Year: 1971
Director: Mel Stuart
Summary: A poor boy wins the opportunity to tour the most eccentric and wonderful candy factory of all.
Times Seen: Once from start to finish, bits and pieces a dozen times
My Experience: I was never taken by this movie as many are. But it’s one of my wife’s favorite movies, and as she’s watched it repeatedly it’s grown on me. Which is to say Gene Wilder is awesome and every minute he’s on the screen is a treat. I love his voice and his rant at the film’s climax is a favorite scene of mine.
The sets are fun, but scenes that focus on the kids are tough for me to sit through as they often telegraph their responses and are fairly undynamic, even for kids; I don’t really get invested in them or their fates.
Death By Troggles 
Yeah…Charlie is not good. Veruca is the only one of the kids I really like. Mike Teevee isn’t terrible.
It’s all Wilder here. It’s such a fascinating, weird performance. I’m not big on this movie (and I HATE that they changed the name from the book’s perfectly alliterative and unwieldy title), but his performance is good enough that I’ve watched it seven or eight times anyway.
I like the other title better, too. But considering how much they made this iteration about Wonka, at least it makes sense thematically.