Time Out
Great fun, with Wilder for once giving an impeccably controlled performance as the factory's bizarre owner.
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Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
The 1971 family classic with Gene Wilder as candy mogul Wonka. Roald Dahl's tale sees poor young Charlie win a trip to the most eccentric chocolate factory. The world is astounded when Wonka, for years a recluse in his factory, announces that five lucky souls will be given a tour of the factory - shown all the secrets of his amazing empire, and one will win a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate. Finding a golden ticket in one a Wonka chocolate bar, young Charlie is chosen as one of the five along with Veruca Salt, Mike Teevee, Violet Beauregarde and Augustus Gloop.
1971Rating: G100 minsUSA
AdventureKids & FamilyMusicalClassic
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory / Reviews
Slant Magazine
(Gene Wilder is) a wonderful actor quite capable of hitting Dahl’s ambivalences (and he has a lovely entrance), but Stuart’s clunky stop-and-start pace and sketchy tone give him nowhere to go.
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TV Guide
Willy Wonka creates a marvelous world as close to heaven as any kid can imagine and never talks down to its young audience.
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Roger Ebert
Delightful, funny, scary, exciting, and, most of all, a genuine work of imagination. Willy Wonka is such a surely and wonderfully spun fantasy that it works on all kinds of minds...
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Herald Sun
The casting of Gene Wilder in the title role is the key: there is a crazed, yet knowing, glint in his eye that suggests the world of corporate confectionery is more sillier and sinister than we will ever know.
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