40 QUESTIONS TIME - 04/06/07

[BathTub]

It filled the often ignored Chicken Beheadings and Childrens Musicals Niche.

[jasimon1]

how can you not hate her? Seriously, what is the point of saying EVOO fifty times during a show if you explain that that means Extra Virgin Olive Oil every freakin' time? Did anyone see the MadTV where they made fun of her? It was great!

[Petey Wheatstraw]

What I really want to know, just from that short clip of this movie, is how on earth did ANYONE ever think it was good??

Warned ya about it. I think Mike and Neil's comments about the frequent bong-toking on the set during the Fizzy Lifting Drinks scene reflects my thoughts on the film.

[gbeenie]

What I really want to know, just from that short clip of this movie, is how on earth did ANYONE ever think it was good?? (Sorry, "Wonka" fans, but holy moly!  )

Okay, time for me to step up here.

First off, let me admit my own bias. When I was a kid, my mom used to take me to see this film at our local cinema every year (affordable home video was still a decade away); it remains one of the happiest memories of my childhood (oddly enough, I have NO recollection of all the chicken-head-choppin' or millipede-face-crawlin'; that must be the power of nostalgia, I guess).

However, as an adult, I have seen this movie at least a dozen times, and I LOVE it.

I love that, in Willy Wonka's world, morality works perfectly, and everyone gets exactly what they deserve.

I love all the little non-sequitir one-liners that kids couldn't possibly get.

I love Gene Wilder in this. It's like he drank the blood of another Gene Wilder, to gain that Gene Wilder's Gene Wilder-ness, and is thus more Gene Wilder than any Gene Wilder has ever been before. His only performance that even comes close to this one is in Young Frankenstein (where he was magnificent).

Most of all, I love that something so deeply weird got made in the studio system. There is NO WAY the suits at Warner Brothers "got" this movie while it was being made; such ambivalence would surely have derailed a production like this nowadays. Certainly, no kids' film like this could get made now.


So, PlayMSTie, the only thing I can suggest to you is to at least give Willy Wonka a try. True, Tim Burton's version is a more faithful adaptation of the book, but the 1971 movie was bizarre, back when being bizarre meant something.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

There is NO WAY the suits at Warner Brothers "got" this movie while it was being made

Except that the movie was produced at and distributed by Paramount, and Time/Warner only got the rights to it when the financiers went bankrupt, and had to sell their properties. Warner was never involved with the production of the film.

Wilder's performance was horrible. Hey, kids, it's Willy Wonka, the schizophrenic candymaker! "Hi, kids, ready to die? Here's some footage of real animal slaughter! Are you having a good time?"

[Janitor]

[
Except that the movie was produced at and distributed by Paramount, and Time/Warner only got the rights to it when the financiers went bankrupt, and had to sell their properties. Warner was never involved with the production of the film.

I thought it was 20th Century Fox that owned the rights seeing as how Family Guy did a spoof using music and sound fx straight from the movie.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

I'm pretty sure that the Family Guy parody only used a parody of and not the original music/sfx. Then again, 20th Century Fox could have a pretty good relationship with Time/Warner as well, seeing as they had a recent episode of the same series featuring a direct clip from Anchors Aweigh, with Gene Kelly dancing with Jerry the mouse (replaced for the episode by Stewie Griffin). (It's interesting to note how well this scene synchs up with any cartoon character -- it was originally animated with Mickey Mouse, but Disney told MGM that they couldn't use the character, so they reanimated Jerry into the short, and it worked perfectly without reshooting the scene. And it synched up perfectly on Family Guy as well.)

[gbeenie]

There is NO WAY the suits at Warner Brothers "got" this movie while it was being made

Except that the movie was produced at and distributed by Paramount, and Time/Warner only got the rights to it when the financiers went bankrupt, and had to sell their properties. Warner was never involved with the production of the film.

My mistake. Thanks for the correction. However, my original point still holds. Indeed, knowing that it's Paramount only gives my point about studio cluelessness more weight.

Wilder's performance was horrible. Hey, kids, it's Willy Wonka, the schizophrenic candymaker! "Hi, kids, ready to die? Here's some footage of real animal slaughter! Are you having a good time?"

We'll simply have to agree to disagree. I love his performance even more as an adult. When he sings "Pure Imagination," the melancholy in his eyes makes me wistful, in a way I'm not sure I can adequately explain.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Hey, Paramount was hip enough to finance Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (not to mention Still Smokin') - they can't have been that clueless.

[gbeenie]

Hey, Paramount was hip enough to finance Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke (not to mention Still Smokin') - they can't have been that clueless.

Yeah, but getting Californians to agree to a stoner movie is kind of like a politician saying in a speech, "All babies should eat!" (that's my favorite Chris Rock line ever, by the way)

[RandyMistie]

I gotta say, I agree with Beenie 100% and she pretty much codified exactly how I feel about the original.  Her post made me a little misty...

It's a powerful childhood... thingie... like she said...

[6079SmithW]

Isaac, you seem to think 'borderline psychotic' and 'awesome performance' are mutually exclusive here. I would say the one reinforces the other.

[Petey Wheatstraw]

Isaac, you seem to think 'borderline psychotic' and 'awesome performance' are mutually exclusive here. I would say the one reinforces the other.

I'm pretty sure you meant "aren't mutually exclusive here."

[6079SmithW]

No- I understood you to say that his performance isn't good because it's completely insane. Thus, completely insane and good would be mutually exclusive concepts, as the one would detract from the other.

[Hebs]

Ahh this is confusing - like tax deduction confusing