Willy Wonka and the Chocolate FactoryWatching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory again represents one of the most potent jolts of nostalgia I can experience. I remember many weekend afternoons sitting in front of the old cathode ray TV, popping the worn VHS copy of the film into the VCR, and watching the magical musical unfold. Visions of sugar plums and chocolate waterfalls glowed--glowed--with vibrancy. Charlie's feelings mirrored my own, a sense of wanting to have something special, and that great dream realized in a magical world of wonder.
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Adapted from the novel--Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--written by Roald Dahl, the film is at once a joyous musical, an off-kilter comedy, and a light-hearted morality play. Young Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) lives in a small shack with his four grandparents and his worked-to-the-bone mother (Diana Sowle). Their diet of cabbage water is supplemented by Charlie's own efforts to bring a shilling into the family coffer. Charlie is mystified by the Wonka candy factory in his town, where elusive candymeister Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder in a defining role) secrets away, producing his gourmet treats. One day, the word gets out that Wonka has hid five golden tickets in his candy, granting exclusive admission into his factory with the promise of a lifetime supply of chocolate. Charlie's dream to win a golden ticket sticks with him, gets him down because he understands how unlikely it would be to win. Charlie watches spoiled kids from across the world get what they want, and is crestfallen seeing his chances shrink by the day. But fate plays a hand, and Charlie does get admitted into the factory to bear witness to the awe-inspiring and outrageous oddities stored within. The idea of making a two-hour commercial for chocolate--a candy-themed children's movie in today's sucrose-phobic, child obesity-paranoid era--seems unconscionable, but the film charms and woos with musical numbers filled with sweetness and also cautiously advises about the dangers of over-indulging kids, of spoiling them, and by focusing on the madness which overtakes the world in the wake of the contest, paints a cautionary tale about the dangers of obsessive consumerism. In fact, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is ultimately a satire of entitlement and indulgence, portraying each of the little rotten kids for their vices against the rather innocent Charlie, the weak parents at the mercy of their terrible offspring. But the awful children get their due as the demented tour through the factory proceeds. I've always found it funny that whenever a new form of transportation arrives for the "survivors" to embark upon, there are always just enough seats for the remaining guests, as though Wonka knew someone would screw up before that point, and just how many would, too.
The madness which precedes the actual tour through the Wonka factory actually encompasses almost half of the movie. It is full of strange vignettes of newscasters, psychotherapists, computer engineers, and even a rich woman being exploited by kidnappers--all of them making desperate choices for the chance to get a golden ticket. These play out like the movie had become a television set surfing through the channels, but the whole world has gone mad for Wonka bars. Even just the opening montage of the production of the candy sets the audience up to crave, desire that chocolate--I've never wanted a candy bar so bad as when I watch this movie. Willy Wonka's mystique is stoked the whole while, and when brought to a roaring boil, he finally makes his entrance midway through--Gene Wilder give one of the best entrances in cinema when he hobbles out with his cane...and what follows. Willy Wonka is his factory's eccentricities personified, not just in his elaborate costume and tendency to slip into other languages, but in his raw, manic energy. Wonka remains iconic because of his exaggerated mannerisms; he is aloof and mad, whimsical and mysterious, dropping witticisms and sarcastic platitudes with aplomb, facilitating sight gags with such lines as "gives it a little kick" after dropping a pair of cleats into his secret recipe--a layer of strange frosting between the crunchy layers of kooky. As an adult, I can't help but view Wonka's test of Charlie as somewhat manipulative, but then again Wonka is playing his game by the rules of a child, and ultimately for the benefit of a child, so maybe it's important to remember that we as adults don't always get it like kids do, and that charming reminder of innocence gone by is made all the sweeter when rekindled by nostalgia.
Recommended for: Fans of charming family fare, with both humorous and touching musical numbers, recalling halcyon days of candy shops, prizes lurking in your treats, and the magic of wonder that comes with that child-like amazement of discovery.
The madness which precedes the actual tour through the Wonka factory actually encompasses almost half of the movie. It is full of strange vignettes of newscasters, psychotherapists, computer engineers, and even a rich woman being exploited by kidnappers--all of them making desperate choices for the chance to get a golden ticket. These play out like the movie had become a television set surfing through the channels, but the whole world has gone mad for Wonka bars. Even just the opening montage of the production of the candy sets the audience up to crave, desire that chocolate--I've never wanted a candy bar so bad as when I watch this movie. Willy Wonka's mystique is stoked the whole while, and when brought to a roaring boil, he finally makes his entrance midway through--Gene Wilder give one of the best entrances in cinema when he hobbles out with his cane...and what follows. Willy Wonka is his factory's eccentricities personified, not just in his elaborate costume and tendency to slip into other languages, but in his raw, manic energy. Wonka remains iconic because of his exaggerated mannerisms; he is aloof and mad, whimsical and mysterious, dropping witticisms and sarcastic platitudes with aplomb, facilitating sight gags with such lines as "gives it a little kick" after dropping a pair of cleats into his secret recipe--a layer of strange frosting between the crunchy layers of kooky. As an adult, I can't help but view Wonka's test of Charlie as somewhat manipulative, but then again Wonka is playing his game by the rules of a child, and ultimately for the benefit of a child, so maybe it's important to remember that we as adults don't always get it like kids do, and that charming reminder of innocence gone by is made all the sweeter when rekindled by nostalgia.
Recommended for: Fans of charming family fare, with both humorous and touching musical numbers, recalling halcyon days of candy shops, prizes lurking in your treats, and the magic of wonder that comes with that child-like amazement of discovery.