Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Roald Dahl's classic story tells the tale of five kids who find a golden ticket that entitles them to visit the secretive Wonka Chocolate factory, where one worthy child will win a lifetime supply of chocolate. Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum), a poor kid who lives with his mother and two sets of grandparents in the shadow of the factory, is one of the lucky five. The others—well, let's just say they are the result of bad parenting and poor choices.

As a child, I never really connected with this film, but I've have grown to enjoy it as a parent. The behavior of the four "bad" kids provides extreme examples of what we often see in children today, and watching the film with my kids was a great way to teach them how not to behave. Charlie is a model child, and his virtuous behavior is a parent's dream. I think we all wish our children could be so respectful.

Unfortunately, the source wasn't in great shape, and the VC-1 encode suffers as a result. There are some instances of print damage and water spots, and some flesh tones are on the waxy side. Other nits to pick include some out-of-focus scenes, particularly when Charlie's mother is singing at work. On the plus side are well-saturated colors, which really shine inside the Wonka factory.

When the film was released on HD DVD, I lamented the exclusion of a lossless soundtrack. Fortunately Warner has improved things with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track, although the results are very similar. True to its mono roots, the sound is collapsed toward the center speaker with limited frequency response. In fact, the LFE channel is virtually nonexistent, and the surround channels are silent for the majority of the film. Dialog is intelligible but has a canned quality to it, but the musical numbers sound pretty good for an older film.

Supplements include a documentary on the film, a feature-length commentary from the Wonka kids, four sing-along songs, a short vintage featurette, and the theatrical trailer. The best aspect of this release is the Digibook packaging that includes a 38-page book with sing-along song lyrics, cast bios, and colorful photos from the film.

This is arguably one of Gene Wilder's finest roles as the legendary candy man Willy Wonka, and I much prefer his characterization over that of Johnny Depp in Burton's remake. Regardless, it's finally available on Blu-ray, although there's little improvement over the previously released HD DVD. Recommended for fans.

Release Date: October 6, 2009
Studio: Warner

Movie: 7/10
Picture: 7/10
Sound: 6/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Belkin PF60 power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics