Who was a willie wonka and a chocolate factory movie fan i loved that movie especially on seeing the different flavors of candy and how it was made.

Oh man, I loved that movie when I was a kid. Iv'e probably watched it atleast 30 times. I thought Augustus Gloop was cool. I actually really liked the remake with Johnny Depp several years back too. Not as good as the original, but still a very enjoyable movie.

I liked the 1971 Film "Willy Wonka".

Don't get me wrong...the 2005 version was good too, but it can't beat Gene Wilder and Jack Albertson.

Was? Still am.

I disliked the new version. Depp was annoying.

Was? Still am.

I disliked the new version. Depp was annoying.

I thought he was pretty annoying as well. He wasn't anything like Gene Wilder's character, that's for sure. Depp was probably the only part of the movie that I didn't enjoy. One thing I liked about the new one, is that they put alot of stuff from the book that the original Willy Wonka didn't have into the new one.

The original is one of my all time favorite movies that I never get tired of seeing. It's amazing how beautifully they made that film given that they didn't have half of the technology that they do now! I've seen the Johnny Depp version and I hated it at first but it kind of grows on you. The only really funny part of that movie is the Agustus Gloop song. BTW, just thought I'd mention that Harry Connick Jr has a CD out called "Songs I Heard" and he sings a few songs from the original movie. It's hilarious to hear him singing "I Want it Now" and "Oompa Loompa" !!!

The only good part about the awful Epic Movie was when Crispen Glover appeared as Willy Wonka, he was brilliant. He was supposed to be spoofing Depp, but I think he was far better than Depp.

Well, I always loved the original movie, and I'm going to meet the original Violet herself (Denise Nickerson) next month in NYC. Can't wait!

Well, I always loved the original movie, and I'm going to meet the original Violet herself (Denise Nickerson) next month in NYC. Can't wait!

I didn't get to meet her, but I *saw* her at one of the NY Comic-Cons around 2006 I think. She was gaga-eyed over wrestler The Sandman hugging him and stuff :lol:

I did get to meet Paris Themmen, the original Mike Teevee, at the BigAppleCon last October. I asked him what he thought of Tim Burton's Charlie and he told me, "I hated it. It completely ruined Roald Dahl's vision. They didn't do anything right."

I didn't get to meet her, but I *saw* her at one of the NY Comic-Cons around 2006 I think. She was gaga-eyed over wrestler The Sandman hugging him and stuff :lol:

I did get to meet Paris Themmen, the original Mike Teevee, at the BigAppleCon last October. I asked him what he thought of Tim Burton's Charlie and he told me, "I hated it. It completely ruined Roald Dahl's vision. They didn't do anything right."

And Dahl wrote the screenplay for the original Willy Wonka movie.

It is still a favorite film of mine.

And Dahl wrote the screenplay for the original Willy Wonka movie.

It is still a favorite film of mine.

Dahl hated Willy Wonka due to all of the rewrites and changes done by David Seltzer.

This is the reason why the sequel book, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, was never made into a movie as Dahl would not allow it.


The ending of Tim Burton's version featured some parts from the Great Glass Elevator.

20 Things You Might Not Know About Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
By Gary Susman
Posted Jul 1st 2011


1. Watch the opening credits closely, and you'll see that the film's copyright was initially held, not by a Hollywood studio, but by the Quaker Oats company.

The cereal maker behind such sweet morning treats as Life and Cap'n Crunch was launching a line of candy bars and had been talking to film and TV producer David L. Wolper about vehicles to promote it.







2. At the same time, director Mel Stuart took up his 10-year-old daughter's suggestion that he approach family friend Wolper in order to make a film of Roald Dahl's children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Quaker Oats had never made a movie before, but the company bought the film rights from Dahl and spent nearly $3 million making the movie (a fairly hefty film budget back in 1970).







3. Dahl himself was hired to write the screenplay.

Although the finished product bears his sole credit, Stuart actually had the screenplay rewritten by a then-unknown, David Seltzer.







