Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory: Music From The Original Soundtrack Of The Paramount Picture

In 1971, Mel Stuart directed a wonderful musical fantasy entitled "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", based upon the 1964 children's novel "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" written by Roald Dahl (1916-1990), who also wrote "James and the Giant Peach" in 1961. The story is about a little boy named Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) who works as a paperboy to help his impoverished & widowed mother (Diana Sowle) pay their expenses by working as a paperboy. Living with Charlie and his mother are all four of his grandparents: Grandpa Joe (Jack Albertson, 1907-1981), Grandma Georgina (Dora Altmann, 1881-1971), Grandpa George (Ernst Ziegler, 1895-1980) and Grandma Josephine (Franziska Liebing, 1900-2000); none of which have gotten out of bed for twenty years. In the same town where Charlie lives is the famous chocolate factory owned by Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder). One day while Charlie is in school with his strange schoolteacher, Mr. Turkentine (David Battley, 1935-2003), a momentous...Read more

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY is a charming movie. This soundtrack to the film is a delight to own for any fans of the film. My favorites on the album are:

"Golden Ticket"

"Candy Man"

"Pure Imagination"

"Oompa Loompa"

My only complaint about this album is that the tracks aren't organized very well. For example, except for the first "Oompa Loomp", the rest of the "Oompa Loompa" songs are at the end of other tracks so you have to fast forward or rewind to find what you're looking for. Also, there is a lot of dialogue and sound effects contained in some of the song tracks. I'm glad it's on there, but it would have been better if the dialogue and sound effects were on separate tracks than the songs. However, if you can deal with those little nuances, this is a wonderful cd to own.

Willy Wonka is another one of those perennial favorite movies. It was one of the very few notable movie musicals to come out of the early 70's ("Fiddler on the Roof" and "Man of La Mancha" are the only others that come to mind). It is a lavish movie musical adaptation of Roald Dahl's most famous children's book, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." While most of the lavish productions of the period, such as "Camelot" and "Hello Dolly" failed, the popularity of "Willy Wonka" endures today.

The score is one of the many things this movie has going for it. It is just fabulous. While none of the cast are excellent singers, the score is best sung by those who are correctly cast in their roles. Fortunately, every one is perfect in his or her role and the singing comes off just fine. The sound quality on this album is excellent. Highly Recommended.