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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (30th Anniversary Edition - Widescreen)

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (30th Anniversary Edition - Widescreen)

List Price: $19.96
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my favorite movies of all time!!
Review: This movie is based on the book by Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate factory. It is a wonderful musical and filled with Pure Imagination! This movie has zero to little flaws. Its also a really funny movie. So, everyone starts buying WONKA BARS because if you find a Golden Ticket you'll go into his factory. And the five winners are: Augustus Gloop whose hobby is eating, Veruca Salt who really needs to be grounded for her life, Violet Beauregarde who has been chewing on a piece of gum for 3 months, Mike Teevee, a t.v. watching brat, and the hero Charlie who is a very nice kid. All of the kids get kicked out because they get into mischief while acting like they really are, BRATS! In the end Charlie get the GRAND prize! (Im not telling!)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: An Oompa-Licious Classic, but not for small children.
Review: I recently bought this DVD out of nostalgia, and watched it with my 2 year old son. Even though it now seems very dated, I enjoyed seeing it again, but my son got bored during the long preamble to getting into the factory and fell asleep.

Gene Wilder of course is brilliant, and also Jack Albertson, but the performance of the rest of the cast is forgettable. The part of Charlie Bucket deserved a better actor.

Recommended for adults on nostalgia trips, and children from 6 to 12.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Timeless Classic
Review: This movie takes us back to your childhood when we were carefree. This movie is for people of all ages. I just wish hollywood would make more movies like this instead of all the crap they make today. If you have never seen this movie, I recommend you make the purchase this very minute.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Classic Movie
Review: I remember seeing this movie in the theater as an opener for one of the Planet Of The Apes movies. What a classic. I walked away that day with a new respect for good, clean humor. Why can't they make movies like this anymore?

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Wonka's sinister side...
Review: I've always adored this flick, in large part because I think Gene Wilder did an outstanding job of bringing out Wonka's benevolent AND sinister sides in equal measure. There is most definitely a dark side to the Chocolate Factory, and Wonka doesn't exactly go to great lengths to conceal that from his bratty "guests."

Though it wasn't as much a part of Dahl's book, the TV coverage of the race to find the Golden Tickets is hilarious, too --it kind of foreshadows the obsessive side to which that medium has now reached with 24/7 news channels and reality programming.

I think the most powerful moment in the movie, though, comes when Wonka dismisses Charlie and Grandpa Joe from the factory, with their prize null and void. Grandpa Joe is boiling with rage and is ready to take the Gobstopper to Slugworth right then and there, but Charlie stands by his promise and returns the Gobstopper. This whole Slugworth subplot wasn't really part of Dahl's book either, but it suddenly opens up the scope of the story and makes us see just what kind of generous soul Wonka really is. Wonderful stuff.

I understand Tim Burton has acquired the rights to do a remake. No word yet on whether it will feature live actors or be more like the bizarre animation of "James and the Giant Peach." Either way, I expect he will do the book justice.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Flying monkeys ain't got diddly on this subversive classic.
Review: Very cool widescreen DVD of the classic film. The commentary track is excellent (ex: Peter Ostrum talking about how when his kids saw the film, they asked him why the filmmakers had made him wear a 'wig'-- it's the poor kid's real friggin' hair).

The documentary is also worth investigating. The 'Oompa Loompa' who's interviewed is all tanned & decked out in gold jewelry. I'm tellin' ya', he's so sexed out, he could probably lay a line on me and pick me up. Hey, and speaking of sexed up, raise your hand if -- like me-- you found as a kid that there was something intangibly curious about Veruca Salt.

This film remains the most deliciously subversive, nightmarishly odd bit of entertainment ever created for an under 13 demographic. The flying monkeys ain't got diddly on the stuff in this film. And I don't mean to say that children should not see this. As the director says in the documentary, kids are very sharp and very hip. And they understand the film. Kids need limits. They need to understand that there are consequences for breaking rules. They need to understand that a person needs to be responsible for the choices he or she makes.

This film is a classic because it is smart, imaginative, totally whacked, and never condescending. Mark my words: in another 30 years, after all the Pokemon films have crumbled to dust in the discount bins, your kids' kids will be watching this film.

If you were disappointed with previous editions of the film, this is the version to get.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Coolest Movie Ever!!!!!
Review: I love this movie!!! Gene Wilder Plays Willy Wonka VERY well!! I have a Fave part every time I watch it my current one is the part when they are in the tunnel and the wall flashes a giant chameleon and Mike TeeVee whips out a gun and "shoots" it! Note: When I was little my sister and I were scared of it< so be careful about little kids watching it.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: So-so version of a classic
Review: Most people who dislike this film do so because they don't like the storyline, with its "sadistic" punishments of bad kids in a mysterious candy factory. I criticize it on slightly different grounds: the story is fine, but this film falls very far short of the book ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl) upon which it is based. Somehow this cheap, watery waterfall of chocolate (not appetizing like the thick one in the book), midgets in brownface, subdued performance by the great Gene Wilder, and pedestrian special effects can't conjure the truly exciting magic that anyone who has read the book (PLEASE read the book) will know about. The story in a nutshell involves a poor boy who learns of a contest to find golden tickets in candy bars. Only five tickets exist, and these allow the lucky winner to go on a tour of Willy Wonka's famous candy factory, the most magical one in the world. Most of the winners are obnoxious brats who get their comeuppance through their own faults. I won't say what becomes of our hero, Charlie. This movie more or less sticks to the plot of the book, but it adds an extra villain, a rival candy-maker. The songs are mostly forgettable, though the Oompa Loompah song is pretty good. Those who complain that the film is "scary" are referring to a very odd scene in which Wonka takes kids on a boat ride that inexplicably turns into what can only be described as a nightmarish acid flashback; one wonders what the director was on. Is the overall story a good and engaging one? You bet it is, but the film version just doesn't cut it for me. The book was simply too good. You are cheating yourself if you watch the movie. It's like eating chocolate with water in it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Willy Wonka
Review: This movie is good except for the tunnel scene. The tunnel scene on the boat was very scary for me. Why would they put this in a kids' movie? It doesn't belong in that movie! The passengers are horrified and scared as Willy Wonka sings to them frightening words, and there are images of a dead man with a centipede crawling on his face and a chicken being decapitated by a butcher's knife. That's why I gave this 4 stars, beausee I have no idea why they would add this scene. Willy Wonka is hilarious.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful movie!
Review: This movie is absolutely amazing. The scenery is beautiful, the story is worthwhile and captivating, and the antics of Willy Wonka are very amusing. Though this movie version does not follow the book precisely, it still seems true to Roald Dahl's vision of how the story should be shown.

The young actors in this movie are talented, and show a wonderful ability to portray the traits of their characters perfectly. Gene Wilder is perfect as Willy Wonka, able to show the wild emotions of the character in a way that is both accurate to the book's version of the character and that is hilarious.

I would recommend this movie for both kids and adults, who will both find something special about it.


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