Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Review (1971) – A zany, oddball story about a chocolatier, child behavior, and bad parenting!

During this month of Ostara, Easter, the Spring Equinox, etc.! We always think of the typical things this time of year, candy, chocolate, bunnies, eggs, flowers, spring and more! We have a funny little tradition in our household: we watch Willy Wonka every year around this time. To honor this tradition we are talking about Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory this week!

We do want to give a heads up, this film is an older film and does have some dated views on children, what normal child behavior is, fat shaming, and more. We love this movie but as we have aged we have noticed that this movie is not just a whacky film…it can be a little bit problematic.

We will be acknowledging this throughout the review of course but we wanted to add a little caveat at the start!

We will do everything we can to not give too many spoilers in this review but there are likely to be some, so please take that into consideration and read cautiously.

The movie starts with shots of a cute little town with church bells ringing. We see kids rushing out of what is most likely a school and running to the candy shop!

The candy man (Aubrey Woods) happily gives out candy, briefly discusses Wonka candy before he starts singing the iconic song “The Candyman.”

He hands out candy as he sings. The children are delighted! Of course they are! We here are still delighted by candy, so we cannot cast any stones at kids loving candy.

As the candy man is wrapping up his song we pan to a window where a little blond boy is looking in sadly. The little boy is our main character, Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum). The camera follows him as he turns away from the shop and walks down the street to collect newspapers and his paycheck from his newspaper delivery job.

Charlie is a very polite little boy. Almost a little too polite…like he does not really know how to or has had the opportunity to simply be a child.

While he is delivering his papers, he stops at a giant wrought iron gate with the word “Wonka” spelled out across the top. Behind the gate appears to be some kind of…you guessed it...factory! The factory has Wonka spelled out in lights on it.

Charlie is looking in at the factory when a creepy guy comes out of nowhere and in super creep fashion, tells Charlie how “You see…nobody ever goes in. Nobody ever comes out!” We really love how Charlie responds to this. He carefully watches the creepy guy move away and then he just starts running in the opposite direction.

It’s a little funny to watch but we’re proud of Charlie for not sticking around! That guy was super weird!

Next, we cut to Charlie’s home, with his grandparents, all four of them sharing a large bed in what appears to be the living room. Charlie’s mom (Diana Sowle), is moving about the room taking care of small chores. While Grandpa Joe (Jack Alberston) is concerned that Charlie works too much and is not getting to be a child.

We completely agree with you Grandpa Joe…but Charlie’s mom has a good point as well…with the four grandparents laid up in a giant bed and Charlie’s father having passed. She simply does not get enough help and what little help Charlie can give is very much needed.

It is not fair to Charlie at all but we recognize that Charlie’s poor mom is working incredibly hard to keep everything together. Does this mean that it is ok that Charlie has been parentified? No. But this does not mean that we cannot recognize that Charlie’s mom is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Grandpa Joe wants to get out of that bed one day! He hasn’t in years…none of the grandparents have apparently…which begs the question…how are they using the bathroom?

How are they cleaning themselves? Brushing their teeth? Are they maintaining any semblance of hygiene?

We have a lot of questions…that the movie does not answer. The book might! Yes, this movie is actually based off of a book! Neither of us have ever read it, so we cannot say for sure if the book addresses any of these questions. Let us know in the comments if it did! We’d love to know!

Moving on! Charlie arrives home and everyone is thrilled to see him. Charlie kisses all of his grandparents and gives his mom most of the money he made at his job. He turns and gives Grandpa Joe the last little bit, “I want to pay for your tobacco from now on.”

We were happy to hear Grandpa Joe tell Charlie that he has no business buying tobacco when money is so tight. But Charlie insists he take the money anyway.

Charlie is an extremely sweet little boy. But he is also overly mature for his age, and has way too much responsibility.

Later we see Charlie and Grandpa Joe talking into the night about the factory and Willy Wonka’s choice to fire everyone, shut the factory down and close the gates! About three years after Wonka closed everything up the factory started putting out candy again! “But the gates stayed locked.”

The question is though: how is the factory working? As far as anyone knows, no one works there…so how is the factory running at all?

We cut to the next day, Charlie is at school helping his teacher Mr. Turkentine (David Battley), perform an experiment until the noise outside of the classroom becomes disruptive! Mr. Turkentine opens the classroom door and demands to know what is going on! A little boy excitedly tells them, “Willy Wonka’s opening his factory! He’s gonna let people in!”

Mr. Turkentine does not believe him at first until he hears that there will be a lot of chocolate being given away! “Class dismissed!”

“No, no! It’s only for five people!”

Disappointed, Mr. Turkentine turns to the class and says, “Class un-dismissed.”

The little boy continues, “He’s hidden five golden tickets and the people who find them will win the big prize!”

From here we learn that the five golden tickets are hidden within Wonka bars! Any random Wonka bar anywhere in the world could have one of these elusive golden tickets! The class is dismissed fully now and everyone races out of the classroom.

