Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

7/10

Starring

Gene Wilder

Jack Albertson

Peter Ostrum

Roy Kinnear

Directed by Mel Stuart

I was born fourteen years after this cult classic was made, but the invitation of the beautiful Willy Wonka intro song:
“Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination”
was all the juice I needed to watch this movie over and over again when I was younger. I just wanted to be in that world, to be one of the children who got to experience the magic of the chocolate factory. This 1971 adaptation became so beloved that many of my peers’ childhoods weren’t complete until they had seen it.

The film tells the story of a poor boy named Charlie Bucket, who lives with his mother and four grandparents. There’s a famous man named Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), known worldwide for making the best chocolates. Wonka stays out of the public eye, and his factory doesn’t allow visitors.

Then, to everyone’s surprise, Wonka decides to open his factory to visitors—but only to those who find a Golden Ticket in one of his chocolate bars. There are five tickets in total, and each ticket allows the child and one accompanying adult inside. Charlie finds one of the tickets, and he gets to enter Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory along with four other children from around the world. The movie follows their journey through the factory.

The film is based on the 1964 children’s book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Dahl also wrote James and the Giant Peach, Matilda, Fantastic Mr. Fox, and The BFG, all of which have been adapted into films.

Dahl was initially part of the scriptwriting team but later left the production and didn’t approve of the final result due to deviations from his original plot. However, the movie maintained the main theme and gave us the late Gene Wilder in one of his best performances. The film allowed his eccentric nature to shine on screen, accompanied by beautiful music. Even though Wilder isn’t known for singing, he delivered. The movie may not have been a box office hit when it was released, but its cult following and constant TV broadcasts have turned it into a classic.

The story also has a second adaptation, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. This version gave us more insight into Willy Wonka’s origin—something Burton created for the movie—and had a different ending for Wonka.

I’ll be watching this 1971 adaptation again, just for the joy of being taken to a world of Pure Imagination.