A cast reunion to celebrate the movie's 44th anniversary

I would really like to see a remastered version in the theater.

I loved this movie. It was one of my earliest movie theater experiences. I'm 46, so it came out when I was very young. But I think they used to re-release movies like this back then.

I was utterly frightened of Willy Wonka. His mannerisms were mysterious and terrifying to me. I thought he was going to kill Charlie.

This may be the film that hit me right at the "too old for this little kid stuff" age. Summer of '71 was post-elementary / pre-junior high (they put our 6th grade class in a separate facility for one year). That was the Summer of Escape from the Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man, so I thought I had graduated from kids movies to the cerebral sci-fi of Charlton Heston.

I could see later how Wonka would be a perfect mix of kids fantasy and horror. But at the time it was that first kids movie that was too kiddie for me.

The river ride terrified me.

I've not seen this one since Kindergarten or 1st grade when my school showed it in the Auditorium. I have no idea how they got a print because this was way before VHS was popular or readily available.

A contestant on Jeopardy says she's married to the kid who was dressed as a cowboy. I wonder if he's part of the reunion.

That was Mike Teevee, I believe, and if you're seeing the same still frame as I am, he's the back row, right. I didn't watch the video, and it's been a while since I saw the movie.

I'm going to have to see this movie again. The remake with Johnny Depp may have been a little closer to the book (although the part about Wonka's father was made up), but there was a pure joy in Gene Wilder's performance that's missing in Depp's.

Yeah, that's him. Wikipedia even mentions his Jeopardy contestant spouse.

And a sadness to his character as well. Wilder's version was so much more human and relatable. You can hear the loneliness in his voice when he is singing "Pure Imagination". He starts by singing the song to the guests and as they become distracted, he turns to singing it to himself, with doubt that this world he created through his imagination is enough.