Take a short trip with me, and I don’t mean by traveling, through a fun little classic called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Maybe you’ve seen it already. On the other hand, maybe you’ve been blinded all these years like I have been. I, like many adults my age, grew up with this movie being played on VHS even in my grade school classrooms. What a wonderful, bright colored film this is, the teachers must have thought. How right they were. If only I knew about this film and the thorny secrets it contained. I wonder if my kid when he gets into kindergarten or grade school will be audience to it as well...
Well, before we get into the deeper meaning behind this quaint, almost dark, comedic family movie, I better tell you, at least those who haven’t seen the film, what it appears to be on the outside. The movie, produced by Quaker Oats to support their new “Wonka Bar”, is actually based on a book by Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Just take my word on this one, I’m not here to tell you about the differences from the book or if they are one in the same. All I know is that the movie follows the story of a young, poor Brit kid named Charlie Bucket. How poor? We’re talking fairy-tale poor here. The kid and his mother have to support their whole family of three, plus his lazy-ass grandfather, by taking up odd jobs around their city. This whole world is pretty much under the control of a picturesque mysterious chocolate factory that is the highlight of this rather droll, colorless town. I guess the candy is like heroin, or maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. Anyway, the head of the factory, Willy Wonka, decides to hold a contest in which five lucky people worldwide will get to tour the factory if they find a golden ticket hidden within a Wonka candy bar. Madness ensues, and the world goes apeshit trying to find one of these tickets. Of course poor boy Charlie, after all four of the other bastard children find their Golden Tickets, buys one of the last Wonka bars and finds the remaining ticket within.
This is what I pretty much call the expendable part of the movie: a few cute musical numbers with a splash of comedy and drama here and there. The next part is the part that most enjoy and remember well, the “trip” through the chocolate factory. Gene Wilder stars as the wacky and slightly psychotic Willy Wonka. He leads Charlie and his grandfather (who somehow manages to walk now after all these years), along with the four other outrageously spoiled children and parents, through a deathtrap of thrilling proportions. One by one, they each fall victim to their own stupidity as each idiot child disobeys Wonka’s warnings about the factory’s safety and nearly die in terrible candy related accidents. Some scenes are truly frightening.
I’m not giving the ending away because there is actually a moral mixed into the insanity. Nevertheless, that’s not all that’s mixed in with this. Call me a paranoid viewer or even a conspiracy theorist, but this movie is laden with undertones and garbled references to drugs and drug usage. First the obvious addiction to the “candy” from this factory--the whole world is mad over it. Then, how about the overuse of words like “higher”, “trip”, “rise above”, and “overdoing”? Or some of the songs: “Count to three, then you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination.” What the hell? Then there are chemical labs being thrown into the mix, all centered around talk of “the perfect ingredients”--not really all that necessary for a kids’ movie. And at one point, the parents of one of the children (Veruca Salt--yes, the band named themselves after her) actually insert little tab-like candy into their mouths, then say that all we need is “happiness and harmony.” While watching the documentary, the scriptwriters don’t even remember how the villain Slugworth got into the film--he’s most definitely not in the book at all. Can’t remember how he got in the story? What were you guys doing when writing the screenplay, hmm? Of course, all of this could be just coincidence...
I may be seriously overlooking the basic wholesome of the film here. However, I’ve never personally done drugs before and I still find it trippier than The Wizard of Oz and even Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”. The movie is dessert for the mind’s eye either way you look at it. I enjoyed the hell out of it when I was young and I still love it now. Take another viewing if it’s been awhile and keep on your toes, you might see old Wonka in a completely new way.
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