Family/Animation

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls - start your engines. You're about to take an incredible ride with one of the most wonderful family films of all time! Now celebrating its 30th Anniversary, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang has never looked or sounded better. With its clever tunes (including the Oscar-nominated title song), marvelous cast and enchanting storyline, this delightful family film is lots of fun and simply "toot sweet" to pass up! Dick Van Dyke stars as eccentric inventor Caractacus Potts, who creates an extraordinary car called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Around the World in 80 Days on DVD sports an attractive transfer and an inside look at 1950s Hollywood. BBC Radio's Brian Sibley offers a trivia-laden commentary track, while Turner Film Classics host Robert Osborne provides some nice historical perspective in his introductions to most of the extra features. Most interesting is "Around the World with Mike Todd," a 50-minute 1968 documentary about the film's producer, covering his Broadway hits, his films, and his life with Elizabeth Taylor.

More ambitious in scope than any of its other animated films (before or to come), Disney's 1940 Fantasia was a dizzying, magical, and highly enjoyable marriage of classical music and animated images. Fantasia 2000 features some breathtaking animation and storytelling, and in a few spots soars to wonderful high points, but it still more often than not has the feel of walking in its predecessor's footsteps as opposed to creating its own path.

Groundbreaking on several counts, not the least of which was an innovative use of animation and stereophonic sound, this ambitious Disney feature has lost nothing to time since its release in 1940. Classical music was interpreted by Disney animators, resulting in surreal fantasy and playful escapism. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra provided the music for eight segments by the composers Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchielli, Bach, Dukas, and Schubert.