The imaginative visuals tend to be the highlight, though the ideas intermittently seem too farfetched even for this flighty spectacle, causing the film to be far more memorable for individual elements rather than the production as a whole.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 6, 2025

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a classic delight for all the senses. Gene Wilder has the commendable ability to balance levity and no nonsense charm to confectionery and commentary.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 16, 2024

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory remains a timeless treasure. Its humor still sparkles, proving its enduring appeal. A heartwarming, whimsical journey that continues to delight audiences of all ages.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 16, 2024

What else to say? My amazement is generational, but finding out more about the film makes it even better. Let's just say this may be the greatest film ever made to promote a corporate candy bar, which ultimately melted. Gene Wilder, Best. Wonka. Ever.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 6, 2024

In 2023, the film seems dated, so it's best for younger children or adults who want whimsical nostalgia. Gene Wilder makes the mold for a Wonka that is more approachable than Johnny Depp's and allows for the possibility of Timothée Chalamet's.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 27, 2023

A timeless classic with an all-time performance from Gene Wilder. This film is a marvel: weird, occasionally terrifying and visually wonderful. That chocolate lake looks disgusting, though.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 12, 2023

The movie has some things to recommend it -- the atmosphere, the imagination, the story's overall intelligence -- but it's rather harsh and moralistic.

| Original Score: B | Nov 29, 2022

Exuberant, macabre and unpredictable...

| Aug 23, 2022

Every time you watch it you're newly impressed by its heartfelt story line, unfussy direction, wit and humor (with Gene Wilder giving a performance for the ages). Warner 4K HD blu-ray.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 18, 2021

all it took was memorable musical numbers, one of the movies' greatest comedic performers in the lead role, and a great deal of influence from the psychedelic undercurrents of the time when it was made. (50th anniversary)

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 16, 2021

Where it reigns supreme is in its casting of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 3, 2021

Wilder brought a kindness and gentleness to the main character while infusing Wonka with a whimsical, childlike innocence.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jun 29, 2021

We all know who can sprinkle a sunrise with dew, who can make all your childhood wishes come true: the one and only candy man, Willy Wonka.

| Jun 28, 2021

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, like many childhood favorites, is better left in the past and allowed to reside in memories. As an adaptation of Dahl's story, it's inferior to the Burton remake.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 30, 2020

The film makes exceptionally shrewd use of references children can understand and appreciate.

| Jan 9, 2020

he casting of Gene Wilder in the title role is the key: there is a crazed, yet knowing, glint in his eye that suggests the world of corporate confectionery is more sillier and sinister than we will ever know.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Sep 20, 2018

Probably the best film of its sort since The Wizard of Oz. It is everything that family movies usually claim to be, but aren't: Delightful, funny, scary, exciting, and, most of all, a genuine work of imagination.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 9, 2018

It is a rare breed: an imaginative live-action kid's film that engages and delights adults.

| Feb 4, 2018

Creates a marvelous world as close to heaven as any kid can imagine and never talks down to its young audience.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 8, 2017

The movie continues to remain timeless in spite of itself.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 8, 2017