Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Runtime: 100 minutes

Directed by: Mel Stuart

Starring: Gene Wilder (RIP), Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Julie Dawn Cole, Denise Nickerson

From: Paramount; what a bad move to later give up the rights to this to Warner Brothers, which later made a lot of money with this. Whoops

Yep, I went with the obvious here, but that is OK. I was saddened by the shocking news yesterday, so I figured it was time to watch this again last night. It was a wise decision. Look at my Letterboxd review below for the details:

While this is the most obvious thing to watch after the horrible news that broke yesterday, I hadn't seen this in years (of course I've watched it a handful of times in my life, including the rather odd experience of seeing it while donating plasma) and plus there have been plenty here who have revisited this favorite in the past 24 hours; I figured I should do so, although I do not love it like many do; at least I still rate it highly.

Now, as an adult I can laugh that while the titular Willy Wonka acts like a weird A-hole, at least it's because he's either dealing with even bigger A-holes who deserve to be torn apart in an incredibly sarcastic manner or it's to test the integrity of the Mr. Charlie Bucket. Among all the strange acid trip images, bizarre dialogue and vertically challenged orange men with green hair, the film does have a lot of nice messages for “the kids”, such as “don't watch too much TV”, “don't eat so damn much food”, “don't be a brat”, etc. It was nice to see a nice kid from a poor family get rewarded for not being an asshat. Plus, while for some reason some people on the Internet have made comments about Grandpa Joe “being lazy” for suddenly getting out of bed after 20 years and dancing about... heck, some people even created a Facebook page about hating him... he is a cool character too.

The movie definitely has plenty of unforgettable moments, from the vibrant factory that has plenty of oddities a child would love, to the songs the Oompa Loompas sing, the nice songs in general and how garish & abominable the other 4 children were. But it is Wilder who is the most memorable part of the picture. He manages to always be charming even when he acts strange and isn't always “a nice guy”. The film was not popular when it came out but TV and VHS later changed that and it lead to such things as several memes. Not to use a cliché but I could not possibly imagine anyone else in the role; it definitely would have been a different movie, and probably not as revered.

The ending of the movie-where Wonka talks about “not living forever and not wanting to try”-is especially sad now, along with hearing that Wilder had Alzheimer's but that was kept a secret because he did not want any children to find out and be upset by it... oh, “the feels”, as some would say. I'll remember him for the various films I've seen him in (I definitely haven't reviewed all of those for Letterboxd; sometime in the future I'll see some of those. For now I'll try to remember all the entertainment he provided in the flicks I saw rather than be downtrodden that he passed away.