Anyhow from what I remember from the book and the movies as a child the book was better. I think I say that more because this movie doesn’t really do much for me.

For anyone who hasn’t read the book or seen the film (which wouldn’t be many) the story is based on Charlie a boy who lives a very unfortunate life. Yet he seems happy enough until a competition is announced in which 5 children and a family member get a tour of the famous Willy Wonka chocolate factory.

Willy Wonka as you can imagine is the greatest of chocolate and sweet makers of the time. He never lets anyone into his factory so this is a cause of excitement all over the world. Through sheer perseverance Charlie is one of the lucky winners and takes his Grandfather along with him. The factory is full of strange and magical happenings, throw in some Oompa Loompas and you have a fantasy tale to beat anything.

I won’t tell you the ending just in case you haven’t seen it.... But all ends well of course.

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

VIDEO
The 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen transfer is deterring at times but acceptable for a 30-year-old movie. The images were inconsistent in quality and had differing problems from scene to scene. There is a consistent problem with film artefacts, and most scenes’s lacked sharpness giving a soft and muted feeling.

Grain was always visible but not distracting. There is no edge enhancement and no MPEG artefacts.

Colouring was typical of this era in filmmaking. The colour palette was muted and lacked a good tonal range, but was still acceptable.

AUDIO
The Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track was considerably better than the video transfer.

The surrounds were not really used to full effect and the bass channel had no use at all. This is predominantly a front sound stage and centre based audio transfer.

There were at times some audio sync problems but nothing overly distracting. Dialogue was mostly clear but became muffled at times.

The musical score from Leslie Bricusse was definitely the highlight of the movie. The combination of musical sing alongs and background music was very fitting. If fact you could almost say it was a cute mix.

EXTRAS

None

OVERALL
This is generally attributed as a classic kid’s movie. However I have seen better. Most of you will enjoy this however. Have fun with it.