Willy Wonka is a reclusive chocolate maker, owner of a mysterious factory churning out masses of chocolate and candy concoctions loved and devoured by the whole world, child and adult alike. One day he contrives to allow five children into his mysterious factory for a tour by hiding five golden tickets in his chocolate bars. The lucky ticket finders will be allowed in for a promised tour of mouth-watering deliciousness and a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate, and the world hits Wonka fever-pitch. The lucky winners are Augustus Gloop, Mike Teevee, Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt and Charlie Bucket.

The tour turns out to be a mixture of fantastical sweetness with a slight undercurrent of meanness, as the children and their guardians are both enchanted and scared by Mr Wonka, disobey his orders because of their greed, and disappear one by one. The surreal-ness of the Wonka world is enhanced by the presence of the singing Oompa Loompas and their songs of morality. Finally all the naughty children have disappeared and only Charlie is left. What will be his fate? Will he be tempted by Wonka’s rival chocolate maker Mr Slugworth? Let’s just say it is a happy and sweet ending after all.

Released in 1971 by Paramount Pictures, this movie started life as a Roald Dahl book – “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, first published in 1964 and apparently inspired by UK’s Cadbury and Rowntree rivalry in Dahl’s childhood – and Dahl also worked on the screenplay. As we disappointingly learn in the documentary included in the extras, the movie was conceived in part to promote a new chocolate bar by Quaker Oats, the fate of which does not go to plan (watch the documentary to find out why!) and also on the urging of director Mel Stuart’s daughter. Produced by David L. Wolper and Stan Margulies, and directed by Mel Stuart, the movie is shot mostly in Munich - the ‘chocolate factory’ exterior is in actual fact the Munich gas works - although the setting for the movie is intentionally ‘no place’. The set production by Harper Goff, who was borrowed from Disney, is the real star of the movie. Initially considered a ‘box office flop’, Willy Wonka went on to achieve cult status with children via video and TV releases.

The children all give brilliantly funny and natural performances as they each represent oh-so-human vices (greed, pride etc…), except for Charlie who seems as good as gold, although even he is tempted by Wonka’s moral test. Morality plays a big part of the movie: is Wonka good or evil? Do the naughty children deserve to be punished as the Ooompa Loompa songs suggest? Why is it that the truly good Charlie leads a poor and misfortunate life, while the greedy children seem to get what they want? Will the good be rewarded in the end? I remember pondering these questions while watching this movie as a child. The most successful children’s movies have dark elements, perhaps to prepare children for life ahead and teach about moral ambiguity and unfairness. Some scenes may scare the very little ones.

The sugar confectionary, chocolate gooeyness and comedy elements of the movie can be enjoyed just as they are: a pure sweet indulgence. There is something alike to pure joy to watch images of lots of chocolate bars being made. Watching the children open the chocolate bars to find golden tickets remains memorable to children today, part of them secretly hoping they will find a ticket when they open a chocolate bar (I know I still do). The humour in this movie is also a treat, appealing to both children and adults alike. The montage of when the world goes Wonka mad is most enjoyable, featuring some brilliant comedy sketches in that sly ironic British humour style, including one scene with Tim Brooke Taylor of The Goodies fame.

Gene Wilder gives a wonderful Golden Globe nominated performance as the mysterious Mr Wonka, at turns generous and truly frightening as a magic maker, prone to repeating random poetry. But we want to love him, and in the end we do, as we grow to understand his fantastical world of candy, weird inventions, the terrible plight of the Oompa Loompas and Wonka’s struggle to find some goodness in the world from which he has retreated. We find in the end his Wonka logic makes perfect sense.

The movie watchers can practically feel the chocolate melting on their tongues, and especially on this Blu-ray edition the dazzling candy colours make anyone reminisce to childhood when happiness was a ten cent lolly mix.

The commentary with the all of the children actors now grown up is like listening to old friends having a good chin-wag about old times, with much laughter and teasing – this could have been tighter and I probably wouldn’t listen to it again, but it is heart-warming and you do learn tid-bits about the making of the film from the perspective of these children. This includes learning that their filmed reaction when they first see the candy garden is genuine because it was actually the first time they had seen the set, a good ploy by the producers to elicit genuine surprise and delight from the child actors.

The other extras are ‘4 Scrumptious Sing Along Songs’ (basically karaoke), ‘Tasty Vintage featurette’ (a small documentary from 1971 about the making of the movie), and an original theatrical trailer.