Review of Pure Imagination: The Story of 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'

. . . for being the cautionary, anti-social child predator vehicle that it is. From the creepy songs composed mostly in minor keys to the "Gacy"-type House of Horrors production design incorporated as this sick flick's title setting, PURE IMAGINATION barely misses a beat as it uncovers the more deviant aspects of what was originally conceived as a slick marketing ploy for what turned out to be a failed candy bar. Had "Der Fuhrer's" personal movie maker, Ms. "Leni Riefenstahl," only exercised greater ingenuity--along the lines of the WONKA crew--just imagine what kind of saccharin hijinks she might have evoked at Auschwitz or Bergen Belsen! If MIRACLE ON 34th STREET was a "happy shoot," as its star "M. O'Hara" recounts during an AMC Backstory episode released the same year as PURE IMAGINATION, then WILLY WONKA was more of a circular firing squad, to listen to the now-grown child actors' recollections as presented here. By way of comparison, it would appear that film director "R. Polanski" was convicted for doing far less than the crew of WILLY WONKA got away with in making their alleged "children's classic." The well-known red alert warning to America's young ones to "Beware of strangers with candy!" no doubt originates with the on-screen juvenile depredations of "The Candyman," aka WILLY WONKA!