Blu-ray Review HTF BLU-RAY REVIEW: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

No sync problems noticed with my 7.1 either. Although I didn't look for anything at all...didn't notice anything that bothered my viewing.

 

[Andrew Bryan]

The main out of sync areas on the 7.1 track are the opening junkyard scene and the childcatcher "lollipop" sequence. The whole 7.1 track is very muffled. Play it alongside The Sound of Music 7.1 track and see the difference. Both should sound like Sound of Music. Same arranger, conductor and thus recording producer. The elements would have been similar. The stereo track is identical to the soundtrack on the laser disc. It does however seem to have too much gain on the bluray version with the voices sometimes peaking to the point of distortion, and in Lovely Lonely Man the strings phase across the channels on the bluray. The DVD did have awful sync problems. I have seen both 35mm and 70mm prints of the film in recent years and there was not a single sync issue. Overall, there is way too much compression, to the point of cymbal crashes have been nulled. It beggars belief that somebody didn't refer to the stereo track as a reference point.

 

[Howard S]

I must admit that I didn't detect any sync problems on a casual viewing of the film, but then I watched more than half of it listening to the stereo soundtrack! It was the muffled and seemingly compressed nature of the soundtrack which drew my attention. Greg appears to have confirmed that the US disc is the same, which is a shame as I miss the center speaker when listening to the stereo track and the (albeit limited) use of the surrounds - which I'm assuming would be closer to how the film would have originally been heard in 70mm theaters. Is there a possibility that the multi-channel tracks that still exist, from which the 7.1 has been created, are themselves of a poor quality, and some 'covering up' has been necessary to hide the flaws? And that the stereo mix has originated from a higher quality, or less degraded, source? It's a shame that the quality of soundtrack transfers of older films, especially as in this case, where it is the only way to hear a representation of the original multi-channel soundmix, never seems to get the same critique or attention in online reviews and forum discussion as the picture quality . Accordingly, some of the film studios won't perhaps perceive perhaps that they need to get the sound right too!

 

[Andrew Bryan]

The Stereo track is dolby coded, 4.1, Centre, R Front, L Front, Rear surround. This Stereo Track was sourced from the 70mm masters so the BluRay should have been sourced from this. It seems to me that the BluRay has used the Mix created for the DVD. Both are definitely from a different source to the Stereo Track which also appears on the Laser Disc. The cliffhanger music before Intermission is the indicator of this. On the LD/Stereo track (as it was in the cinema) this chord was abrupt and had a definite end. Obviously, two versions of the music were recorded. Pre-Intermission which was this, and post-intermission where the chord fadesand becomes the flying music. On the DVD and bluray 7.1 track tthey use the post interval version for the intermission cliffhanger. Following the cliffhanger strike you can hear voices and what follows being faded out. I fail to understand this when they clearly had the original 70mm cinema release elements for the Laser Disc.

 

[GMpasqua]

World Premiere Dec 16th 1968. Opens Dec 17th