Vulgaria
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Vulgaria is a fictional European barony visited by the Potts family and Truly Scrumptious in their amazing flying car, in the classic children's film/stage musical, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Vulgaria is a scenic, mountainous region similar to early Austria and Switzerland. It is a remote and secluded country that will never be found on any map of the world or globe. As beautiful and ideal as Vulgaria seems at first, no children can be found playing in its streets and the citizens are a remote, aloof nation of people. When Caractacus Potts and Truly Scrumptious arrive in the country with the twins Jeremy and Jemima, they are puzzled as to why the grim-faced, desolate townspeople are horrified to see the children. Potts remarks upon this and Truly whispers to him that there is not a single child in sight.
Suddenly a fanfare sounds and the terrified citzens flee to their homes and lock themselves in. A friendly toymaker (Benny Hill) takes the family in and hides them. He explains that the children are in grave danger, as the land is ruled over by the cruel rulers, Baron Bomburst, ruler of Vulgaria alongside Baroness Bomburst. These cruel, merciless couple totally despise children, and has any children captured and murdered by the inhuman Child Catcher, although a handful of the children of Vulgaria were secretly kept hidden beneath the Vulgarian streets, in the sewers. The citizens of Vulgaria live in constant fear of their rulers and are terrified out of their lives.
Eventually, the Potts family encourage the people to rebel and the evil Bomburst couple are overthrown and exiled. Children are freed and the country's peace and happiness is at last restored.
Neuschwanstein Castle was used to portray the Baron's castle in the film. (see photo).
[edit] Notes
- Another country named 'Vulgaria' is found in the Three Stooges short film Dutiful But Dumb. The Vulgarians shoot foreign photographers as spies; the Stooges are sent by a magazine to take pictures.
- "Vulgaria" has crept into the common lexicon when it refers to a neighborhood whose smaller single-family homes have been demolished and replaced with over-sized, ostentatious, architectural behemouths commonly referred to as "McMansions".
- Vulgaria may have been of German heritage, as when Truly and Caractacus are acting as toys, the audience applauds and the German word "wunderbar" is said by some.
- In the Finnish science-fiction spoof "Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning" the Vulcans of the original Star Trek franchise are parodied as "Vulgarians" (Vulgaarit in the Finnish original).
- In the current stage Musical the two Vulgarian spies had the following dialogue:
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- Gordon: But can't I be Vulgar [A Vulgarian] AND be English?
- Boris: No! Then you would be American!
- In the Musical, Vulgaria seems to be a dictatorship. In the film it is, strictly, merely the feudal estates attaching to the incumbent barony, Baron Bomburst. A baron is one of the lower ranks of nobility. However, the extent and nature of the Baron's authority, the apparent deference of his subjects to his whims, and the size and population of the estate comprising Vulgaria tends to indicate that it far more akin to a duchy, or even a Grand Duchy.
- Vulgaria seems to border with Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
[edit] References
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