You Stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks! ...So You Get Nothing! You Lose!

Wow, has it really been 40 years since Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory came out? Granted this movie was made thirteen years before I was born, and I didn't see it until I was like seven...so the movie is more like 20 years old in my world. But, still, even 20 years ago seems like a long time ago (cue all those features going around on the internet that say "Don't you feel old: Macaulay Culkin is now 30, the last new Seinfeld episode was 13 years ago, The Lion King came out 17 years ago..." And it does make me feel old, and I do recognize the absurdity of that statement).

The cast recently reunited on The Today Show in honor of the anniversary (In case you're interested, you can see the video here. Though, it's not terribly exciting and the interviewer is pretty lame. But, spoiler alert, Violet Beauregarde obviously became a chain smoker...).

Apparently Augustus Gloop is the only one that got the memo to dress up like your character.

And does it weird anyone else out to see Veruca Salt smiling so warmly?

On one hand I'm like "Look how old they are!"; on the other hand, I'm kind of disappointed and I expected them to look even older. The movie was made 40 years ago! Like, what is Charlie Bucket's mom doing there? I expected she would have passed away years ago. Then again, I think I might have seriously overestimated the aging process and how old she actually was... I looked up Mrs. Bucket's (or Diana Sowle's) age online and I guess she's younger than both my (living) grandmothers.
Learning Mrs. Bucket's age inspired me to look at what happened to the grandparents (thinking, surely they can't still be alive, right?!). Grandpa Joe (or the actor that played him) died in 1981 at the age of 74. Grandma Josephine died in 1993 at age 93. Grandpa George died in 1974 at the age of 79. Grandma Georgina died in 1971 (the year the movie came out) at age 90. Wait a minute, Grandma Georgina was lying in that bed at age 90, while her husband Grandpa George lying beside her was 77?! That little cougar! To a lesser extent, Grandma Josephine was 72 while Grandpa Joe was 64 (he was only 64 years old and already couldn't walk from atrophy?!). 

You know what also concerns me? Grandma Josephine (Franziska Liebing) and Grandpa George (Ernst Ziegler) were born in Germany in the 1890s. That means that in the 1930s they would have been about the right age to be....I'm just saying.

But I'm glad that Willy Wonka is still being celebrated today. I love that movie (and the original source, obviously). It's a timeless classic. What kid wouldn't love a movie about a reclusive, bipolar candymaker that decides to off children because they have childish imperfections and curiosities?! And he gets his point across with the help of dancing, singing, orange midgets! Brilliant! Oh, and that boat scene (the LSD scene) still freaks me out...and so does Mr. Slugworth (apparently, the actor Günter Meisner played Hitler in numerous movies. Thanks, IMDB!).

I love my Willy Wonka record

Speaking of the Willy Wonka soundtrack, did anyone else see the Glee episode last night in which they sang "Pure Imagination"? God, I was crying my eyes out. (And then after that I watched the movie Rabbit Hole and cried my eyes out some more. Despite the movie being incredibly sad, I really liked it and thought it was very well done.)