already in my twenties in 1971. Imagine a plank who had NEVER seen this movie! That would be me, but I was not at my best thirty years ago.
WILLY WONKA is marvellous, a combination of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, DOCTOR WHO, and WIZARD OF OZ. It is a morality tale. It is an eyefull in the best sense before phanstasy movie-makers thought they could -- and should -- carry a film with "effects." As with many lash-up musicals, most of the songs are quite forgettable with the exception of two which make up for it. (The chewing gum song has much to teach the present day.) More or less the theme, the opening number has rightfully entered into popular music. If you can see this performed without a smile, leave the theatre straightaway.
The story operates on two levels, a)for the kinder, b) for the elders.
a) Help your mother. Love and befriend your grand-parents. Play straight with people. (I did ruddy little of the first two, so it hurt a little to watch.)Then, of course, there is the Ultimate Trip of winding up in a candyland!
b) The one-liners and sotto voces. Amid the wit, however, there is a grim note and admonition: Adults as clowns and boors, poor examples. Parents in the post-war era who have raised a race of over-indulged barbarians who deserve to be banished into some Deep Six -- notice who is left standing at the conclusion of the quest, and even he is not without sin. The fabulously self-confidant Herr Wonka is almost undone with disappointment at the poor specimens in whom he had placed his hopes.
The final scene did something to this commentator now far into middle age: it made me wish I had had children. WILLY WONKA is a triumph for Wilder, recently graduated from THE PRODUCERS, something boys and girls ought to see. They should duly bring their parents.
WILLY WONKA is marvellous, a combination of ALICE IN WONDERLAND, DOCTOR WHO, and WIZARD OF OZ. It is a morality tale. It is an eyefull in the best sense before phanstasy movie-makers thought they could -- and should -- carry a film with "effects." As with many lash-up musicals, most of the songs are quite forgettable with the exception of two which make up for it. (The chewing gum song has much to teach the present day.) More or less the theme, the opening number has rightfully entered into popular music. If you can see this performed without a smile, leave the theatre straightaway.
The story operates on two levels, a)for the kinder, b) for the elders.
a) Help your mother. Love and befriend your grand-parents. Play straight with people. (I did ruddy little of the first two, so it hurt a little to watch.)Then, of course, there is the Ultimate Trip of winding up in a candyland!
b) The one-liners and sotto voces. Amid the wit, however, there is a grim note and admonition: Adults as clowns and boors, poor examples. Parents in the post-war era who have raised a race of over-indulged barbarians who deserve to be banished into some Deep Six -- notice who is left standing at the conclusion of the quest, and even he is not without sin. The fabulously self-confidant Herr Wonka is almost undone with disappointment at the poor specimens in whom he had placed his hopes.
The final scene did something to this commentator now far into middle age: it made me wish I had had children. WILLY WONKA is a triumph for Wilder, recently graduated from THE PRODUCERS, something boys and girls ought to see. They should duly bring their parents.