WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Friday, July 15th 2005 at Old Mill Park in Mill Valley

Showtime: 8 pm

Sponsored by

1971 100 min
Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder), a legendary candy maker, hides five Golden Tickets in his candy bars. Whoever finds the precious tickets will get a tour of Wonka's top secret chocolate factory plus a lifetime supply of inimitable Wonka chocolate, providing he or she follows the tour's strict rules. Young, impoverished Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), one of the lucky winners, brings along his Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) on the tour. Wonka's arch-enemy asks Charlie to purloin from the factory the "Everlasting Gobstopper,"a sucker that literally lasts forever, but the lad can't bring himself to steal. The other four winners, all nasty children, have also been approached. Inside the factory, they and their guests are awestruck by Wonka's operation, which contains such wonders as a chocolate river and tiny workers called "Oompa Loompas." It's a dream tour, but each of the kids except Charlie breaks Wonka's rules, and, in the end, the good Charlie receives a reward far greater than he could ever imagine.

Adapted (with some changes) by Roald Dahl from his famous children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, WILLY WONKA creates a marvelous world as close to heaven as any kid can imagine and never talks down to its young audience. The film is sometimes dark in its tone but by the end (when Wonka's motives and true nature are revealed) it is fabulously uplifting. The wonderful song-score received an Oscar nomination.

From Movie Database at TV Guide.com