Goofs

During the Baron's birthday party, Truly (as a doll) dances on top of a music box spindle within an unfolded screen of mirrors, visible on the floor for all the guests to see. When Caractacus (as a puppet) rises from his box and starts to dance, the camera pulls back, and Truly's music box is gone. When Caractacus goes over to sing a duet with Truly, she and her music box are visible again.

When Truly's car runs in to the lake, the children's faces are dirty. When they arrive home, their faces are clean. When they are getting ready to eat, their faces are dirty again.

The two spies carry a painting of the bridge and tunnel, wrapped onto a pole. Seen from the railway tracks, the pole is about half the length of the bridge's parapet. This is followed by a cut to two shots from the road looking towards the bridge, as the painting drops over the edge, and the pole suddenly spans the entire length of the parapet.

The Goodyear logo on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang's tires changes from white-painted letters to unpainted letters.

When Caractacus pushes Chitty Chitty Bang Bang out of his workshop, the tires become coated with sand and dirt from the dirt driveway. In the next shot, the car is in the same place, and the tires are clean.

During the opening credits, an ad at the 1908 British Grand Prix uses the American spelling of "tires", instead of the English "tyres"

During the main song sequence, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang passes a J94 "Austerity" Saddle Tank locomotive with "GWR" (Great Western Railway) on the side. The J94 was built in the 1940s, and the Great Western Railway never operated any J94s. The GWR livery was also deep green, not blue.

In the candy factory when the dog is shown walking on the conveyor belt, it is moving in the wrong direction. If it ran in the direction shown when making candy, it would be feeding the finished candy back into the machine not delivering it out.

Truly would never have needed to have her car towed out of the water during any of her mishaps, since the wheels of the car were always on firm ground; in fact, she actually does reverse out of the water the first time.

The "G" in the "Grand Prix Deutschland 1908" banner is actually a fraktur "S".

The junkyard owner tells the children that their father must buy the car before tomorrow morning, when the other man will come to pick it up. Counting the nights in the movie, the children go to sleep twice before Caractacus buys the car. He missed the deadline by one day.

This is only speculation, as the Junkman said he would pick up the car on Wednesday, and it isn't established what day the scene is set on, so it's entirely possible this was a Monday, so between unsuccessfully trying to sell the Toot Sweets and then making money at the carnival, Caractacus could've very well gotten the money to Mr. Coggins and bought the car before the Junkman came back.

When the spies try to catch Chitty under a bridge, Lord Scrumptious' car drives through their picture of the tunnel and into their truck. When car breaks through the picture, it looks as if nothing is behind it - no truck - but in the next cut, the car goes up the ramp and into the truck. In fact, the truck is just visible through a tear in the picture, so this is not a goof.

When they take Chitty out for the first time, Grandpa says he is going to Alaska. At the time, it was the District of Alaska or the Alaska Territory. It wouldn't be unusual for someone to shorten the name.

White streaks appear and disappear from Jeremiah Potts' blonde hair through the movie. It may be a lighting trick.

When Truly runs into the pond, the car's engine is still running until Caractacus goes to get her. The car wasn't far enough in the pond to prevent her from backing out, like she did the first time she ended up in the pond after swerving to avoid the Potts children.

After Truly brings the children home, in mid-afternoon, their father tells them to go inside for tea. By the time they finish eating a little later, their father tells the children to go up to bed because it's dark.

The cooking machine heats plates hot enough to fry eggs and sausages before sending them down the ramp to the table. When the plates and metal roller frames arrive at the table, they should still be hot enough to cause burns. Caractacus and the children grab the plates with their bare hands.

When they get up from the table, the cooking machine is not in operation, yet the power switch for the cooking machine is in the "on" position.

During the chase scene with Chitty as a boat, close-ups of the Baron and his officers on the bridge of his yacht show small wrinkles in the funnels behind them, revealing them as foil covered props. Wide shots show solid, brass-looking funnels.

A medium to large tan dog either falls, is pushed, or jumps off the second floor in the "dog invasion" scene.

In the "Toot Sweets" musical number at the end when all the dogs are rampaging through the sweet factory, just before Lord Scrumptious yells "What's going on?" look in the far background just before the edit. A single dog leaps from the uppermost railing (a good 50ft) to an uncertain end.

When Grandpa Potts first arrives in Vulgaria, he says "On behalf of Her Majesty, the Queen..." In 1910, the reigning British monarch was Edward VII, or George V, who took over after Edward died that same year.

When Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is first hauled back to the Potts' farm, Grandpa Potts is reading a National Geographic with a color cover. In 1910, the covers were text.

During the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" reprise, when they are floating on the water, a tall radio tower is visible in the background.

The opening sequence shows four races: the 1907 British Grand Prix, 1908 French Grand Prix, 1908 German Grand Prix, and 1909 British Grand Prix. The first British Grand Prix was in 1926. The German precursor to the Grand Prix was the Prinz-Heinrich-Fahrt in 1908; it became the Grand Prix in 1926.

In the film, Caractacus invents the first vacuum cleaner in 1910. The first vacuum cleaner was invented in the 1860s, and the first electric vacuum cleaner was invented around 1900.

When everyone pushes the car, Caractacus looks over to Grandpa and says "Comfortable, Grandpa?" His mouth movements do not match the dialog.

During the song "Toot Sweets", some of the whistling isn't in sync with the music.

When the Baroness ejects from the car, the Baron shoots a hole in her "parachute" skirt, causing it to deflate and allowing her to come down. As the Baroness falls into the lake, a circular pattern from the filming-helicopter's downdraft is visible just before she hits the water.

In the seaside picnic scenes, the overhead shot of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang arriving at the beach and leaving the beach show an underwater ramp on the right side, used when the car was in the water. It's also visible during another beach scene.

Reflections and shadows from professional lighting equipment are visible in Caractacus' home and workshop.

When Grandpa Potts lands in the castle, the shadow of a crane is visible in the background of multiple shots.

When Caractacus Potts tests his rocket pack, a visible cable pulls him along the ground.

When Chitty drives off the cliff in pursuit of Grandpa, it drives off the Beachy Head cliff near Eastbourne but then as it levels in the next shot it is flying towards The Needles on the Isle of Wight many miles to the west. In the next shot however, it is back at Beachy Head, flying past the red and white striped lighthouse.

As innovative as Professor Potts 'Breakfast Machine' is, there are some errors. First, instead of using a frying pan, the eggs sausages were cooked on plates heated on a fire. Flames that close to ceramic plates would not just heat up the food but likely crack the plates. Second, with all the gadgets, there was no utensil to turn the sausages. Therefore, they will only be cooked on on side. Third, there was no oil so the eggs and sausage would stick to the plate. Or perhaps the plates were oiled beforehand.

Strictly speaking, the aircraft in the film is not a zeppelin, it's a semi-rigid airship. A zeppelin is a vehicle with a rigid framework that contains multiple gas cells used to lift the craft into the air. Passenger compartments and mechanical areas are usually within the framework.

Truly asks about the castle in German, saying "Der Schloss?" This is a neuter noun, so the correct way to say it is "Das Schloss?"

In "Me Ol' Bamboo", when they all run to grab the poles, the left most character has a hiccup where he either dropped or saved the stick from dropping.

When the Child Catcher says to the Toymaker, "this nose of mine has never failed me..." you can see Benny Hill is trying not to laugh.

In "Me Ol' Bamboo", the end of the scene each row joins a twisting dance in succession. After Caractacus does his twist dance, the guy on the left kneeling (off of the stage) almost jumps prematurely to twist a row ahead of his own row. Very subtle.