This text comprises spoilers for the season 1 finale of “It: Welcome to Derry.”
The “It: Welcome to Derry” season 1 finale opens with Pennywise the Clown (Invoice Skarsgård) singing a catchy tune to some faculty youngsters — a traditional jingle about desirous to eat their faces. Afterward, Pennywise makes use of his powers to lure the children out of the varsity and into his cart for the actual nightmare to start. It is a unusual, horrifying, and downright creepy sequence — and it would make viewers consider a sure villain from one of many finest musicals of all time.
In Ken Hughes’ “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” youngsters are laid low with the evil Little one Catcher (Sir Robert Helpmann), who lures them into his cart with sweet and rides away. Identical to Pennywise, Little one Catcher can be recognized for scaring his victims along with his phrases, utilizing traces like “The Baroness may have your enamel for a necklace and your eyeballs for earrings” to exude pure menace.
Pennywise’s strategies are extra violent than Little one Catcher’s, certain, however there are sufficient similarities between the pair for this homage to make sense. What’s extra, the nod to “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” really ties into a number of the extra controversial features of “It: Welcome to Derry.”
Pennywise and the Little one Catcher share allegorical qualities
Whereas he’s acknowledged as an impactful villain, the legacy of Little one Catcher is sort of controversial and complex. Critics of the character argue that he’s an offensive caricature of Jewish stereotypes due to his vogue sense and bodily look. On the flip facet, his storyline in “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” sees him spherical up outlaw youngsters on behalf of an authoritarian regime, which may be interpreted as a commentary on Nazi Germany.
“It: Welcome to Derry” examines the horrors of racism and antisemitism, with Pennywise usually utilizing his talents to manifest evil that exists within the hearts of human beings. The notorious lampshade scene in episode 1, wherein a younger Jewish little one is tormented, is a reference to the Nazis’ making ornaments from focus camp prisoners’ pores and skin in World Warfare II. In the meantime, the main character demise in “It: Welcome to Derry” episode 7 was the results of a coordinated assault by a white mob on a gaggle of Black folks. It is disturbing to look at.
Each Pennywise and Little one Catcher are villains whose allegorical qualities are plain to see, which provides extra weight to the “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” homage within the “It: Welcome to Derry” season 1 finale. Nonetheless, this might need been coincidental. On the finish of the day, a easy story about youngsters being dragged away in carts is horrifying with out taking the darkish real-world connotations under consideration — however it’s there to be interpreted.
