| Amog’s Life |
WILLY WONKA &THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY
LESLIE BRICUSSE AND ANTHONY NEWLEY GEFFEN RECORDS
When director Mel Stuart’s Roald Dahl adaptation arrived in 1971, many critics dismissed the songs as mere aural confectionery. ‘Fair,’ sniffed one;
‘forgettable,’ wrote another. Fifty-two years on, fans remember otherwise. Willy Wonka now resembles the everlasting gobstopper of kids’ musicals: sweet, tart and secured by sticky melodies to childhood memories.
Not that the soundtrack was without risk. Stuart was ambivalent about incorporating songs. Composerlyricist Leslie Bricusse (who co-wrote the score and songs with Anthony Newley) felt intimidated working on the stage next to where 1972’s Cabaret was being shot, believing Wonka to be ‘amateur’ by comparison. But when Bricusse/Newley presented Stuart with a few songs, the results helped shape and define a film that didn’t have a completed script yet.
Revisited, the brightly irresistible tunes bring feeling and flavour to the film. Written in a day, Pure Imagination is the twinkly showstopper, buoyed by Gene Wilder’s warm, wily vocal. Bricusse wrote for films ranging from Bond to Harry Potter, but it was this song he chose for the title of his self-styled ‘sorta-biography’. And when trailers for this year’s Wonka emerged, its heart-swelling melody (alongside the Oompa Loompa song) reassured audiences that Paul King’s film would sip from the right chocolate river, bouncing merrily past Tim Burton’s 2005 revisit.
Elsewhere, The Candy Man has zingy spring in its step; Newley disliked actor Aubrey Woods’ untrained vocal, but it helps ground the film. The song banked a healthy afterlife, too, including a US No.1 cover from Sammy Davis Jr. Cheer up, Charlie melts tenderly, while (I’ve Got a) Golden Ticket pops with music-hall vim.
Even if Roald Dahl thought the songs saccharine, the balance between sugar and sting is nicely struck. The Wondrous Boat Ride is a blast of neo-psychedelic weirdness, best first heard at a pre-teen age when you’re off your noggin on seasonal sugar. I Want It Now obliterates sentimentality about children, while The Bubble Machine is practically avant-garde.
The soundtrack lost the Oscar battle to Fiddler on the Roof, but it won the war. When Wilder died in 2016, Pure Imagination accompanied most tributes. Coldplay and Maroon 5 performed covers, but don’t be put off; Fiona Apple’s insinuating take is superior. Thor: Ragnarok also referenced it, while wonky US alt-rockers Primus covered the whole soundtrack. The everlasting gobstopper of movie musicals?
Strike that. Willy Wonka is the Charlie Bucket of family movies: the underestimated outside bet that found the golden ticket and smashed the glass roof.
FRESH SPINE
THE MARVELS
★★★★★
Laura Karpman shifts from small-screen (What If…?, Ms. Marvel) to big-screen MCU with this vibrant, inventive score. Awarm viola heralds Higher. Further. Faster. Together., before choir and French horns merge to suggest determined teamwork. Dar-Benn boasts febrile jazz flute; deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie adds physical vibrations; ‘space junk’ samples maximise cosmic moods. The giddy Aladna interlude, meanwhile, sends Marvel rocketing deeper – after Eternals’ Bollywood break – into musical turf, with pure fun as its infectious endgame.
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES ★★★★★
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