Comments on: Comments on 11988

Post number 11988

andnbsp — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:40:38 -0800

Wonka! We'd be remiss to let halloween pass without a shoutout to one of the best candy companies ever. Very nice Flash work here, too. What's your favorite Wonka candy?

By: andnbsp

andnbsp — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:46:34 -0800

For the record, I think Oompahs are the best darn bite-sized fruity candy since Skittles.

By: starduck

starduck — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:51:38 -0800

Was the movie based on the candy or the other way around? Shrewd marketing either way. Nerds get my vote.

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:52:54 -0800

"You, you with the fizzy-lifting drink..."

By: barkingmoose

barkingmoose — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:53:39 -0800

Was the movie based on the candy or the other way around? That question makes me feel either very old or very cynical. Or both.

By: NortonDC

NortonDC — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 17:57:41 -0800

Orange Nerds are The One. Originally they came in the Orange/Cherry dual pack, then they were renamed as elctro-orange and packed with some crappy flavor, and now they seem only available around Halloween in the orange "spooky" Nerds bag (again whith cherry, though black cherry now). FYI: Nerds, even in the teeny boxes in the sealed plastic bags, do eventuially go stale, alas.

By: phalkin

phalkin — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:01:40 -0800

Are Nerds microscopic Gobstoppers, or are Gobstoppers giant Nerds?

By: marknau

marknau — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:05:38 -0800

Nerds and Gobstoppers both evolved from a common ancestor which has long ago fallen extinct due to lack of marketability.

By: gluechunk

gluechunk — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:08:16 -0800

The candy was based on the movie. There was going to be an actual Wonka Bar on the market. Unfortunately for the candy company though, a problem was discovered with the formula soon before the film was released (something to do with the bar melting after a certain amount of shelf time) and the bar was scrapped. I recommend the bonus features on the Wonka movie DVD.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:19:58 -0800

Oooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww. That's my cry of pain at the sinking realisation that every sacred memory of my childhood, in this case Roald Dahl books, can be co-opted into the corporate quest for my money. (I got the same dismal feeling looking at the LOTR action figures in Toyworld on the weekend). I don't WANT to eat Wonka candy, which can never be the perfection described in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I don't want a Harry Potter spellbook with rules for Quidditch in it. And I don't want some cheap-arse novelty trading on my affection for the original, one and only, platonic literary thingy-wotsit. Ah well. Since it seems that Dahl wasn't a very nice man, I hope that at least his family are getting rich off this.

By: shagoth

shagoth — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:23:27 -0800

Spleen: this may make me sad and backwards, but I don't want a Harry Potter anything. The best thing coming is that Harry Potter will blow over as a mass merchandising phenom and this year's Nimbus 2000 will be blown out as a clearance item.

By: darukaru

darukaru — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 18:33:47 -0800

I've always liked Runts, although not the banana ones. Sorta like instant-payoff Gobstoppers--crunching the bit in the middle is always the best part.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 19:08:53 -0800

"I recommend this book to anyone who likes chocolate and other candy". But this is a good Dahl jumping-off point, I think.

By: i_am_joe's_spleen

i_am_joe's_spleen — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 19:10:46 -0800

Bugger. The cute review should have been here.

By: animoller

animoller — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 20:18:25 -0800

The Wonka popping chocolate. God, that shit is good.

By: KoPi_42

KoPi_42 — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 20:39:41 -0800

Gobstoppers. And Runts. But then, place any candy in front of me and I guarantee it will be gone in a flash. In the case of Harry Potter, I too bemoan the mass merchandising, but boy, do I want a bag of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

By: kevspace

kevspace — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 20:55:39 -0800

I find Chewy Gobstoppers to be rare, but worth the hunt, round these parts.

By: dogwelder

dogwelder — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 20:59:00 -0800

I like the lickable wallpaper. The Strawberries taste like strawberries! The Snozzberries taste like Snozzberries!

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 21:18:25 -0800

Willie Wonka move tie-in materials. gluechunk, they really did market those bars; I remember buying them (at least, nagging my parents about buying them), though they were flawed as you describe. Interestingly, the same page claims that the movie was only made because Quaker tossed in $3 million in order to promote its new line of candy; backed up here, apparently the movie did come first but it was still Quaker's up-front investment that green-lighted the picture. Seeing as how it's still one of the most subversively insane children's movies ever, it's a wonder it's so corporate in its creation.

By: chiheisen

chiheisen — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 22:43:32 -0800

What`s so subversive about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? The nice kid wins?

By: lia

lia — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 23:38:55 -0800

What`s so subversive about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? The nice kid wins? Most adults are portrayed as buffoons in Roald Dahl's books (I used to run a Roald Dahl site), which turns some parents off but makes the books very popular with kids. Also people meet very gruesome ends (or at the very least, have horrible things happen to them) in the books. Dahl's books are frequently challenged in libraries, as a matter of fact.

By: chiheisen

chiheisen — Wed, 31 Oct 2001 23:44:32 -0800

Thanks lia. I had forgotten the bit about the stupid adults and I knew nothing of the library challenges.

By: Frasermoo

Frasermoo — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 00:38:19 -0800

I'm sure I saw a TV show the other day on Roald Dahl's wife, who obviously became rather minted with the success of her husbands work. Consequently she developed a taste of the high-life, became an alcoholic, got hooked on tranqs and had to declare bankruptcy. That my friends is the reaction to the 'dollar' action.

By: MarkC

MarkC — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 04:09:38 -0800

And then there's Sophie Dahl, Roald Dahl's niece. Yum.

By: TuxHeDoh

TuxHeDoh — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 05:34:45 -0800

My favorite were the lik-m-aid sticks!! Not the actual powder itself, but the sticks. At one point they actually made flavored lik-m-sticks - hadn't seen 'em in years. I still love the sticks!

By: byort

byort — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 06:40:30 -0800

My favorite was when I would go to Toys 'R' Us about two years ago and buy Wonka bars for a dollar. They were about the same size as in the movie and were chocolate with graham cracker chunks in them. YUM!! My wife and I were both addicted. I wish they still sold them...

By: sugarfish

sugarfish — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 09:08:04 -0800

they still do make wonka bars, with the chocolate and the graham. i had one at work last week.

By: byort

byort — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 09:13:02 -0800

Thanks for the info, sugarfish. Consider yourself lucky!

By: clavdivs

clavdivs — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 14:29:15 -0800

"Theres no earthly way of knowing Which direction they are going! There's no knowing where they're rowing, Or which way the river is flowing! Not a speck of light showing, So the danger must be growing, For the rowers keep on ROWING AND THEY'RE CERTAINLY NOT SHOWING ANY SIGNS THAT THEY ARE SLOWING.... He's balmy. He's nutty..." from: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'

By: dhartung

dhartung — Thu, 01 Nov 2001 18:10:30 -0800

'subversive' is am adjective often applied to Dahl. It's in his avoidance of aspartame happy endings and his outright cruelty to deserving characters, as well as his satire of the adult world as seen through the sometimes crystal clarity of children's eyes. In truth, he's closer to the spirit of the Grimm fairytales, as not bowdlerized by 20th century popular culture.