As if on cue, A woman in Boston wants to revive Smellovision. Hey, I though that these gimmicks only happened when box office is in the dumpster!

She picked the dooziest film to try it out on: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (the 1971 musical original. It had a hilariously dated post-flower-power tagline: “It’s everybody’s non-pollutionary, anti-institutionary, pro-confectionery factory of fun!” A three-bong-hit line if ever I heard one.)

A perfect film with which to add olfactory stimulation: who wouldn’t want to smell a chocolate factory? I have some personal experience of just how nice it can be: Many years ago I worked at Dolby Labs in San Francisco, right next to Continental Baking. Twinkies were made Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Ding-dongs and Ho-Hos Tuesday and Thursday. Mmmm. Once there was an accident during a delivery, leaving the street a foot deep in liquid chocolate. Fun cleanup.

Every few years someone tries to bring the ol’ smell gimmick back. I don’t think people realize most people go out of their way to NOT smell things.

Which leads to our new service: We rate this week’s top 10 films in smell-o-vision!

1. 3:10 To Yuma. Evocative. Leather, dust, sage, gunpowder, horse exhaust.
2. Superbad. Eww. Teenage boys. Clearsil and poor hygiene.
3. Halloween. Pass.
4. The Bourne Ultimatum. Could be nice. Turin, Paris, London, Madrid and New York. Matt Damon looks like an expensive cologne sort of fellow.
5. Balls Of Fury. Eww. Pass.
6. The Nanny Diaries. Upper East side, fresh-cut flowers in every room. Scarlett Johansson. Front row, please.
7. Death Sentence. Jodie, like Mr. Damon, probably likes the more, let’s say, refined scents, like Clive Christian’s No. 1, at $2100 an ounce. This rare perfume is limited by the scarcity of its ingredients, which include ylang ylang specially grown in Madagascar, vanilla, orris, natural gum resin, sandalwood and bergamot.
8. War. Pass. Sweaty guys.
9. Mr. Bean’s Holiday. Croissants?
10. Stardust. Smells Like Harry Potter. Unicorn sweat, Brimstone and fairy dust, all that made-up crap.

For me, the #1 movie smell is still fresh popcorn. Now, about those prices…

–Skot C.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 9:45 am and is filed under General, Motion Pictures, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.