Everyone…except Charlie. Charlie slowly leaves the classroom with very little enthusiasm. We cut to Charlie’s house. They are all watching a tiny old model, television set. On the television they are getting the details of the contest and what the actual prize is.

The prize is a life time supply of chocolate and access to the factory! Meaning that anyone with a golden ticket actually gets to go inside the mysterious Wonka factory and see how the candy gets made.

Charlie is feeling more excited now. He wants a chance at finding one even if that chance is slim.

Next we have a montage of a variety of people trying to buy as many Wonka bars at they can, as well as people trying to guess where the tickets may be, how to cheat to find one, etc.

The first ticket is found! It is found in Germany by a little boy named Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner). Us potatoes are not sure how we feel about the way Augustus is portrayed. He is the stereotypical “fat” kid. Which makes us…le sigh.

He is apparently obsessed with food, and his parents are as well? It is weird. Augustus is literally demonized because he likes food and his mom Mrs. Gloop (Ursula Reit) is a super sweet woman that loves her son. We will say that Augustus is definitely FAR more privileged than Charlie and does seem to be overly fixated on eating but we still think that the representation here smells of fat phobia to us. But we digress!

After meeting Augustus and his family, we cut back to Charlie. It is Charlie’s birthday! His mom and grandma’s knitted him a cute scarf and Grandpa Joe gifts him a Wonka bar. Charlie rips it open to find…no golden ticket.

Saddened Charlie offers to share the candy bar with his family, but thankfully everyone declines. It’s your birthday Charlie! Please eat the candy bar!

From there we go to what appears to be a warehouse. The warehouse is filled with workers ripping open Wonka bars. It is clear that they are searching for the golden ticket and are being paid to do so.

This is where we meet one of the funniest and most obnoxious characters in the movie, a little girl named Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole). Veruca fills the classic spoiled brat role in the movie. She should get everything she wants! When does she want it? NOW.

Her father, Mr. Salt (Roy Kinnear), is a simpering, whining, weak, and obnoxious man who does everything in his power to get Veruca whatever she wants, whenever she wants it, and acts surprised by her spoiled and entitled behavior.

Mr. Salt behaves like she is a bully forcing him to do things…but he is the adult here. A child cannot force an adult to do a damn thing. A child cannot control an adult’s behavior and in our minds this is a cop out so that he does not have to actually be a parent.

Veruca is not happy! She wants a golden ticket and she wants it NOW. Finally one of the workers finds one. Veruca is ecstatic! Now there are only 3 left out there.

We get more montages of people trying to cut corners, use technology, etc. to try to find one of the remaining golden tickets. Until another ticket is found! This one is found in America by a little girl named Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson).

Violet is an extremely competitive kid like her dad, Mr. Beauregard (Leonard Stone) who is a used car salesman. Violet has a fixation on gum and is a “competitive gum chewer” which is an interesting hobby. Violet is over the top in her own way with her competiveness, and cattiness. But overall…we thought the whole issue with Violet was weird.

Gum chewing is bad for some reason? Does she take it too far, yes she absolutely does. But it is a relatively harmless hobby. She is overly competitive, but is the issue with the competitiveness itself or the fact that she is a girl and girls are not supposed to be competitive?

After watching Violet on a T.V. Charlie goes to his mom’s work. Charlie’s mom works as a laundress washing clothes the old school way with giant vats of hot water and stirring them with a giant spoon.

It looks like a real pain in the ass. We are incredibly happy to have the benefit of a washing and drying machine for our clothes.

Charlie’s mom is surprised to see him. She has to work late, but she wants to take a moment to talk to Charlie. Charlie talks about his day a little bit before he gets to the point…they found the third ticket and he is feeling incredibly upset by this.

Charlie has lost hope and does not think that he is going to find a golden ticket. Charlie’s mom tries to cheer Charlie up with the simple logic that there are so many people in this world that will not find a ticket. There are only five tickets!

Charlie believes that he wants it more than everyone in the world. We found this to be weird. Charlie’s logic is off. While he may want it desperately. There are many other people in the world that do too. Also, wanting it more or not does not make him entitled to a golden ticket.

Do not get us wrong, Charlie is sweet and we want him to find a damn ticket! But we also think that Charlie is no more entitled to it than any other kid. It is even difficult to say that he is more deserving than other children.

There are a lot of children in the world that may very well be envious of Charlie despite how little he has. But of course, we digress here and we have to bear in mind that Charlie is a kid. Despite how “mature” he may come across, he is still a little boy that just wants to feel special.

Charlie heads home and we get a bit of an awkward song sung by his mom. Then we get to the next ticket winner! Another American boy named Mike Teevee (Paris Themmen). The name is on the nose, Mike is fixated on television, and is into westerns so he is dressed as a cowboy.

His mom, Mrs. Teevee (Nora Denney) is strange, she is bragging about how she feeds Mike nothing but T.V. dinners and how he never eats at the table. Now we have no problem with having some food on the couch but it is a weird thing to brag about!

