Gorgeous Willy Wonka Box Set Raises the Question: What's the Movie's Most Underrated Moment?
All Willy Wonka news is good news (unless we're talking about another aerial death brought on by Fizzy Lifting drinks), but the news of a 40th anniversary Willy Wonka box set is astounding news. Look at these damn goodies! The technicolor treacle! That winsome Wonka visage! The candy-scented glory of pencils! Let's gawk at the Blu-ray special (due out in October) and pick the original movie's most underrated moment.
Note the giant Blu-Ray book (rendered in resplendent color), the edible goodies, the Golden Ticket, the candy scented pencils, the Parker Brothers-style packaging. It is scrumdiddlyumptious, gobstopping, and sinister like Slugworth all at once.
As for the most underrated moment in the movie? Are you messing with me? It's any scene with Charlie's perturbed teacher Mr. Turkentine. His abrupt bizarreness and befuddlement are Dahl-ian standards! While Gene Wilder, Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca Salt), Leonard Stone (Mr. Beauregarde!) and Oscar-winner Jack Albertson get the most memorable moments, it's Mr. Turkentine who garners the biggest laughs. To this day, I refuse to understand how percentages really work. (Scented) Pencils ready!
[via Blu-ray.com]
Subscribe to the new Movieline on YouTube
Comments
I don't know about the most under-rated moment, but this movie freaked me the f*ck out when I was a little kid. Gene Wilder and little orange and green men were the stuff of my childhood nightmares.
"I said good day sir!"
3 words: Burp. Charlie. Burp.
I was going to say that scene. Totally missing from the Tim Burton version (and, I suppose, the book). Was very "Krusty the Clown" to see a character who was lovable (although slightly perverse) suddenly drop character and become a raging ADULT.
Speaking of the Tim Burton version> What a missed opportunity! The set up made me think it was going to be a satire of Reality Television with all the in-fighting and backstabbing. The story really calls for it, but NO we had to spend all that time on Wonka's backstory which fell flat and took up time which could have been used to make the kids and their parent more complete characters instead of the kids just being one note caricatures who drop one by one like a horror movie. That same year, Burton, made one of his best> "Corpse Bride". Maybe he was more focused on that project and let the effects people make "Chocolate Factory"?
But, I digress....
(BOOM!)
"Did we do it right?"
"Yes, it's for really BIG warts!"
"The snozberries taste like snozberries."
Fav. most underrated character: The computer specialist who says, "I'm now telling the computer *exactly* what it can do with a lifetime supply of chocolate!"
Everything about that scene is retro-groovy, from the chit cards to the black, horn-rimmed glasses.
"In the springtime, the only pretty ring time, when birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding; sweet lovers love the spring..."