Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [G]

When Willy Wonka, the most famous candy maker in the world, hides five golden tickets in five chocolate bars, the entire world is plunged into a craze of chocolate and sweets. Poor Charlie Bucket watches as other kids who can afford to by chocolate bars everyday find the golden tickets one by one until there is only one left in the entire world. But as luck would have it, Charlie finds some money in the street and buys the bar with the last remaining ticket. So begins the happiest day of Charlie’s life. 

Based on the book by Roald Dahl, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a timeless family film filled with memorable songs, lessons in manners, and brilliant sets. It’s a world of pure imagination. 

When Willy Wonka, the world’s most famous candy maker, hides five golden tickets inside the wrappings of five chocolate bars, the world is plunged into a craze of chocolate and sweets. As Wonkamania sweeps the globe, poor Charlie Bucket watches as the kids who can afford to buy chocolate bars everyday find the golden tickets one by one until there is only one left in the entire world. But, as luck would have it, Charlie finds some money in the street and buys the chocolate bar with the last remaining ticket. With the prize being a tour of Wonka’s factory and a lifetime supply of chocolate, so begins the happiest day of Charlie’s life. 

Not dissimilar to the sets of The Wizard of Oz, what was striking about this movie was the dazzling and extravagant sets that were made within a budget. They all look fake and plastic, but you cannot help but stare. 

What I find most intriguing about this movie (I can’t remember if I was told this or read it somewhere) is the fact that Roald Dahl who wrote the original story, also wrote the screenplay, obviously deliberately making some changes to the demise of the children, in particular Veruca Salt’s demise. He then hated the movie when it was completed. You have to stop and wonder why write something and then change it and then hate what you’ve created? Funny old world isn’t it? 

Gene Wilder stars as Willy Wonka and he was great. Gene tends to scream in anything that he’s in, but if you overlook that, you can appreciate his exuberant comedic stylings. As Willy Wonka, he was loud, sincere, silly, contrary, ecstatic and a whole bunch of other emotions. He’s just brilliant from the word “go”. 

Starring Peter Ostrum, Jack Albertson, Dodo Denney, Roy Kinnear, Julie Dawn Cole, Leonard Stone, Denise Nickerson, Paris Themmen, Ursula Reit, Michael Bollner, Diana Sowle, David Battley, and Aubrey Woods, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a timeless classic filled with songs, memorable characters, lessons in manners, nifty special effects, and a great story. 

There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be.