Deep Thoughts about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Send us a text

Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination…and capitalism

This week, Emily shares her deep thoughts about the 1971 classic film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. She loves Gene Wilder’s funny and menacing portrayal of Wonka that still manages an undercurrent of sweetness, and the cinematography is a masterclass in how to make unwrapping a candy bar an edge-of-your-seat scene. But Roald Dahl’s hierarchical attitudes toward class, gender, money, and worthiness–not to mention his personal bugaboos about gum chewing and television–really undercut the magic.

Oompa loompa doopity dissen
If you are wise you’ll give this a listen!

Don't miss a single deep thought! Mosey on over to guygirlsmedia.com, share your deets, and get Tracie & Emily in your inbox every week!

Mentioned in this episode

From the ‘chocolate factory’ to vet med
Gene Wilder died of Alzheimer’s. His family explains why they didn’t disclose his diagnosis
Roald Dahl himself made changes to the Oompa Loompas
Roald Dahl's family apologises for his antisemitism
Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl’s friendly rivalry
Quotations and Literary Allusions spoken by Willy Wonka
Lamb to the Slaughter by Roald Dahl
Roald Dahl’s letter about losing his daughter to measles

Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon.

We are Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our family as the Guy Girls.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, and analyzing pop culture for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, and whatever else we find.