Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' (2001)
*** (out of 4)
Director Mel Stuart, producer David Wolper, David Seltzer are joined by Gene Wilder and the five children (Peter Ostrum, Michael Bollner, Julie Dawn Cole, Denise Nickerson, Paris Themmen) from the film to discuss this now classic movie. At just under 30-minutes the documentary doesn't get into a great detail of information but I think fans should enjoy seeing all the main people gathered up. We get stories about the pre-production of how the director found out about the story and what made him want to turn it into a film. We then learn about how the producer was able to get funding and this leads to the casting of Wilder and the children. We learn about the sets that were designed and which items were real candy and what was fake. Fans of the film should enjoy this documentary as the stories are all pretty funny and there's no question that you'll get a good bit of information about the production. I was really surprised that they were able to get not only Wonka but also the five main children. Usually in these type of documentaries you're missing a person or two so it's nice to have everyone here. I'm sure die-hard fans will probably already know many of the stories but it's still fun seeing them in one place.
