TheRetroCritic

Long before Johnny Depp ever entered that chocolate factory with the silliest haircut in town, Gene Wilder had already led a bunch of brats to their untimely, chocolatey demise. And as much as I enjoyed Tim Burton's modern take on Roald Dahl's timeless story, this original version is simply unbeatable. While not completely faithful to the book, Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory still ticks all the right boxes and captures the spirit of the story perfectly whereas the later re-imagining lacked genuine charm, which this one has tons of. Charlie is played by a geeky but convincing Peter Ostrum who manages to break your heart more than once over the course of the film. Gene Wilder, of course, is Willy Wonka and steals the show effortlessly right from under everyone's noses. From the get-go he is the character and you can't wait to go on this surreal adventure with him. He even gets a song which, his singing voice being... what it is, isn't too vocally impress

Had I known as a kid that one day a Young Frankenstein musical would ever exist I think I would have gone through the roof with pure geeky giddiness. Well, I wasn't a kid but when I heard Gene Wilder say in an interview that Mel Brooks was working on that show but I can honestly say that I creamed a tiny bit. Now it's 2011 and...you know what? I completely missed the damn thing! Living in London sucks. I did get to check out a filmed performance though so at least I got to see it eventually. Thoughts? This is one big, expensive musical indeed. Hell, the Overture itself is like 4 minutes long! But I guess seeing as this is based on what is essentially Mel Brooks' best film and follows a huge hit like The Producers it's bound to be big and expensive. From what I understand critics were mixed upon its release but from my side of things, I loved every minute of it. Roger Bart, originally cast as Igor, turns out to be the perfect choice for Dr Frankenstein (read: F