There is only one ticket left. Just one. In desperation Grandpa Joe surprises Charlie with a Wonka bar. They open it together and once again there is no ticket.

How did Grandpa Joe get the candy bar!? We have no idea. He supposedly cannot leave the bed.

It is sad watching Charlie open the few candy bars he gets and finding nothing. We are rooting for you Charlie!

More montages and silliness of people getting more desperate to find the last ticket. Until! The last ticket is found all the way in Paraguay!

Poor Charlie overhears this on the news and cries himself to sleep.

Cut back to the school classroom with his teacher giving them a quick lesson in percentages. The scene is really only there to ram home how few Wonka bars Charlie has opened.

Charlie is now out of school and walking home. He manages to find what looks to be a quarter. Back then that could buy some candy and that is exactly what Charlie does. He goes to the candy shop and buys a couple of chocolate bars.

He quickly eats one and saves the other for Grandpa Joe. On the way out of the candy shop he sees a lot of people surrounding the newspaper stand. He walks over to the stand to see what is going on. Turns out the ticket found in Paraguay was a fraud!

There is still one final ticket out there. After processing this for a moment and feeling his excitement build, Charlie cannot resist and he opens the spare Wonka bar with baited breath. To find…a golden ticket!

The last golden ticket is Charlie’s! He gets mobbed by the adults at the news stand but fortunately since he is the paper boy, the owner of the newsstand helps him get out of the crowd. Charlie runs straight home! Or he tries to…he gets stopped by a strange man with a large scar on his face, Mr. Slugworth (Gunter Meisner).

Mr. Slugworth has popped up a few times so far…specifically whenever a golden ticket is found. We are not going to disclose what he’s about, but we will say that he is trying to entice the ticket holders to get something for him from the factory.

Charlie shakes off the weird encounter and runs home! He bursts into the house and shouts that he has the ticket! No one believes him at first until Charlie shows Grandpa Joe the ticket.

Grandpa Joe reads out the instructions on the ticket. The ticket bearer must present the ticket to Willy Wonka at the factory gates at 10AM on the first of October with only one accompanying adult.

Charlie, of course, wants Grandpa Joe to go with him. Grandpa Joe decides to finally try to stand and succeeds somehow! No muscle atrophy at all, and we are confused as to why he was in the bed in the first place!

If he could get up this whole damn time he could have been helping his daughter! He’ll get up to go with Charlie to the Wonka factory, but not to help his own grown child.

SIGH.

Grandpa Joe starts singing an admittedly catchy song, but we’re still annoyed with him. Charlie’s poor mom has been taking care of this bedridden man for goodness knows how long and he could have gotten up the whole time?! We digress, yet again.

Pop on over to the big day! There’s a crowd of people, a band playing and all of the ticket winners are there waiting to meet Willy Wonka and enter the factory.

The factory doors open and a strange man in a purple velvet blazer, frilly shirt, brown top hat and cane comes hobbling out. Willy Wonka, (Gene Wilder) is being facetious, and does a somersault to the open gate. He waves the ticket winners and their attending adults to the gate.

They present their tickets to him, and introduce themselves. Wonka greets them, then walks all of them to the factory doors where they all traipse inside.

This is where we are going to leave it for the most part. The factory is so crazy and fun! It is a wild ride! The movie continues with a wacky tour of the factory, strange new people (Oompa Loompas) working in the factory and unusual mishaps that seem to oddly be targeted at the children. It is a very peculiar movie but extremely entertaining!

Willy Wonka is an incredibly unique man and his methods leave you with a lot of questions about how his candy could possibly be so good. We love the Oompa Loompas and they have great songs, but we do find the songs to be a bit harsh and judgmental at times.

They do try to make up for it by at least acknowledging that children develop behavioral issues because of their parents. Parenting is not easy by any means, but this is extremely true (for the most part).

We still love this movie! It is what we consider to be a classic! We watched it as kids, and we still rewatch it once a year! But we do not blame you if this movie has not aged well for you. It definitely gets sticky at times.

If you are someone who likes candy, loves odd, quirky stories and characters as well as fun musical numbers than this movie is for you!

We give this movie 4 out of 5 candy martini’s!

Willy Wonka Drinking game

Take a sip anytime:

1.     Anyone sings

2.     Anyone says "Wonka"

3.     Anyone says "Chocolate"

4.     Anyone says "Factory"

5.     Anyone eats candy

6.     Anyone becomes hysterical

7.     Anyone says "Golden Ticket"

8.     Anyone says "Oompa Loompa"

9.     A child is in danger

10.  Someone exclaims (e.g. "Gee!" or "Wow!")

11.  Anyone says "Slugworth" or you see Slugworth on screen

12.  Veruca says she wants something

13.  Violets talks about chewing gum

14.  Mike talks about TV

15.  Charlie is sweet

16.  Augustus eats anything

What did you think?? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it!? Do you have suggestions for films we should consider?! Let us know here in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly!