Monday, March 3, 2008

Spotted: Wonkavator!

An elevator can only go up and down, but a Wonkavator goes sideways and slantways and longways and backways and frontways and squareways and any other ways...As you may know, Austin is headquarters for several different high-tech companies. I'm not sure which to thank for finally discovering how to make the Wonkavator from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to become a reality, but I'm ecstatic that someone finally got on the ball and got this to work. I'm not sure why the Wonkavator is on top of the building right now, but my guess is that they were trying it out for a spin above the city before they actually put it into the building to do its magic inside. I know I would, if I had one.

As you can see, they chose to update the Wonkavator. I think having a built-in exit hatch for the top of the roof whenever you decide to take the machine OUT of the building would be a wise plan; even as a child I was always concerned about what they did after the movie with the hole in the factory ceiling. Did the Oompa-Loompas have to go back and patch it up? and if you had the technology to make a Wonkavator in the first place, don't you think you would have the sense to make a hole for it to go through if it was truly capable of flight? Another thing that troubled me about that movie was trying to figure out where on earth it was set. I assumed it was supposed to be America, because of the accents. But the science teacher was English, and the city itself looked like Vienna. The time was also messed up...the candy store was from the Victorian era, but Charlie's hair and turtleneck were straight 1970s. It's still an awesome movie, but I get bugged out by the time/space inconsistencies.
Something that they ALWAYS do in American movies which I DO NOT understand is give the actors English accents if they are anywhere in Europe, even if the movie is set in France or Germany. People from the past also tend to get Anglified accents in movies. I wonder why that is.

*Thanks to Shannon for pulling over so I could get a good picture of the great glass elevator.

No comments: