Video: "Willie Wonka" at the Kroc Center

The original "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is one of my favorite childhood films, and it left a permanent warp in my brain in a variety of ways, most of them good (I still have nightmares about the bad acid trip that is the scary tunnel scene). I've seen it dozens of times and it's  one of those films I never really tire of. I actually really liked the Tim Burton remake as well, but Johnny Depp's portayal of Wonka was nowhere near as grittily psychological as Gene Wilder's. Still, an oompa loompa is an oompa loompa, as they say.

Coeur d'Alene's Christian Youth Theater recently performed a musical production of "Willie Wonka" at the Kroc Center, and although I'm not familiar with the songs involved (no "Candyman"?), I'm actually fairly impressed by these YouTube clips of the performance. There's a lot of life here, it seems like these kids really put themselves behind this and knocked out a doozy. I love the minimal yet effective special effects, especially the random videos of carpet and someone's back yard (complete with dog) used for the tunnel scene.