Greatest Film Scenes
and Moments



Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

 



Written by Tim Dirks

Title Screen
Movie Title/Year and Scene Descriptions
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Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

In director Mel Stuart's unlikely scary children's film adaptation of Roald Dahl's bizarre fairy tale - remade by Tim Burton as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), starring Johnny Depp as the famed chocolatier:

  • the memorable rendition of "The Candy Man" by Aubrey Woods ("Who can take a sunrise? Sprinkle it with dew. Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two. The Candy Man! The Candy Man can!")
  • the thrilling moment when poor boy Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum in his only film role) found money in a gutter, bought two candy bars, and discovered the last remaining Golden Ticket inside one of them; he celebrated with Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) in the triumphant and spritely song/dance "I've Got a Golden Ticket"
  • the introduction of the character of the sweet but slightly wicked, reclusive candy man Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder in a definitive role) and his chocolate factory in a fanciful land populated by orange-skinned, green-haired Oompa-Loompas workers who often sang moralistic songs
  • the factory tour given for the lucky, mostly bratty children (and the musical number "Pure Imagination" performed by Willy) with Willy's insight: "Invention, my dear friends, is 93% perspiration, 6% electricity, 4% evaporation and 2% butterscotch ripple"
  • the sight of all the sweets - marshmallow mushrooms, candy umbrellas, and other sweets
  • the scene in which tormenting, purple-clad Willy offered a boat ride down the Chocolate River to the kids and their parents - while hallucinatory, colorful, hellish and surreal images (a kaleidoscope of insects, a beheading of a chicken, a slimy worm on a face, etc.) were back-projected behind them while Willy provided strange commentary and sang the darkly morbid, strange, foreboding song Wondrous Boat Ride (pictured) on the chocolate river
  • the fates of the "naughty" children - highlighted by Violet (Denise Nickerson) being transformed into a giant blueberry (!)
  • the crowd-pleasing finale in which Willy Wonka made Charlie his heir ("Charlie, don't forget what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he always wanted...He lived happily ever after!")







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