As creative as Tim Burton's new remake is, I prefer the greater warmth of this original version.
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It was wise of Warner Bros. to release both the old and the new versions of this Roald Dahl story on HD-DVD at the same time. While I still have a preference for the 1971 version, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory," the newer, 2005, Tim Burton version, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," makes a nice companion piece. If you don't already own them in standard definition and you're into high def, the two movie adaptations are different enough to warrant a possible HD-DVD investment in each one.
Years ago I read a review of "Willy Wonka" that said it was the kind of movie parents love to drag their kids to and then both of them, kids and parents, get bored. I doubt it. I never met anyone personally who didn't like this children's fantasy, youngsters or adults. In fact, it may be the sort of children's film that is as much or more appreciated by older teens and adults as by youngsters. A while back a student in one of my junior English classes mentioned aloud, for reasons I can't remember, the Oompa-Loompas, and everyone in the room recognized and seemed to appreciate the little people from the story. In the last few decades the movie has come to be officially institutionalized in our society, like "Snow White" and "Bambi." It is, in fact, a modern classic, and it made sense for WB to issue it along with the Burton version in high def.
The structure of "Willy Wonka" is much the same as "The Wizard of Oz." A child goes on a magical journey filled with laughter, adventure, fantasy, and song and learns a valuable lesson along the way. Children's writer Roald Dahl ("James and the Giant Peach," "The Witches") adapted the 1971 screenplay from his own book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," and Mel Stuart ("If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium," "One Is a Lonely Number") directed the film. Dahl was always a writer with more than children in mind, which is why "Willy Wonka" is so bizarre and entertaining for adults. It stars Gene Wilder as the world's greatest chocolate maker, a mysterious figure who long ago locked himself in his factory and hasn't been seen since. But for reasons that only become clear at the end of the movie, he decides to hold a contest to open up his plant to a few lucky people. Inside five Wonka Bars he has hidden Golden Tickets worth a trip inside his immense candy factory, plus a lifetime supply of chocolate. The world goes nuts trying to find the prize tickets.
The first person to strike gold is young Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner), a greedy, gluttonous, spoiled little German boy who is always eating. The second person to find a ticket is Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), a rich, spoiled, selfish, nasty brat. The third person is Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson), a pushy, spoiled, bad-mannered child who holds the world's record for chewing the same piece of gum. The fourth is Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen), a rude, spoiled smart aleck, who watches television all day long. And the fifth winner is our hero, Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), an honest, helpful, loving, hardworking lad.
The first third of the film takes us through the events leading up to the kids' entrance into the candy factory, and that's the part of the film I've always enjoyed the most. Charlie is so poor he lives in a one-room shack with his mother and both pairs of grandparents. The four grandparents occupy a single bed that they haven't gotten out of in years. When Charlie wins his prize, he's allowed to take one person with him and he chooses his Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson). Joe is not only his grandfather, he's Charlie's best friend and supporter: "Don't worry, Charlie, you'll find a Golden Ticket," he says, never giving up hope for his grandson.
The film never reveals its setting, but it's clearly a storybook town. The actual location shots were done in Munich, the city's gas works filling in for the chocolate factory. Once inside the factory, Mr. Wonka is anything but what we expect, and Wilder has a field day playing a character we sometimes think has a screw loose. His utter composure as each child is devilishly dispatched--one going up a chocolate flue, a second down a "bad egg" sorter, another turned into a giant blueberry, and yet a fourth disintegrating into television atoms--is a joy.
Finally, there are the songs, with lyrics and music by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley: "The Candy Man," "Cheer Up, Charlie," "I've Got a Golden Ticket," "Pure Imagination," "Oompa-Loompa-Doompa-De-Do," and "I Want It Now." Not all of the film works, mind you; I've never been too keen on the mother's number, for instance, or the fact that the mother disappears from the picture so early on. Nor does all of the picture gel well, some of it even seeming mean-spirited, although it isn't meant to be.
Yet, who can deny that the film's overall intention is positive, playful fun.
Video:
The controversial part of WB's most-recent standard-definition editions of this film was that the studio had issued it separately in widescreen and fullscreen, with neither size exactly the same as its original 1.37:1 camera negative. No question here, though; you get something very close to the film's 1.85:1 theatrical-release dimensions, filling up a 1.78:1 widescreen TV quite nicely.
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[release]19990[/release]