Outdoor Summer Movies: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Wednesday nights can be tough. It’s the middle of the week, you’re not quite over the hump, there’s nothing on television (“So You Think You Can Dance?” Come on!), and you’ve got to get up early tomorrow anyway. So how to pass the evening? How about a magical journey back to one of the most unique movies ever made (and later, less uniquely, remade). We’re talking, of course, about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Your good friends at the Alamo and 101X present a special screening on the lawn of Central Market tonight.

Meet up outside of Central Market before it gets dark (it’s scheduled for an 8:30 start, but dusk is the hard and fast rule), bring some snacks, a blanket, and get comfy for the whacked-out musical ride into the most fantastic candy factory you ever saw, complete with Veruca Salt (the girl, not the band), snozzberries, and of course, a chocolate waterfall. This was "Pee Wee’s Playhouse" before we knew who Pee Wee was. Bring out the kids, or just bring out the kid inside you as you feast your eyes on Roald Dahl’s tale that was so bizarre, even Tim Burton couldn’t top it. No, it doesn’t have Johnny Depp in it, but it does have singing midgets in orange face paint, a kid that turns into a blueberry, and some of the most quotable lines never said by Will Ferrell.

Best of all, it’s free, so you don’t need a golden ticket to see the show. Get down there early to stake out some blanket space, and see if you don’t catch yourself humming the “Oompa Loompa Song” before the night is through. This movie is as fun (and did we mention weird?) as a movie gets, so it promises to be a good time. Catch it on the big screen tonight, because there aren’t a lot of movies out there like it. As Wonka himself would say, "it’s scrumdiddlyumptious!"