Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory Film Review

 

In just a few short days we get the latest adaptation of the classic Roald Dhal story Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. As such I thought that it was only right that I take a look at a film that I haven't seen in it's entirety at all as the latest film does seem to be a prequel to this film and so then join me as I review that is made up of pure imagination with the with in question being called simply just Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" enjoy.

The plot of this film is when Charlie Bucket and five children from all other the world win the chance to tour a famous chocolate factory owned by the reclusive Willy Wonka. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with the films plot being really fun and inventive with it also being full to the brim of childlike wonder which goes to make the film as whole seem rather timeless and this is a plot that both kids and adults will find to really entertaining as this is a rather entertaining plot and a really engaging plot as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka , Jack Albertson as Grandpa Joe and Peter Ostrum as Charlie Bucket. Also starring in this film is Roy Kinnear as Henry Salt , Julie Dawn Cole as Veruca Salt , Leonard Stone as Sam Beauregarde , Denise Nickerson as Violet Beauregarde , Dodo Denney as Mrs. Teevee , Paris Themmen as Mike Teevee , Ursula Reit as Mrs. Gloop , Michael Böllner as Augustus Gloop , Diana Sowle as Mrs. Bucket , Aubrey Woods as Bill , David Battley as Mr. Turkentine , Günter Meisner as Arthur Slugworth / Mr. Wilkinson and Walker Edmiston as The Voice Of Arthur Slugworth / Mr. Wilkinson.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With all of this films cast members both young and old turning in some really good and solid performances with the added plus of none of the kid actors coming across as being annoying which is a very hard thing to pull off with the acting in this film really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is so good that all the cast of this film have to do is just say the lines as they written and a good performance will come out of them naturally.

To be frank Willy Wonka is quite easily the best character in this film as he is just so entertaining in every way possible. As when he needs to be he is very childlike and full of wonder and yet when he has to be he can quite scary and frightening all of which make the character come across as someone who is a kid at heart but at the same time knows that if he doesn't scare people a few times then things just don't go according to how he wants them to go and while that does make the character seem like someone who likes to be in control given that he's spent the past several years on his own these kind of tendencies do make sense as for the past several years he's had no one to talk to and no one to really tell him that how he's acting isn't right and while yes Mfr. Wilkinson has been working for Wonka we don't really know when he started working for him or what his job even is for that matter. 

This film is of course based of off the 1964 "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" which was written by this films co-screenwriter Roald Dhal. After doing a very quick read of the books Wikipedia page apart from a few changes here and there mostly relating to things like how certain kid characters left the tour the film does seem to be a fairly direct adaptation of the book which does make alot of sense given that they share a writer however this film version also has two uncredited writers after Roald Dhal left the project due to "creative differences" with those writers being David Seltzer and Robert Kaufman who combined made Willy Wonka more of a focus of the film then Charlie himself with Robert Kaufman even adding in the hysteria about finding the golden tickets something that wasn't shown in the original book.

This film does feature songs written by Goldfinger and You Only Live Twice song writer  Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Sadly this is where the film starts to fall apart as alot of the films songs just aren't that good yes there are plenty of really good songs in this film but there are also alot of really bad ones that don't really add anything new to the film despite how iconic there are like for example "I Want It Now" as that song doesn't tell us anything new about Veruca as we already know from her introductory scene that she's a brat who has an attitude problem and all that song does it just hit that point home and the song "Cheer up, Charlie" is just a pointless song that could have been cut from the whole entire film and nothing of importance to the actual plot would have been lost but I will admit that "Pure Imagination" despite it being a tad bit on the long side is a really good song and is quite easily the best song in the whole entire film.

Despite the film being very well loved today it was not a box office success back when it first released back in 1971 and I can see why that was the case. As the film doesn't really take full advantage of it's setting and the fact that it's basically a fantasy film by having alot of the rooms that the group visits look virtually the same which has the knock of effects of making the factory which we can see from a few shots earlier on in the film is a massive factory somehow both look and feel rather small when the opposite should have been the case as this is a factory that should have limitless rooms that both look and feel unique to each other thus making them stand out more yes there is a case for taking a less is more approach but given the set up of the film the filmmakers could have gone a bit further with the films designs of the factory and when you add in the fact that alot of the characters barring Charlie , Grandpa Joe and Willy Wonka himself all suffer from being rather underdeveloped and thus the scenes where they are forced to leave the tour don't have as much of an impact as they perhaps should have done.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty nine minuets and forty five seconds. Which is both a bit two much on the long side and yet at the same time the absolutely perfect running time for this film as while it does have more then enough plot there to cover that large amount of running time to cover that large amount of running time it also feels alot longer then what it is with the film adding in scenes that don't really add anything to the overall plot of the film with the mass hysteria sequence being a prime example of that as while that sequence does indeed give us some really jokes it's also a sequence that if you removed it or cut it down quite a bit you don't actually loose that much of what's actually important to the overall plot of the film as alot of what they cover in those scenes gets repeated later on in the film anyway but I will admit that the film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that means that I have to actually talk about about the actual comedy that's actually featured /presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought/ felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the film having alot of really funny laugh out loud moments alot of which come from Willy Wonka himself which does make alot of sense given who is playing him in this film and yet while he does get alot of really god jokes in this film there are alot of really good jokes to be found all throughout this film all of which make this film out to be a really good comedy that alot of people can enjoy as while the jokes in this film are kid friendly there also jokes that the whole family can enjoy and laugh along with in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall no matter how good Wonka turns out to be we can al at least agree that it'll always be better then Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory and that this film will always be the gold standard for Willy Wonka films as this film really is just that good in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that means that this very film earns itself a grand old score of exactly an 8 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Willy Wonka fandom wiki page , the official,Roald Dhal fandom wiki page , Wikipedia , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images this film being Google Images this is because really all of the images that I really got and that are all really currently up and on the great Google Images are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.