4. Dahl was said to be so unhappy with Seltzer's rewrite (he felt it focused too much on the Wonka character and not enough on Charlie, and that it had sweetened his story's dark tone) that he refused to allow the movie to be remade again in his lifetime or to sell the film rights to the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

(Dahl died in 1990, 15 years before his estate allowed Tim Burton to remake the 1971 film.)







5. Why was the title changed from the book's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?

There are two competing stories. One says that the change was to play up Wonka's name because Quaker's new candy line was called Wonka Bars.



6. The other claim is that the filmmakers worried that the name "Charlie" was seen in some quarters as a derogatory racial term for black people.







7. Dahl's first choice to play Wonka was wacky British comedian Spike Milligan.

His second choice: Ron Moody, who had just starred as Fagin (another dubious role model for naughty children) in the film Oliver!.



8. Producers nixed Milligan, and Moody turned them down, as did Jon Pertwee (then committed to TV's "Doctor Who", another tale of a mysterious man and a young companion who travel in a magical glass booth).







9. Producers auditioned Joel Grey to play the chocolate mogul but decided he didn't tower over the children enough.







10. Finally, Gene Wilder came along and won the part, which he accepted only on the condition that he be allowed to make his entrance with the fake old-man limping gait that turns into a somersault.

"I knew that from then on the audience wouldn't know if I was lying or telling the truth," he recalled in 2005.







11. Ever wonder where the strange middle-European village is that seems to be home to a population of English adults and American kids?

It's Munich, where producers filmed because it was cheap and, yes, disorienting.

Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie, recalled that a highlight of the five-month shoot in Germany was watching the construction of Munich's Olympiapark, where the Olympics would be held two summers later.







12. Sammy Davis Jr. had wanted to play the candy shop owner who sings the opening song, but producers turned him down.

Nonetheless, he made that song, 'The Candy Man', part of his act, and in 1972, his version became the only single of his 40-year recording career to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.







13. The famed chocolate river, created on a soundstage, was two feet deep and consisted of 150,000 gallons of water mixed with chocolate and cream.

The resulting mixture quickly spoiled and filled the soundstage with a foul stench. (Guess I was right to feel bad for Augustus.)







14. Despite Dahl's complaints, the finished film was plenty dark and weird, maybe too much so for small children (hello!) or potential Wonka candy consumers.

The movie earned just $4 million at the box office and was widely considered a flop.







15. In the late 1970s, Paramount let its distribution rights expire, and Quaker Oats sold its interest in the film to Warner Bros. for just $500,000.

But then, in the 1980s, Warners' repeated licensing of Willy Wonka for TV broadcasts and its release of the movie on home video turned the movie into a profit-making cult hit and allowed Warners to be the studio that ultimately released Burton's 2005 remake.







16. Of the five kids who toured Willy Wonka's factory, only Julie Dawn Cole (who played Veruca Salt) stuck with acting, primarily on British soaps.



17. Of course, her character was also the inspiration for '90s alt-rock band Veruca Salt.







18. Peter Ostrum gave up acting after Willy Wonka, turning down a three-picture deal. The Cleveland native became a veterinarian and moved to the small farming village of Lowville, N.Y.

Preferring to keep a low profile, he seldom discusses the movie that made him briefly famous, though he couldn't avoid the spotlight shown on the original cast members when Burton's splashy remake came out six years ago.







19. Ostrum was lured out of obscurity in 2009 by Dunkin' Donuts, which recruited him for a promotion that had him standing in a Boston subway station giving away CharlieCards

(the fare cards Boston commuters use, which are named not for Charlie Bucket but for the hapless subway rider of the folk tune 'The MTA Song').

Ostrum gave out free fares and one Wonka-esque golden ticket, good for a year's worth of unlimited subway rides and free cups of Dunkin' Donuts coffee.







20. Quaker Oats sold the Wonka candy company to Nestlé in the 1980s.

Nestlé relaunched the brand last year with a line of fancy, premium chocolate bars called "Wonka Exceptionals."

Along with those bars and such familiar products as SweeTarts, Laffy Taffy and Pixy Stix, Wonka also sells Everlasting Gobstoppers, inspired by the movie.

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/07/01/willy-wonka-trivia/