{"id":845,"date":"2025-08-01T03:47:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T07:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=845"},"modified":"2026-09-04T10:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T14:36:37","slug":"willy-wonka-and-the-chocolate-factory-1971","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=845","title":{"rendered":"Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-1971"},"content":{"rendered":"

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-1971<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Mel Stuart<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Gene Wilder, Peter Ostrum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #35<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #206<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"60020949\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed December 18, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

More than just a children’s movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) is a terrific, imaginative, fantasy film that is timeless and meant for all ages to enjoy.<\/p>\n

The mastery and creativity of the sets and art direction are astounding, and the story is sweet, whimsical, and captivating.<\/p>\n

Often, with children’s movies, we are treated to stories that are either dumb or contrived, which will entertain five-year-olds but bore or make adults cringe.<\/p>\n

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is neither. It is intelligent, filled with magic, and has a heart.<\/p>\n

Charlie Bucket (Paul Ostrum) is a poor child whose mother earns a living by washing clothes. Along with his four bedridden grandparents, they live a meager existence in a small cottage somewhere in Europe.<\/p>\n

Particularly close with his Grandpa Joe, the two of them become obsessed with a contest held by mysterious Willy Wonka, the owner of an enormous chocolate factory nearby.<\/p>\n

The contest consists of five Golden tickets being hidden in Wonka bars. The five lucky winners will receive a lifetime supply of candy and a tour inside the long-since-closed chocolate factory.<\/p>\n

After a series of circumstances, Charlie obtains one of the tickets, and the adventure begins.<\/p>\n

The build-up to the trip into Wonka’s factory is gripping- mainly because the viewer knows that a magical treat is in store and is filled with curiosity: what will the chocolate factory look like? What is Mr. Wonka like?<\/p>\n

The four other winners- Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teevee are all unique and creatively written characters- all spoiled brats in their own way, so Charlie is the “normal” child and has an actual rooting value to him.<\/p>\n

As the five children, along with a designated parent- or, in Charlie’s case, Grandparent- begin their journey throughout the chocolate factory, the audience is treated to a psychedelic experience with fantastic sets- a river made of chocolate, an entirely edible garden, lickable wallpaper, a bubble room, and a frightening riverboat.<\/p>\n

The film is bright and colorful within the factory walls, which sharply contrasts with Charlie’s dreary existence outside.<\/p>\n

As the four bratty children meet their fates in joyfully imaginative ways- gum-chewer Violet blows up like a blueberry after chewing experimental Wonka gum that she is warned not to; Veruca is deemed rotten after throwing a fit and topples down a garbage chute.<\/p>\n

The film is breathtaking and imaginative, filled with wonderment.<\/p>\n

Gene Wilder plays Wonka in an over-the-top way, and it works tremendously.<\/p>\n

All the child actors play their roles competently, and each character is distinguished from the others.<\/p>\n

I love the scary riverboat tunnel scene as it is frightening, psychedelic, and magnificent. I also love the contrast between the enchanting, colorful second half and the bleakness of the first. The sets are among my favorites for their lavishness.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the relationship between Charlie and Grandpa Joe is excellent. Grandpa Joe is a father figure to Charlie, but Willy Wonka is one too, in a completely different way.<\/p>\n

The children’s greed is also interesting, and one hurrah as each one gets their comeuppance.<\/p>\n

The songs from the film are remarkable and quite cutting-edge- each time one of the lucky five golden ticket winners meets their doom, the Oompa Loompas sing a tune that visually has weird shapes and colors-psychedelic and very hippie, of the late 1960s- early 1970s era.<\/p>\n

Other numbers such as “I’ve Got a Golden Ticket”, “Cheer Up Charlie”, and “The Candy Man” are memorable.<\/p>\n

A film for the ages, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) is a celebration of creative filmmaking, quite cerebral at times, and far superior to most children’s fantasy\/musical films.<\/p>\n

Skip the 2005 remake starring Johnny Depp and enjoy the original.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations<\/strong>: Best Original Score, Best Original Song<\/p>\n

Golden Globe Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Actor-Comedy or Musical-Gene Wilder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-1971 Director Mel Stuart Starring Gene Wilder, Peter Ostrum Top 250 Films #35 Scott’s Review #206 Reviewed December 18, 2014 Grade: A More than just a children’s movie, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) is a terrific, imaginative, fantasy film that is timeless and meant for all ages to … Continue reading Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory-1971<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,201,199,47,7530,7464,7465],"tags":[8079,8997,8993,926,927,8995,8996,8991,8994,12578,8992,2886,8834],"class_list":["post-845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1971-films","category-fantasy-films","category-childrensfilms","category-musicals","category-top-100-films","category-top-250-films","category-top-50-films","tag-35-favorite-film","tag-denise-nickerson","tag-diana-sowle","tag-gene-wilder","tag-jack-albertson","tag-julie-dawn-cole","tag-leonard-stone","tag-mel-stuart","tag-nora-denney","tag-paris-themmen","tag-peter-ostrum","tag-roald-dahl","tag-roy-kinnear"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24339,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/24339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}