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7 Willy Wonka Inventions From The 1971 Film, Ranked From Inedible to Magical

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7 Willy Wonka Inventions From The 1971 Film, Ranked From Inedible to Magical

Candy has been around for centuries, the first candy dating back to Egyptians around 2000 B.C.. What originally started off as honey mixed with fruit and nuts has now evolved into a delectable cultural phenomenon, with numerous holidays boosting candy sales. However, nobody makes candy like the greatest candyman of all, Willy Wonka. Although he is a fictional character from Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, he once had his own line of Wonka candy through the Nestlé brand (now under the name Nestlé Candy Shop). Nestlés Willy Wonka Candy Company was founded a month before Mel Stuart’s iconic 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was released. The film flexes its imaginative muscles with awe-inspiring set pieces designed by Harper Goff (Casablanca and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea), but some of the most memorable parts of the film are the numerous sugary inventions Wonka (Gene Wilder) has hidden away deep in his factory.

Let’s dive into 7 of Wonka’s inventions and rank them from least desirable to most desirable. But like in Wonka’s factory there is no turning back, so we have to go forwards to go back!

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RELATED: The Kids From ‘Willy Wonka’ Reflect on the Making of the Film and Whether Any of the Candy Was Real

7. Wonka’s Concoction(s)

The least desirable of Wonka’s inventions is whatever maniacal concoction(s) he has brewing in “The “Inventing Room”. The disorderly room has so many odd machines and gadgets at work that it’s hard to distinguish if they are all working together like some kind of madcap Rube Goldberg machine or if they are all working independently. Whatever the case may be, it is highly unlikely the final product(s) would get the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or the Food Standards Administration (FSA) seal of approval. After all, Wonka added a clock and coat to his recipe, not to mention a pair of shoes in order to give it “a little kick.”


6. Exploding Candy

This next candy is a little more developed, but still not quite ready according to Wonka, who claims the candy is “too weak” and needs more “gelignite”. After eating a piece of exploding candy, Mike Teavee (Paris Themmen) is blown back into a rack of pots and pans before smoke begins to billow out of his nose and mouth. Completely disregarding the fact that he could’ve had his entire jaw blown off, he says in a daze, “boy, that’s great stuff.” Great or not, this item probably wouldn’t be a hot-seller even though it is intended for one’s enemies; the number of lawsuits someone would amass is scarier than Wonka’s hair. Also, the likelihood of exploding candy being approved by the FDA or FSA is slim to none.

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5. Fizzy Lifting Drink

The most fun of Wonka’s inventions is the Fizzy Lifting Drink. The concept is fairly simple: Upon drinking the carbonated beverage, the individual will float in the air. However, the drink is far too powerful, nearly getting Grandpa Joe (Jack Alberston) and Charlie (Peter Ostrum) cut into ribbons by a giant fan. Thankfully, they come to the realization that burping causes them to float back down to the ground. If Wonka were to ever correct his recipe and release this item to the public, he would have to slap a disclaimer on the bottle.

4. Lickable Wallpaper

Ever walk into a room and get the urge to lick the wall? Neither has anyone else, but that is the kind of imaginative spirit that makes Wonka a candy icon. The idea of Lickable Wallpaper is so off-the-wall (I had to) that it is borderline genius. Imagine satisfying a snozzberry craving by going up to the wall and licking it. Although the idea captures the beauty of imagination, it is not the most sanitary of Wonka’s inventions. This item isn’t exactly something that would be popular today, particularly during the Covid-19 epidemic.


3. Golden Egg

Since 3000 B.C. (only 1000 years before the invention of candy), gold has been a symbol of wealth and power. Fast forward almost 5000 years, the California Gold Rush of 1848 proved that gold was still one of the most sought-after elements. Fast forward 123 more years and Wonka has somehow miraculously found (or bred) geese that lay giant golden eggs. Although it is not specified whether the insides of the eggs are filled with chocolatey goodness or baby geese, this invention is no less miraculous.

2. Three-Course-Meal Gum

Although Wonka’s Three-Course-Meal Gum is flawed (the flavor doesn’t seem to last very long and the third course turns the chewer into a blueberry), the concept behind the gum is too spectacular to rank any lower. If Wonka were to perfect this recipe, his invention would easily be one of his top sellers, not to mention make dieting a lot easier. The ad practically writes itself: introducing Wonka’s Three-Course-Meal Gum. Indulge yourself in a three-course roast beef dinner, starting with creamy tomato soup, followed by succulent roast beef, and finishing the experience with sweet blueberry pie. Wonka’s Three-Course-Meal Gum: Pure Imagine in Every Piece.

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1. The Everlasting Gobstopper

At the top of this list is Wonka’s most secretive invention: The Everlasting Gobstopper. The candy that is going to really “sizzle ‘ol Slugworth.” Wonka managed to design an oddly sculpted multicolored gobstopper (aka jawbreaker) that would never dissolve. And one could only begin to imagine what the flavor is: Cherry? Green apple? Grape? Whatever the case may be, make sure not to tell anybody, or swallow one.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is as iconic today as it was back in the 1970’s thanks, in part, to the wacky candy ideas presented in the film. What some of Wonka’s inventions lack in desirability (or safety to consume), they make up for in imagination. And as seen by the cultural impact of the fictional candy maker, a little imagination can go a long way.



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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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