Old Movies With Kids: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

A couple weeks ago my husband bought this Willy Wonka game that we've really been enjoying. I highly recommend it especially if you have kids. It's been a great game that we can all enjoy together. All that to say, my kids have been asking to watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

I always kind of hated this movie. I don't remember the first time I saw it, but I think I was maybe jr. high age and I was not impressed. I always found it a bit disturbing and mostly avoided it.

So I was curious to see how I felt watching it now as an adult with my own kids. Basically, my feelings haven't changed. I don't like this movie. Everything is kind of depressing, the kids are so annoying, and Wonka is mentally unstable. His purple coat is cool, though.

I feel like there's supposed to be some great moral to the story but there are so many strange twists and turns that it gets lost. I will say, I forgot about the whole thing with the everlasting gobstopper and Charlie deciding not to steal it. I guess that was a good message. But it's just lost for me in all the weirdness. Trust me, I love a weird movie. But this one is just not doing it for me.

The hardest thing for me to look past is the wild changes in Wonka's personality. One minute he's nice, one minute he's a jerk, the next minute he's just plain crazy, then back to nice again, then he's depressed. It's just all over the place. Apparently there's a fan theory going around that he murdered all the children except Charlie and I totally buy it. He's definitely got serial killer vibes.

Also Grandpa Joe's been spending 20 years bed-ridden, wasting money on tobacco, making his daughter take care of him but then he's suddenly good to go walk around a chocolate factory for a day?? No.

The good news is my kids generally enjoyed it, but hopefully we can just play the game and never watch the movie again.

From the Kids

"Good" 3.5 stars out of 5 - 8 year old boy

4.5 stars out of 5. Only docked the .5 star because the oompa loompas looked too fake - 10 year old girl

20 stars out of 5 - 5 year old girl

Kids favorite moments:

When everything in his office was cut in half. (All three of the kids mentioned this. It really left an impression. I hope they don't start cutting all our stuff in half.)

Looking down on the town from the Wonkavator.

When Veronica fell into the egg chute and the dad followed her. 

When Charlie found the golden ticket

The songs (This is ridiculous. The songs are horrible.)

When Willy Wonka was drinking out of the flower cup and then took a bite.