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Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
I have no idea why I didn't review this film before in light of Gene Wilder's tragic passing...but it's time to put that right. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is undoubtedly a classic; the fact that it was remade with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is as criminal to me as Ben Hur's 2016 remake is to many people. This is a film that should never have been touched; like the other film I reviewed recently Singin' In The Way it is the absolute definition of perfection. In fact, if you looked up the word 'perfection' in the dictionary you would probably find 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'. If Roald Dahl hadn't interfered by declining the film rights there would have been a sequel to the film based on the follow-up book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. So damn you Roald Dahl for stopping one of the best films of all time from getting the sequel it deserved.
The film follows the iconic story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) is a young boy living in poverty with his grandparents Grampa Joe (Jack Albertson), Grandma Josephine (Franziska Liebing), Grandpa George ( Ernst Ziegler) and Gramma Georgina (Dora Altmann). Due to his financial troubles he is forced to simply watch as his friends by sweets from the sweet store. Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) announces on television that he has hidden golden tickets which grant access to a tour around his factory and an unlimited supply of chocolate in five Wonka chocolate bars. Four of the tickets are found by German boy Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner), spoilt British girl Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), American girl Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson) and American TV addict Mike Teavee (Paris Themmen). After Charlie finds some money in the gutter and uses it to buy two Wonka bars (one for himself and one for his Grampa Joe), he finds the fifth golden ticket and takes his Grampa Joe along for the tour. Unlike the other kids who turn out to be self-obsessed, Charlie is shown to have a kind and loyal heart, thereby becoming the only child to find out that the tour was merely a test by Mr Wonka to find his successor as owner of the factory.
There's a reason why this version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is called 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' and that's because Willy Wonka is the real star of this version. It is a smart decision by director Mel Stuart as he is a far more interesting character than Charlie Bucket. The problem with Charlie is that he is too perfect and that's one of many things the 2005 remake fails to understand. Willy Wonka has real character flaws: he's arrogant, stubborn and has to learn to embrace his humanity in order to realise Charlie deserves to be the new factory owner. He is also a very charming presence brought wonderfully to life by Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka may be eccentric but he is also very charismatic and has a very convincing flamboyancy which Johnny Depp's Wonka never had. Gene Wilder was simply perfect for this role and I doubt anyone would ever be able to top the performance he gave as Willy Wonka. He simply is Mr Wonka.
The child actors are also extremely talented in playing their roles. Peter Ostrum's Charlie is far superior to Freddie Highmore's take on the character. Peter Ostrum plays the character with an endearingly naive quality and you feel more for this Charlie's financial situation than you do with Freddie Highmore's Charlie. Julie Dawn Cole, Denise Nickerson and Paris Themmen all feel exactly like the characters they are portraying also. There isn't a duff child actor among them; this is a movie that is extremely well cast, right down to the excellent casting of Grandpa Joe in Jack Albertson. As with Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, Jack Albertson gives Grandpa Joe a real charm and definitely feels like a definitive version of the character. I didn't really care for the character played by David Kelly in the 2005 version but Jack Albertson makes for an extremely convincing and engaging watch as the character.
The major difference between the two versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are the songs. The songs in the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are awful - the lyrics are taken directly from the book but sound too modern in the way they are performed. In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, however, they are one of the strongest parts of the film. Instead of relying on the book, here we have original songs that are instantly memorable; the kind that you will find yourself singing all day after only one listen. The best song is of course the classic 'Oompa Lumpa', a simple and catchy little song with a strong resemblance to children's nursery rhymes that helps to highlight the dark irony of the fates awaiting the selfish kids on the tour.
The portrayal of the childrens' fates, you see, is incredibly dark for a childrens' movie. That's another thing Willy Wonka understands about the Roald Dahl story: at its heart Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is essentially a thriller for kids. The selfish kids' have to be dark because the whole point - the whole message - of the book is that if you think of your own personal greeds above all else there will be consequences for your actions. It's Roald Dahl's warning for kids - and perhaps some adults too, who possess negative/child-like selfish qualities. The film has this amazingly sweet tone when disposing of, say, Augustus through the pipe in the chocolate river (which leads to the fudge room) and it offers this darkly ironic tone that feels like exactly what Roald Dahl was trying to achieve with the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book. Whereas with 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the dark tone was too obvious, in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory makes it much more subtle and it feels truer to the way the book wants the deaths to be seen.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory even manages to improve on the book. Charlie may still appear too perfect but here the character is actually allowed to make a mistake. Charlie and Grandpa Joe both try the fizzy drinks in the Fizzy Lifting Drinks Room despite Wonka's warning to them and in the aftermath of their mistake they cause expense to the factory to clean up the mess left behind by their disregard for the rules. Charlie as a result feels much more of a rounded character than he did in Roald Dahl's story; he actually feels real as opposed a typical 'Mary Sue'. Everybody has their flaws, everybody makes mistakes - even those who appear kind-hearted are capable of them - and the screenplay by David Seltzer acknowledges that. Charlie is still not as selfish as the other kids by allowing him to make a mistake, if anything you want him to own the factory more because of it.
