"Pure Imagination" is a song from the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. It was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley specifically for the movie. It was sung by Gene Wilder (Willy Wonka).
Wilder began his career on stage, and made his screen debut in the TV-series Armstrong Circle Theatre in 1962. Although his first film role was portraying a hostage in the 1967 motion picture Bonnie and Clyde, Wilder's first major role was as Leopold Bloom in the 1968 film The Producers for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This was the first in a series of collaborations with writer/director Mel Brooks, including 1974's Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, which Wilder co-wrote, garnering the pair an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Wilder is known for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and for his four films with Richard Pryor: Silver Streak (1976), Stir Crazy (1980), See No Evil, Hear No Evil (1989), and Another You (1991). Wilder directed and wrote several of his own films, including The Woman in Red (1984).
His third wife was actress Gilda Radner, with whom he starred in three films. Her death from ovarian cancer led to his active involvement in promoting cancer awareness and treatment, helping found the Gilda Radner Ovarian Cancer Detection Center in Los Angeles and co-founding Gilda's Club.
After his last contribution to acting in 2003, Wilder turned his attention to writing. He produced a memoir in 2005, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art; a collection of stories, What Is This Thing Called Love? (2010); and the novels My French Whore (2007), The Woman Who Wouldn't (2008) and Something to Remember You By (2013).
Pure Imagination
Gene Wilder Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Boys and girls
The chocolate room
Hold your breath
Make a wish
Count to three
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination
We'll begin with a spin
Traveling in the world of my creation
What we'll see will defy
Explanation
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it
There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free
If you truly wish to be
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it
There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there, you'll be free
If you truly wish to be
The lyrics of Gene Wilder's song "Pure Imagination" are an invitation to a magical world beyond our imagination, created through the powers of the mind. The song starts by addressing the audience - ladies, gentlemen, boys, and girls - and leads them to the chocolate room. Then, taking a deep breath, making a wish, and counting to three, the singer invites everyone to come with him, promising they will enter a world of pure imagination. The lyrics suggest that this is a carefree, limitless, and beautiful world that exists within one's imagination. The singer reassures the audience that they will be free and have an unparalleled life experience.
The second part of the song explains that they will start by spinning and traveling into the world of the creator's imagination, where everything will be wondrous and beyond rational explanations. The audience is invited to view paradise by looking around and seeing with their imagination, to do anything they want, and to change the world with simplicity. The song ends by repeating that there is no life comparable to pure imagination, and one could live freely and happily if they only wished to be.
Line by Line Meaning
Ladies and gentlemen
Attention please
Boys and girls
Everyone is invited
The chocolate room
Let's explore a place of wonder and delight
Hold your breath
Get ready for something magical
Make a wish
Think of what you truly desire
Count to three
And let's go on an adventure
Come with me and you'll be
Join me on a journey
In a world of pure imagination
Where anything is possible
Take a look and you'll see
Open your mind to new possibilities
Into your imagination
Let your creativity soar
We'll begin with a spin
Let's start with a twirl
Traveling in the world of my creation
We'll explore a place that I've made
What we'll see will defy
Expect the unexpected
Explanation
There's no need to rationalize
If you want to view paradise
To experience true joy and happiness
Simply look around and view it
Just appreciate the world around you
Anything you want to, do it
It's within your power to make it happen
Want to change the world?
Do you have big aspirations?
There's nothing to it
It's possible with effort and determination
There is no life I know
I've never experienced anything else comparable
To compare with pure imagination
To match the limitless possibilities in one's mind
Living there, you'll be free
You'll feel liberated in your imagination
If you truly wish to be
If you allow yourself to dream and imagine
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Tratore, TARADAM MUSIC, INC., Downtown Music Publishing
Written by: Anthony Newley, Leslie Bricusse
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@anthonydickinson5913
Come with me and you'll be
In a world of pure imagination
Take a look and you'll see
Into your imagination
We'll begin with a spin
Traveling in the world of my creation
What we'll see will defy explanation
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it
There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there you'll be free
If you truly wish to be
If you want to view paradise
Simply look around and view it
Anything you want to, do it
Want to change the world?
There's nothing to it
There is no life I know
To compare with pure imagination
Living there you'll be free
If you truly wish to be
@user-lj3ws5rz6x
This song everytime i hear it causes me immense sadness and pain. My eyes truly well up. Just today listening to this i cried a whole 3 minutes.
Took my kids to see the new Wonka movie and it had the same song and I almost broke into tears there, had to hide em.
Why you may ask? Maybe a part of my adult self really wishes life was truly as easy, blissful, and dreamy as the lyrics made it out to be.
Life is the opposite. Its cruel, and harsh, and filled with people with hate, greed, and selfishness.
It speaks to my inner child in a way that not even these words could describe. The pain cuts deep.
@whovianhistorybuff
Actually it was from the 1873 poem Ode by Arthur O’Shaughnessy
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams; —
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.
With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample a kingdom down.
We, in the ages lying,
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself in our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.
A breath of our inspiration
Is the life of each generation;
A wondrous thing of our dreaming
Unearthly, impossible seeming —
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.
They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising;
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broken,
A light that doth not depart;
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man's heart.
And therefore to-day is thrilling
With a past day's late fulfilling;
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of to-morrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for its joy or its sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.
But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing:
O men! it must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
A little apart from ye.
For we are afar with the dawning
And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
Intrepid you hear us cry —
How, spite of your human scorning,
Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
That ye of the past must die.
Great hail! we cry to the comers
From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers
And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
And things that we dreamed not before:
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.
@chuckyp64
The quote is actually from the beautiful poem "Ode" by Arthur O'Shaughnessy. It is from the first stanza, which also gave us the phrase "movers and shakers".
"We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams; —
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems."
@ErickKhan
Timothy's isn't as classic but I think it pays great homage to this. Gene is the THE Willy Wonka
@justanothermortal1373
I thought Timothee was wonderful as Wonka 😭. He was so child-like and so wonderfully loveable.
@Vitallor
It is a prequel after all
@Sara-ny5od
Totally agree. Gene Wilder is the true Wiily Wonka - S
@sirmel11
No need to compare them.
@Sara-ny5od
@@sirmel11 We don't need too, but as individuals we have preferances therefore do it anyway. Have a Happy Holiday Season - Paz S
@NoNo-ng9sl
Gene Wilder may not have ever known it. But this film gave hope to so many kids in every hood/ghetto. I grew up with nothing, & like Charlie with family everywhere, we struggled. I remember as a kid being in awe if I had ever seen anything outside of where I grew up. This movie motivated me to travel & see as much of the world as I could. Pure Imagination is what I play anywhere I put a foot on (Machu pichu, Guatemalan ruins, Scottish Highlands, walking through Moscow). This ghetto kid never would've imagined seeing any of this. RIP Gene Wilder.......you inspired this Charlie to see as much as he could in a world of Imagination.
@_nay__
Did u ever sing this song doing any of those things? I sing this all the time to my girls, anywhere.
@kimberlycolezemke2290
Beautifully written May God bless you as you keep stepping all over the World.
@mikhailabunidal9146
@لا لا (No No)
انا إسا قريت شو إنته كاتب و بكاني
I Just read what you've wrote and it made tear 😢 up