Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Rated G. 98 minutes, 1971, Written by Roald Dahl, Director - Mel Stuart, Starring - Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear. Filmed in Munich and Bavaria, Germany.

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Were you one of the lucky ones? Your parents showed this to you? Yes? Good. It definately had more of an impact on you and your creative psyche than you're probably aware of. This film effected me as a child. I had a monster crush on Willy Wonka as a result.

Think this is a kid's film? Remember Popeye? How sometimes he'd mutter under his breath? Those meanderings were for the grown-ups. This film speaks to everyone with very stern scoldings. Lessons, messages, prophecies all harshly thrown in your face pre-political correctness.

Roald Dahl hates shrinks, newscasters, kids with guns, politicians, salesmen, PARENTS, married couples, a.k.a crushers of dreams... oh hell, people in general.

Sins according to Roald Dahl via Willy Wonka:
1) FAT - Augustus
2) BRAT - Veruca
3) Gum Chewers/Lack of Manners - Violet
4) Television - Mike T.V.
The Oompa Loompas dole out the lessons on how NOT to screw up your kid.

All the husbands & wives have the same names: Henry & Hennrietta, George & Georgina, Joe & Josephina - as if to say that marriage swallows all individuality.

Dahl shows us an inspirational metaphor with Grampa Joe. Bedridden for 20 years, in the same bed with his wife & in-laws (ARGH!) when Charlie wins the 5th golden ticket, all it takes for Grampa Joe to get the hell up is his will.

To live in a world of pure imagination... The morbidly dull, stuck in a self-inflicted rut of adulthood, parents are deliriously infected exploring the chocolate room. Even if only for a moment.

The opening montage of all the sloppy, gloppy, molten sheets of fudge and candies and sprinkles and praileins and powders and potions and nuggets and sheaths of glorious, sinful delights had me drooling before the credits finished rolling.

One of my favorite characters in the film is Mr. Turkentine, especially when he's teaching Science. I sat watching the film dreaming, wishing I had a teacher like that.

Do yourselves a favor, run out & rent Willy Wonka. Most creative people I know watch it on a regular basis. It transports you. To a place where you can actually fathom having the will and the means to be exactly who you are & nothing less or more. To a place where if anyone doesn't like it, they can simply go away via the conduit of your choosing. Stop, don't, come back. Cackle, cackle, cackle.