My daughter is watching (Correction: it is playing determinedly behind me here in the living room. She is in her bedroom.) Bedknobs and Broomsticks. (won an Oscar for visual effects. Could it be the bizarre underwater episode which combines live actors with animation? Sure worked in Mary Poppins, with the penguins and the carousel horses in the fox hunt...) She loves it.
The male lead is the same guy as the dad in Mary Poppins. The female lead is Angela Lansbury. The premise is a witchcraft intern saves England during WWII, with help from 3 round-eyed orphaned children, who, it goes without saying, are sorely in need of parenting. It has its moments, but it is sorely in need of editing.
And, let's take up Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for just a mo', shall we? The male lead is the guy who was in Mary Poppins. (Dick VanDyke, duh.) And the cast is rounded out by two round-eyed children sorely in need of parenting. And it goes ON and ON and ON. There is even this bizarrely sado-masochistic musical piece with a king and queen (Duke and Duchess? Baron and Baronness) trying to kill each other while wearing corsets and garter-belts. (A little research will tell you that Roald Dahl wrote it... famously sadistic author of "children's" books...)
Sorely in need of editing.
All I'm saying is, Mary Poppins (which, FYI, FIVE Oscars) is one thing. Dick VanDyke, round-eyed children in need of parenting, and that guy with the narrow mustache- they together make ONE THING. And 3 1/2 hours of the formula gone wrong is another.
1 comment:
Amen! I have to admit to enjoying the music in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but the plot doesn't merit the time required to listen to said music. Mary Poppins has some fantastic songs of it's own.
I hope all is well there,
Angela
P.S. Do you have a book star rating process posted elsewhere on your blog?
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