I admit, for a grown man of 51, this is still a guilty pleasure...and I think my wife knows why.
From the first time I saw it on network television in 1976, I just knew I wanted to find a golden ticket to the Wonka factory. Heck, I was just 9 back then, but this movie remains a wonder, 40+ years later. Not only do I have it now on DVD, I can sit through this endlessly. That's how good it is to me.
Gene Wilder, who plays Wonka, is a very believable character here. I admire the way he portrayed his role as being one of "pure imagination", just as the storyline goes. The same goes for the entire cast. I had read Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator', and this is so much like it.
But...why my guilty pleasure? I have to snicker when I told her that both Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt) and Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregard) were my very first childhood crushes. She doesn't get mad, she just does when I watch the movie so much...for that reason. This is a very wonderful movie, has always been so close to my heart, and that's where it always will stay. As long as there is "pure imagination" indeed.
Awesome indeed.
From the first time I saw it on network television in 1976, I just knew I wanted to find a golden ticket to the Wonka factory. Heck, I was just 9 back then, but this movie remains a wonder, 40+ years later. Not only do I have it now on DVD, I can sit through this endlessly. That's how good it is to me.
Gene Wilder, who plays Wonka, is a very believable character here. I admire the way he portrayed his role as being one of "pure imagination", just as the storyline goes. The same goes for the entire cast. I had read Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator', and this is so much like it.
But...why my guilty pleasure? I have to snicker when I told her that both Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt) and Denise Nickerson (Violet Beauregard) were my very first childhood crushes. She doesn't get mad, she just does when I watch the movie so much...for that reason. This is a very wonderful movie, has always been so close to my heart, and that's where it always will stay. As long as there is "pure imagination" indeed.
Awesome indeed.