years later I learned that Ian Fleming had also created James Bond, and later than that I learned that a movie had been made of "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang." Somehow I'd missed it. Of course, I was born in 1968, but somehow I never saw it on TV or in a video store.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, when I saw the movie, right after graduating from university, I didn't like it at first, because it was quite unlike the book -- they had kept the basic concept and characters but written a completely different story for them. Why couldn't they have left it alone? Still, a musical children's movie starring Dick Van Dyke couldn't help but charm me ("Mary Poppins" remains my favorite movie ever), and I ended up liking it overall. I never saw any toys related to the movie, another reason why I'd never known it existed. I'm very happy that you did!