3/4  A CHOCOLATE FILLED WITH IMAGINATIONS
Brings a lot of memories. The wonder of childhood days. The world of pure imaginations. For so many years, I have envied Charlie for being able to get inside this one humongous chocolate factory. Before there was any concern about suga... (read full)

2.5/4  Candy, candy, who wants candy?
I haven't seen the 'new' one, but I just can't imagine it to be better than the original. I remember watching this in elementary school and thought it was so fantastic. It's lost some of the wonder over the years, but it's still a great m... (read full)

3.5/4  Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was a movie that I relate very closely to my childhood. This is because in grade school when the teachers ran out of ideas and decided they needed a break they would set up a "movie time" and the major... (read full)

3/4  Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Quick Review
I love the morals in this movie.

3.5/4  Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Quick Review
Fun, imaginative and psychadelic - Willy Wonka is certainly unique. Memorable songs, a good lesson and a terrific performance by Gene Wilder make this a classic.

5/5 Wow...
  by J. Wright
It's amazing how clear this movie is on Blu-ray! The only word to describe it is UNBELIEVABLE! 100% worth buying on Blu-ray!!

5/5 Great Movie, Much better than Remake!
  by Charles H. Vietzke (Michigan)
This movie is fantastic. The story is great, and the production value is fantastic for that time period. This is soo much better than the crappy remake with Johnny Depp.

5/5 Looks PHENOMENAL in Blu-ray. Great packaging.
  by TomT
One of the family's favorite movies, is a treasure in Blu-ray.
The book like packaging is very nice as well.

Beautiful colors in the transfer. Very clean sound, although I didn't notice
much of a surround track, although didn't really take anything away.

Bottom line, if you enjoyed this movie on regular DVD,
you'll really like it in Blu-ray.

4/5 Pretty good restoration, a few color issues but otherwise quite nice
  by Alexander M. Walker (Chicago, IL USA)
Morality tales about gluttony, greed and conceit have yet to find an equal to rival what audiences first saw in Roald Dahl's book-turned movie Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. Dahl's creative punishments for his intolerable youths were already quite visually stimulating, but the direction of Mel Stuart and the film's fantastic visual vibrancy make Willy Wonka a film that people see once and remember forever. The girl expanding into a blueberry, the Oompa Loompas and the Charlie and his uncle floating in a giant bubble tube are just small but memorable parts of a visual feast. To give the film context from within itself, it's an everlasting gobstopper of a movie.

Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) lives a meager life toting between school and home trying to make life easier for his mother (Diana Sowle), his Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson) and his other bed-ridden kinfolk. Charlie's dreams of a new life get a kick in the pants when local candy-baron and recluse Willy Wonka announces a contest for 5 people to win entrance to his secretive factory for the ultimate tour. It's the dream prize of every man, woman and child; the wealthiest people in the world quickly horde up all the Willy Wonka chocolate products (where the 5 tickets are hidden) and soon enough four of the five tickets are spoken for. It seems like Charlie's dreams may never come true until, what luck, he finds that golden wrapper one day and his journey to Willy Wonka's factory begins, with Grandpa Joe in tow.

Charlie is joined on the tour by four other children all with specific vices. When Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) comes on the scene, the tour begins and so does the trouble. One by one the other children succumb to their personal demons and suffer disfiguring fates only to be wheeled away by the short orange men with green hair singing and working in Wonka's factory.

If any one performance of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory deserves mention it's the unrivaled brilliance that is Gene Wilder. The man was a comedic legend long before he donned the purple suit and hat, but his smooth crooning about the dreams of children and candymakers may be one of his most lasting impressions of all time. Dahl's ever-present theme of defacing adults finds an interesting midway point in the character of Willy Wonka. The children who fall to their vices one by one have lost their innocence - but not Charlie, not Wonka and not Grandpa Joe. Each of the characters who escape the factory unharmed prove the value of staying young at heart.

Willy Wonka's voyage to Blu-ray doesn't have quite the brilliance it should. The picture may look crisp but where the experience suffers is in the colors and the aging of the film. A few scenes show slightly noticeable color distortion but it's fair to argue that you wouldn't notice were it not for the film's remarkable range and diversity in the color spectrum. The audio needs no apologies, however, and the entire presentation is better than it has ever sounded before.

Blu-ray Bonus Features:

Once you get through the full-color booklet included in the case (and yes, it's actually worth a read thanks to the Bios and production information within), you'll find a nice selection of extras. First off you'll get an interesting audio commentary starring the now grown-up child actors from the film and then, to complete the now-and-then experience, those stars plus Gene Wilder and the film's producers come together for a fantastic production documentary which lasts for a solid half-hour. Hearing all the retrospective interviews, you find there's a bit of overlap with the audio commentary but there's so much footage with Gene Wilder in the documentary that it's worth watching. Be warned however, until I saw this documentary I held the film as a nice representation of a classic Dahl story, but the documentary reveals just how much of a commercial machination this movie was. A nice addition to the set comes in a 1971 featurette which includes 4 minutes of onset footage and a really interesting look at one of the publicity pieces originally made for the film. Rounding out the set is a Sing-a-Long option for "I've Got a Golden Ticket", "Pure Imagination", "I Want It Now" and "Oompa Loompa Doompa-de do" (the third Oompa Loompa song, for those of you keeping track).

5/5 grandkids 6th birthday
  by J. Whitney
I have twin 6 year old grandchildren that love the video and like singing the songs