Search - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [Widescreen/Fullscreen] on DVD

MPAA Rating: G Content Advisory: Excellent For Children, Scary Moments Movie Release: 1971 DVD Release: 10/01/1997 Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV,Pan and Scan - Closed Captioned Audio Tracks: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English, French, Spanish SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 40 mins Studio: Warner Home Video Members Wishing: 53 Genres: Fantasy, Musical, Children's/Family, Musical Fantasy, Family-Oriented Adventure, Coming-of-Age See Also: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [Fullscreen], Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory [Widescreen], Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory [Fullscreen], Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory [Widescreen], Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [HD DVD], Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory [Widescreen] [Blu-ray]

Promoted as a family musical by Paramount Pictures, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is more of a black comedy, perversely faithful to the spirit of Roald Dahl's original book -Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Enigmatic candy manufacturer Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) stages a contest by hiding five golden tickets in five of his scrumptious candy bars. Whoever comes up with these tickets will win a free tour of the Wonka factory, as well as a lifetime supply of candy. Four of the five winning children are insufferable brats: the fifth is a likeable young lad named Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), who takes the tour in the company of his equally amiable grandfather (Jack Albertson). In the course of the tour, Willy Wonka punishes the four nastier children in various diabolical methods -- one kid is inflated and covered with blueberry dye, another ends up as a principal ingredient of the chocolate, and so on -- because these kids have violated the ethics of Wonka's factory. In the end, only Charlie and his grandfather are left. Ostensibly set in England, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was lensed in Germany (as revealed by the film's final overhead shot). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gene Wilder - Willy Wonka
Jack Albertson - Grandpa Joe
Peter Ostrum - Charlie
Roy Kinnear - Mr. Salt
Julie Dawn Cole - Veruca Salt
Aubrey Woods - Bill

This 1971 musical, produced by David L. Wolper (who also gave the world the TV series Biography) and directed by Mel Stuart, reappeared in 1996 in connection with its 25th anniversary, in newly struck prints with a soundtrack in stereo for the first time. It appeared on DVD through Warner Home Video in 1997, one of the company's earliest DVD releases. The film-to-video transfer is bright enough, although one suspects that a newer transfer to 21st century standards might show still greater sharpness. The film itself has achieved a remarkable popularity in the years since its release -- the images borrow from a multitude of sources, including MGM's The Wizard of Oz, the Ray Harryhausen-produced fantasy-adventure The First Men in the Moon, and MGM's Forbidden Planet. The DVD contains supplementary materials in the form of onscreen histories and biographies, which appear as written panels, and a pair of trailers -- one a reissue trailer and the other an original from 1971 -- which delineates the degree of work done on the re-release in terms of brightening and restoring the color and the sound. This is something of a disappointment -- back in 1971, the movie was promoted with a series of short featurettes dealing with the special effects, the original story, and author Roald Dahl, which included a large amount of behind-the-scenes material and personal biographical footage, as well as clips from the movie as a work-in-progress. Their presence would have made this a genuinely enlightening and enveloping experience, adding to the appreciation of the movie. As it is, the DVD is ambitious but flawed. The menu is not necessarily easy to traverse, and once one has accessed one of the special features, it's difficult to move directly to the feature film. The latter is divided into 40 chapters that mark out not only the songs by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley but all of the essential plot points and events. The color on this presentation is glorious, and it is difficult to criticize the look of the fantasy sequences, beginning with the entry into the Chocolate Room. The colors are gorgeous, a true feast for the eye that is a match for more recent holiday movies in richness and intensity, and the choice of a flat or letterboxed image will satisfy both the cineaste purists and the younger viewers only interested in watching a fun (albeit mean-spirited) little movie. As of the end of the year 2000, the DVD was out of print and being auctioned among collectors on the internet. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide