Sweet!
If you’ve been living under a rock or you were born in the last 5-7 years (because after seven you should have seen this), let me explain to you the fun that is Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory.
Charlie Bucket is a happy, poor kid living with his mom and relatives in a broken down shack. All the kids around him have hopes and dreams, while Charlie only thinks about how his family is going to survive and eat. When a candy manufacturer, who has been reclusive, sends out a contest with five golden tickets hidden somewhere in the world in his candy, things get interesting. Four kids from all across the globe find a ticket and Charlie ends up fortunate enough to obtain one by dumb luck as well. Willy Wonka, the candy man, takes the kids into his factory for a rare tour. The contest is more than a tour; whoever ends up making it through the tour without messing up gets the grand prize of a lifetime supply of chocolate. Isn’t that enough motivation for any child to be good? Apparently not.
While this film was based on the children’s book, the name was changed due to a deal struck with the Nestle corporation to do a candy tie-in. There were other reasons why the name was changed to (think 1971 and what war was going on), but we won’t go into that. The film was still memorable despite the change in names and the addition of musical numbers. Directed by Mel Stuart and written by the original other of the book, Roald Dahl, the movie has become nothing short of entertaining for all ages. The balance of musical numbers and the fantasy of what a candy factory looked like and ran like, made this movie work. My kids watched this blu-ray release with me last week and were just fascinated by the geese laying golden eggs. They sat there mystified at how a goose can produce gold, but like many generations they just accepted the notion as fact (they are 7 and 5, cut them some slack!). Anyway, that’s the first great thing about Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; its longevity. For a movie that was made nearly forty years ago, it has survived many different generations. Does it look a bit aged? Yes, but that’s not the point. The innocence of the film carries it beyond such an obvious complaint. Technically most of the clothes that are in the movie are nearly back in style, if you really wanted to argue about it.
With all of this said, Roald Dahl and Mel Stuart need to be credited for making this film timeless. Dahl needs some nods because he created a colorful, surreal world that takes our breath away everytime we enter into it. For example, when the kids/adults/Wonka enter the tasting room for the first time it still gives me a rumbling in my tummy. I can taste the chocolate river, the whip cream on the mushroom, the giant gummy bears and the butterscotch flowers. I have seen this movie more than 20 times in my life and I still want to be in that room. Dahl created such a deep, imaginative locale that all your senses are consumed by it. Who doesn’t want to lick wallpaper or fly in the air with fizzy lifting soda? Who doesn’t want to get a golden egg from a goose or get on the truck that spews bubbles? Dahl created all of this in his head and translated it perfectly to paper for Mel Stuart and crew.
Mel Stuart needs some major kudos for balancing out such a task. He transformed Dahl’s imagination from paper to picture and did it so well that you go through the previous paragraph’s experience. He picked the right kids to play the right characters. To this day I’m still extremely annoyed by Julie Dawn Cole’s Veruca Salt. I have always wanted her poor father to end up slapping the (bleep) out of her mouth. She was the perfect spoiled brat, even more so than the most recent version of this film. The perfect casting was Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. He looks like a candy man. He sports the imagination of someone who thinks way outside of the box simply by the way he looks and reacts with everyone.
You have to credit Stuart for the musical portion of this movie. The songs are magical for this type of film and aren’t forced one bit. There is always a song in musicals that simply doesn’t belong or seems forced, but this movie is evenly put together in the musical department. Each one of the songs is memorable, though I would bet top dollar that ‘The Candy Man’ song is the first one that comes to your head when you think of this film.
Now with all of this said, I do have one single complaint about the film. Why the hell wasn’t Charlie given free candy at the candy shop at the beginning of the movie? If you know that answer please email me at: nathan~AT~digitalchumps.com
Tasty on blu-ray
Shifting gears a bit, the big reason why this movie is getting released is because of the HD upgrade. Warner Brothers is a very close second behind Universal Studios with transferring its movies to blu-ray quality. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is one of the prettiest movies WB has released on blu-ray. It has overtaken the previous top BD release from WB (A Clockwork Orange). Of course, this blu-ray has a very unfair advantage as the movie is extremely colorful and bright, which makes it easier for the picture quality to be nice and beautiful. Reds, blacks, whites all come out quite visually delicious in HD. Warner Brothers has taken great care in preserving the majestic nature of this film and has even added a nice remastered audio track to reinforce that dedication. Simply put, this is the best-looking Warner Brothers classic on blu-ray, to date.
To add on to that, Warner Brothers also included a very detailed booklet as the blu-ray case. Much like its Amadeus release earlier this year, the booklet includes notes on casting, the creation of the project and (unlike Amadeus) it also features lyrics for some of the songs (regretfully not all of them; which is very sad). The hardback blu-ray case is quite stylish.
As for features, here’s what you’re looking at:
• Delicious documentary: Pure Imagination: The Story of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
• Mouth-watering commentary with the Wonka Kids
• Four scrumptious sing-along songs
• Tasty vintage featurette
• Theatrical trailer
All of the features are good, but I have to give some extra kudos to the commentary. You may not be a huge fan of commentary, but it’s worth your time to go back and watch the film with the commentary on. The wonka kids are hilarious (sans the German kid — he barely talks).