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.

Graceland

In honor of the new trailer for this upcoming Elvis movie, I thought I'd share some photos from my trip to Graceland several years ago. It was so delightful and I'm hoping to go back! My kids loved Elvis and it was so much fun to bring them there.

I'm not sure what I was expecting exactly, but it definitely exceeded my expectations. It was really interesting to learn about his life and some of the more personal things about him. I felt like I got to know him and gained a new appreciation for his talent and the ups and downs he went through.

Is it sad to end it all at his grave site? YES! But it's so special that it's all been preserved and well taken care of for so many of us to enjoy. 

 

The self-guided tour around the house was really informative and brought many interesting insights into Elvis's life there.

 

 

The jungle room. Elvis definitely had his own sense of style!

One of my favorite parts of the tour was seeing his airplane which was pretty fabulous. I thought this was a pretty nice bathroom for an airplane.

If you ever get a chance to go, I definitely recommend it. As for this movie, I usually steer clear of these kinds of things because they end up kind of depressing. Like the Judy movie I still haven't managed to watch. But Tom Hanks is in it which is usually a positive so I just might have to check it out!

The Quiet Man on the Big Screen

Anytime an old movie is shown on the big screen I'm pretty excited. I mean, it's great that I live in a time where I can stream pretty much anything I want, but it's also a bummer that I missed out on seeing so many great movies in the theater.

So I was pretty excited to find out they'll be showing The Quiet Man in theaters for St. Patrick's Day! I've written about The Quiet Man before and what a joy it is to watch the commentary version with Maureen O'Hara. She's one of my favorites and this movie is charming and delightful. I can't wait to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a trip to the theater!

Side note: From what I can tell, the newer blu-ray versions of The Quiet Man don't have the wonderful commentary with Maureen O'Hara which is a shame. I have this version which is quite old now but the commentary is a treasure if you're a fan of Maureen O'Hara! You can always check out my summary. It's basically all you need to know.

Old Movies with Kids: It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

To continue my kids' education in old movies, over the weekend we watched It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I remember really liking this movie as a kid, but I hadn't seen it since then so I was excited to revisit it with my own kids.

Unfortunately, it wasn't as great as I remember. Some parts were a bit too slow and dragged on too long, but there was plenty of silliness and I think the kids enjoyed it.

The premise of the movie is pretty simple--a man gets into a serious car accident and as he's dying, he reveals to a group of strangers who came to his rescue that he buried $350k under a big W. What follows is 2-and-a-half hours of mishaps involving various modes of transportation and slightly mentally unstable people in often physically impossible situations as they all race to find the mysterious big W.

The number of cars running into things in this movie rivals any modern action movie.

This movie is part of a fad in the '60's and '70's that involved making movies featuring slightly washed-up A-list and B-list actors who must each require a certain amount of screen time because all of these movies are super long and I can't imagine any other reason that they need to be so long. This is a long movie, especially since it's basically the same gag over and over.

Surprisingly, my kids didn't complain once. They seemed to like it and got a kick out of some of the slapstick.

As a side note, if you don't want to sit through the whole movie, this Simpsons episode basically accomplishes the same effect in about 2 minutes.

From the Kids

"Good. Weird. Funny." - 10 year old girl

"Good" - 5 year old girl

"I hated everything, but I kinda liked it." - 8 year old boy

Kid's favorite moments:

When Jimmy Durante literally kicked the bucket. They were all very happy to learn this new phrase and have continued to laugh about it.

When everyone's freaking out when they landed the airplane at the airport.

The people trapped in the basement.

The mother in law.

When they all failed to notice the W.

Coming Soon: Cheaper By the Dozen Trifecta

Disney just released the trailer for their new remake of Cheaper By the Dozen, so I went to go look up the original version and to my horror, Google seems to think the 2003 version is the original. There's basically no mention of the ACTUAL original from 1950 starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy!

Obviously, this is an outrage. But either way, this gives me another great old movie to add to my list of films to watch with the kids. And even better, it gives us the opportunity for another trifecta viewing. Can't wait!

The Perfect Book to Learn from The Past

This is a bit of a shameless plug, but it fills well with the spirit of this blog. My mom and I put together this book as a fun way to connect with different generations talk about how things have changed over the decades. If you're older, fill it out yourself and share with the young people in your life. If you're younger, go through it with a grandparent or other family and friends to learn about them.

I always loved hearing about my grandma's life--her favorite old movies especially!--and I wish I had done something like this with her. She loved reminiscing with her grandkids and it would be wonderful to have all those conversations written down!

You can buy it on Amazon and have fun hearing stories and connecting with the past!

Old Movies With Kids: The Parent Trap

I'm on a mission to make sure my kids watch more old movies. I've failed miserably thus far, so I'm getting serious and starting a new series here as we watch old movies together.

I put together a list of ten movies I thought the kids might like and we conducted a very official vote that involved closing eyes and raising hands and peeking and arguing and more hand-raising. Here's what we ended up with:

As you can see, The Parent Trap and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World tied for the top spot, but since I failed to start the movie in a timely manner and It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is 3 HOURS LONG, The Parent Trap won.

I've written about The Parent Trap before since it is definitely one of my favorites. Corny and silly and Maureen O'Hara and just a good time. I still enjoy this movie as much as I did as a child. Yes, the fact that they separated their twins at birth and broke all contact with them has become somewhat more disturbing as I've had my own kids and can't really imagine being OK with such a situation. But I will look past that and enjoy this incredibly optimistic take on the aftermath of such a ridiculous family arrangement.

Here's what got me on this viewing: I am now around the same age that I imagine the parents are supposed to be in the movie, but they look so old. Do I look that old? Hopefully not. Did people in the 60's just look older? Brian Keith and Maureen O'Hara were both around 40, but Brian Keith looks at least 50. Then there's Vicky. I would guess she's supposed to be around 25 and Joanna Barnes was 27 while filming the movie so not too far off, but she looks more like 35. Maybe it's just the hairstyle. But I'm assuming the reason they constantly talk about her young age is just to convince us that she's actually that young! And then Vicky's mom. She looks like she's 70 but I'm sure she's only supposed to be like 50.

Nonetheless, this made for a super fun family movie night! The characters are fun and surprisingly complex for a fairly silly family comedy. From a lame old mom's point of view, the kids in the movie are generally respectful to their parents and everyone is loving and caring, including the extended family/friend characters.  The relationship between the grandfather and the twins and Maggie is particularly sweet and a really nice addition to the story. The only time I felt the need to tell the kids to "not try this at home" was during the girls' pranks at the summer camp, which they, of course, thought was all pretty funny. And now for the kids' thoughts.

From the Kids

"Not very good." - 8 year old boy (who never likes anything and is not to be trusted)

"I liked it. Better than when I watched it before" - 10 year old girl

"I love it!! 100 good." - 5 year old girl

Kids' favorites moments:

When the cake falls on Miss Inch.

When the dad falls over the chair and in the lake.

"Let's Get Together"

The bear cubs licking Vicki's feet. (This caused a
huge fight over whether or not "honey bears" are a real thing. They're not.) 

 

What other classic films to my kids need to see? Tell me in the comments below!