I have yet to meet a single person who does not at least enjoy watching this movie for any number of reasons. Mel Stuart's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the adaptation of Roald Dahl's 1964 children's book, was a massive part of my childhood, as well as the painfully criticized 2005 version with Johnny Depp. Thankfully, this original film still holds up to this day and provides some amazing storytelling and magical settings for these children to, well, perish in. The passive-aggressive uncertainty of every creative choice made in this film might scare some people off from enjoying this masterpiece, and rightfully so, but it is frankly what I enjoy most about this story. This film is a fantastic example of how to properly capture the original, chaotic energy of a children's book written by an arguably deranged author and the fantastic, late Gene Wilder was cast perfectly to lead this all. Yet, as eerily cheerful and mysteriously entrancing as this film may be, there is no doubt in my mind that it has cemented itself as a classic for generations.
Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), an extremely famous chocolatier and founder of the largest candy factory on the planet, sends out five golden tickets in his famous Wonka bars to be found by a handful of children. When Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) ends up buying one of the lucky bars, he goes with his grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) to the factory for a day full of tumultuous fun with the other children in a secret test to see who is the truest of heart. This absolutely manic story could not have come from the mind of anyone other than Roald Dahl and the fact that he wrote the script for this film makes it all the better. Dahl's story and its true insanity might have been lost if someone else had tried to adapt his book and even though Dahl is not usually one to write for the screen, he did a fantastic job tying everything together in a short, neat, package. Dahl writing the screenplay also makes much more sense as to why this initial cinematic version of the story is much more faithful to the original novel. In my opinion, it is always best suited for movies adapted from books for the author themselves to be involved so as to translate their vision to the screen. Dahl's script does an amazing job of this and he also makes plenty of distinctions between his book and this film to make them stand apart just the right amount. This movie, while childlike in nature, has a surprisingly mature tone to it and this is what brings me the most enjoyment. The characters are written so well and the chemistry that they all have as a group touring the factory makes for some unforgettable moments and quotable scenes. I also love the ambiguity regarding the character of Wonka himself and lots of the story's choices. Where Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory went wrong was explaining itself far too often. The audience does not necessarily always need to know about Wonka's backstory or about where he found the Oompa Loompas, which takes away from the magic of this candyman who runs the largest chocolate factory in the world. Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, however, avoids these problems by relying on Wilder to carry these questionable yet humorous qualities within him. There is no need to know the deeper reasoning behind Wonka as a character when you have his mystical aura making the audience comfortable.
Mel Stuart's direction throughout this film is incredible. I have not watched this film entirely through for quite a number of years now and I just now remember how late into the film the audience is actually thrown into the chocolate factory. That is not bad, however, because the first 45 minutes or so chronicling the world's pandemonium over getting a golden ticket is amazing. It was so fascinating to see how Stuart handled all of the comedic and subtly frightening scenes from all around the world and the insane lengths that people would go to just to find one of the five chocolate bars. These sequences not only make for some of the greatest laughs throughout this movie but help to reflect much of these filmmakers' concern for extreme consumerism. Inescapable consumerism and the greediness of human nature are major themes riddling this film but the way that Stuart humanizes this story into the lovely little character of Charlie says so much about his talents as a director. This is also due in part to the unforgettably iconic performance by Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. He was cast absolutely perfectly in this movie and his slightly cynical attitude towards the most arrogant of the children was hilarious. Not only is Wilder the best portrayal of Wonka that we have ever gotten but the other performances from the children in this film were great as well. All of these performers are also very musically talented and that was obviously an important part of this film. There are some songs that are a bit less memorable than others but the musical scenes flow so smoothly in and out of this story and do not feel out of place at all. The set and costume design of this film is also vastly impressive: the fact that every different set had to be made with a wildly different color palette and style of production design is completely crazy to me. The set pieces being equal parts wonderful and terrifying help to make this film the legendary tale that it has become.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a sugar-crazed film that will never die and regardless of how many iterations of this story studios produce, nothing can capture the magic of this original. Gene Wilder is practically synonymous with this role and the fact that this story rings in the minds of people even today is phenomenal. Every kid's dream is to spend a lifetime living in a candy factory but Stuart, Dahl, and Wilder embody its dark side just as well, if not better.
My Rating: ★★★★★
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