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    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - W 3 Mins Read

    Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

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    Wonka Bars and golden tickets, Oompa Loompas and a chocolate river, snozzberries and lickable wallpaper, golden eggs and everlasting gobstoppers . . . This was the world of Willy Wonka (pictured above) – candy man, inventor, and scourge of naughty children.

    Like the Roald Dahl book on which it was based, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory was a dark fantasy with strong ideas about the nasty habits of children.

    The reclusive Wonka lives in his closed factory, churning out chocolates but never showing his face to the public.

    All the world loves Wonka treats, so when he announces a contest with a factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate as its prize, Wonkamania seizes the globe.

    Nobody wants to find a prize-winning golden ticket more than young Charlie Bucket, a poor lad who has to scrape up funds simply to afford two Wonka Bars.

    As luck (or fate) would have it, the boy happens upon the fifth and final golden ticket, earning him and his Grandpa Joe a trip to Wonka’s factory.

    The other four winners are a motley mess of miscreant moppets: greedy Augustus Gloop, television addict Mike Teevee, gum-smacking Violet Beauregard and spoiled rotten Veruca Salt. Wonka himself is an eccentric kook, a verse-spouting, purple-suited oddball who alternates between charming and downright creepy.

    Inside the factory, the children and their parents discover a land of fanciful gadgets, diminutive factory workers called Oompa Loompas and gobs and gobs of wall-to-wall candy.

    The children also learn the price of bad manners, as one by one they receive a poetically just comeuppance.

    Augustus Gloop is sucked into the chocolate river, Violet Beauregard eats the three-course meal chewing-gum and turns into a big piece of fruit, Mike Teevee is shrunk after being transported via TV waves, and Veruca Salt is rejected as a ‘bad egg’ after trying to steal a golden goose!

    willywonka_025

    Only the good-natured Charlie has a chance at winning the grand prize, a reward beyond his imagination.

    Audiences in 1971 didn’t quite know what to make of the film. It had bright colours, child actors, and memorable songs from Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley (including The Candy Man, Pure Imagination, the Oompa Loompa variations and Veruca’s scene-stealing temper tantrum, I Want It Now).

    But the movie also had disappearing children, a psychedelic boat ride and a candy maker who seemed to dislike most children.

    It wasn’t everyone’s cup of chocolatey tea – it was a box office disaster, barely scraping back its $3 million budget – but those who loved it did so with a passion. Annual television airings brought the film a cult following, a kind of Rocky Horror Picture Show for preteens.

    By the time Warner Bros. rolled out a re-mastered 25th-anniversary edition, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory had become a beloved children’s classic.

    Willy Wonka
    Gene Wilder
    Grandpa Joe

    Jack Albertson
    Charlie

    Peter Ostrum
    Mr. Salt

    Roy Kinnear
    Veruca Salt

    Julie Dawn Cole
    Mr. Beauregard

    Leonard Stone
    Violet Beauregard

    Denise Nickerson
    Mrs. Teevee

    Nora Denney
    Mike Teevee

    Paris Themmen
    Mrs. Gloop

    Ursula Reit
    Augustus Gloop

    Michael Bollner
    Mrs. Bucket

    Diana Sowle
    Bill

    Aubrey Woods
    Mr. Turkentine

    David Battley
    Mr. Slugworth

    Günter Meisner

    Director
    Mel Stuart

    Video

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