While there's still no word on any future Bond Blu-rays (come on, MGM; you're holding out on some of the best! Give us On Her Majesty's Secret Service! Give us The Living Daylights! Give us Tomorrow Never Dies! Give us You Only Live Twice!), MGM Home Entertainment isn't entirely ignoring the works of Ian Fleming, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in the high-def format. On November 2, they will release the Bond producers' 1968 film musical adaptation of Fleming's children's book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, in Blu-ray/DVD combo packs. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was scripted by You Only Live Twice screenwriter Roald Dahl and features Bond alums Desmond Llewelyn and Gert Frobe. Dick Van Dyke stars as inventor Caractacus Potts, and Sally Ann Howes plays the Bond Girlishly-named Truly Scrumptuous. The new combo release will come in two configurations: a BD/DVD combo pack in a Blu-ray size case, and a DVD/BD combo in a more kids' section-friendly standard DVD Amray. All of the special features are on the Blu-ray. The only new ones (besides the high-def transfer, of course, and newly upgraded 7.1 audio) are kid-oriented (“Toot Sweet Symphony melody maker – the Toot Sweet Toots Musical Maestro" and “Chitty's Bang Bang Driving Game”), but happily all of the interviews and vintage promotional material from the last DVD edition is ported over, including "Remembering Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Dick Van Dyke," the featurette “A Fantasmagorical Motorcar” (about the actual car used in the film and its current owner, if memory serves), the original Sherman Brothers demos of the film’s most popular songs, vintage featurettes including “The Ditchling Tinkerer,” “Dick Van Dyke Press Interview,” and “The Potts Children's Featurette,” a photo gallery and a vintage advertising gallery including English and French versions of the theatrical trailer and several television spots. There's also a sing-a-long version of the film for the tots.
