Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)
 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 - 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!
 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, 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.
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