Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
Directed by Mel Stuart
When eccentric candy man Willy Wonka promises a lifetime supply of sweets and a tour of his chocolate factory to five lucky kids, penniless Charlie Bucket seeks the golden ticket that will make him a winner.
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What critics compared Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory to
The psychedelic sensibility is so off the charts that when Thor is guided through an off-kilter new planet, we hear the musical score of “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
The use of ‘Pure Imagination’ from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in a trippy scene that introduces the viewer to The Grandmaster’s opulent fortress is a wonderful nod to the way Goldblum plays his character.
In many ways, this film resembles 1971's Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, not only because it features a quirky recluse locked in a fantastic palace full of surprises, but because of its wildly colorful visual design which recollects the trippy, psychedelic styles of Peter Max or Yellow Submarine.
From the Day-Glo pop of its computer-generated environments to the "2001"-like rush of its almost abstract action climax, "Speed Racer" may be the most extreme head-trip movie for kids since Gene Wilder conducted us to a lethal candyland in "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" almost four decades ago.
I remember several years ago when Tim Burton remade this film as the originally titled “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” some people were irate.
A box office disappointment in its own time, this adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has come to be regarded as a children’s classic someone in the same league - if not quite on the same level - with THE WIZARD OF OZ.
Children's writer Roald Dahl ("James and the Giant Peach," "The Witches") adapted the 1971 screenplay from his own book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and Mel Stuart ("If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," "One Is a Lonely Number") directed the film.
The original Roald Dahl novel is called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory , but this film recognizes that although Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) is the protagonist, and is as decent and spunky as Dickens’ archetypal poor young hero Nicholas Nickleby, the story’s center of gravity is the "Candy Man" and his wonky world.
Children’s writer Roald Dahl (“James and the Giant Peach,” “The Witches”) adapted the screenplay from his own book, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
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There is an unbelievably tense scene reminiscent of Willy Wonka’s impossible corridor and a macabre game of Where’s Wally? (or Where’s the Whisperer?)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is one of those childhood classics that isn’t quite, a film that aspires to the whimsy and fantasy of The Wizard of Oz but somehow doesn’t really capture the magic.
Like “The Wizard of Oz” (which was likewise recently released in a special edition Blu-ray by Warner Bros.), “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was an annual favorite in my house when it came on television.
The structure of "Willy Wonka" is much the same as "The Wizard of Oz."
The first few minutes after he welcomes them into the house show the Doctor at his most Willy Wonka-ish, as he shows off his work to the delight of the children.
If you bail or fail (as the game puts it) you get nothing, like a more openly sadistic, morally-flipped Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory .
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His whiney darkness like that of the brats from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory oozes and crawls over Finn, Poe and (especially) Rey with an uncomfortable tension.
Wilder was in the middle of an incredible run of subtle comic performances, including Bonnie and Clyde , The Producers (for which he received an Oscar nomination), Blazing Saddles , and Young Frankenstein, and he was at the height of his powers here.