Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory . Weekly Alibi . 06-06-97

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

DIRECTED BY: Mel Stuart

REVIEWED: 06-06-97

If I have to tell you how damn cool this movie is, I'm gonna have to slap you. You know the story: The mysterious Willy Wonka, hidden behind the walls of his chocolate factory, inserts five golden tickets into his tasty Wonka bars. The lucky kids who find them will get to visit the factory and receive a lifetime supply of chocolate! We're introduced to a passel of gluttonous, greedy little bastards, all of whom find tickets in one annoyingly bratty fashion after another. Then there's Charlie Bucket, the sweet kid who loves his mom and grandparents and has little hope of even buying a Wonka bar, let alone finding a golden ticket. But, for one startling moment, fortune favors the well-behaved, and our boy Charlie stumbles onto a ticket. We follow the kids (and their equally-snotty parents) through the bizarre wonderland of the chocolate factory, where each little creep meets a nasty fate based on his-or-her particular sin. Now, while this flick has always been one of my favorites, it scared the living hell out of me as a kid. Wonka's rival, the evil Slugworth, spooked me almost as much as Perry Mason did (and I was really only scared of his theme music). And, as it turns out, watching it now traumatized me in a whole new way due to the realization that I've spent most of my adult life dating women who seem to have been channeling the terrifying Veruca Salt. See it. (Warner Home Video)

--Scott Phillips

Film Vault Suggested Links
Barney's Great Adventure
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
The Little Mermaid

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