Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

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.

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.

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

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.

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.