The cinematography by Arthur Ibbetson is one of the strongest components of the film. Arthur Ibbetson perfectly captures the magic and wonder of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Everything feels like the fantastical candy land it should be, everything brightly lit to appear sweet and colourful and certain shots like this one give a real sense of depth like the factory is its own mini-world living upon our own:
Willy Wonka's chocolate factory feels like the Hogwarts of 1971. It has that real sense of awe that can be found in the Harry Potter films and it's a shame that Roald Dahl didn't allow a return for this world.
I don't understand why Roald Dahl hated this version of his book so much as it is definitely the best take of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory there will ever be. The movie is perfectly cast: Gene Wilder is a revelation as Willy Wonka and it was obvious Johnny Depp wouldn't be even half as good in the part. The original songs are catchy and addictive, the cinematography is spell-binding and the child actors are among the best that there ever has been in a film. Unlike the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory realises that Charlie is too perfect to be the main protagonist and wisely makes the decision to have a more flawed character in Willy Wonka as the lead. It also improves on the book by allowing Charlie to make a mistake. This Charlie is 99% perfect rather than 100% and the story is vastly improved because of it. Simply put: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a classic and there will never be a Willy Wonka better than the late Gene Wilder.
I have no idea why I didn't review this film before in light of Gene Wilder's tragic passing...but it's time to put that right. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is undoubtedly a classic; the fact that it was remade with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is as criminal to me as Ben Hur's 2016 remake is to many people. This is a film that should never have been touched; like the other film I reviewed recently Singin' In The Way it is the absolute definition of perfection. In fact, if you looked up the word 'perfection' in the dictionary you would probably find 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'. If Roald Dahl hadn't interfered by declining the film rights there would have been a sequel to the film based on the follow-up book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. So damn you Roald Dahl for stopping one of the best films of all time from getting the sequel it deserved.
The film follows the iconic story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie Bucket (Peter Ostrum) is a young boy living in poverty with his grandparents Grampa Joe (Jack Albertson), Grandma Josephine (Franziska Liebing), Grandpa George ( Ernst Ziegler) and Gramma Georgina (Dora Altmann). Due to his financial troubles he is forced to simply watch as his friends by sweets from the sweet store. Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) announces on television that he has hidden golden tickets which grant access to a tour around his factory and an unlimited supply of chocolate in five Wonka chocolate bars. Four of the tickets are found by German boy Augustus Gloop (Michael Bollner), spoilt British girl Veruca Salt (Julie Dawn Cole), American girl Violet Beauregarde (Denise Nickerson) and American TV addict Mike Teavee (Paris Themmen). After Charlie finds some money in the gutter and uses it to buy two Wonka bars (one for himself and one for his Grampa Joe), he finds the fifth golden ticket and takes his Grampa Joe along for the tour. Unlike the other kids who turn out to be self-obsessed, Charlie is shown to have a kind and loyal heart, thereby becoming the only child to find out that the tour was merely a test by Mr Wonka to find his successor as owner of the factory.
There's a reason why this version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is called 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory' and that's because Willy Wonka is the real star of this version. It is a smart decision by director Mel Stuart as he is a far more interesting character than Charlie Bucket. The problem with Charlie is that he is too perfect and that's one of many things the 2005 remake fails to understand. Willy Wonka has real character flaws: he's arrogant, stubborn and has to learn to embrace his humanity in order to realise Charlie deserves to be the new factory owner. He is also a very charming presence brought wonderfully to life by Gene Wilder. Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka may be eccentric but he is also very charismatic and has a very convincing flamboyancy which Johnny Depp's Wonka never had. Gene Wilder was simply perfect for this role and I doubt anyone would ever be able to top the performance he gave as Willy Wonka. He simply is Mr Wonka.
The child actors are also extremely talented in playing their roles. Peter Ostrum's Charlie is far superior to Freddie Highmore's take on the character. Peter Ostrum plays the character with an endearingly naive quality and you feel more for this Charlie's financial situation than you do with Freddie Highmore's Charlie. Julie Dawn Cole, Denise Nickerson and Paris Themmen all feel exactly like the characters they are portraying also. There isn't a duff child actor among them; this is a movie that is extremely well cast, right down to the excellent casting of Grandpa Joe in Jack Albertson. As with Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka, Jack Albertson gives Grandpa Joe a real charm and definitely feels like a definitive version of the character. I didn't really care for the character played by David Kelly in the 2005 version but Jack Albertson makes for an extremely convincing and engaging watch as the character.
The major difference between the two versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are the songs. The songs in the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are awful - the lyrics are taken directly from the book but sound too modern in the way they are performed. In Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, however, they are one of the strongest parts of the film. Instead of relying on the book, here we have original songs that are instantly memorable; the kind that you will find yourself singing all day after only one listen. The best song is of course the classic 'Oompa Lumpa', a simple and catchy little song with a strong resemblance to children's nursery rhymes that helps to highlight the dark irony of the fates awaiting the selfish kids on the tour.
The portrayal of the childrens' fates, you see, is incredibly dark for a childrens' movie. That's another thing Willy Wonka understands about the Roald Dahl story: at its heart Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is essentially a thriller for kids. The selfish kids' have to be dark because the whole point - the whole message - of the book is that if you think of your own personal greeds above all else there will be consequences for your actions. It's Roald Dahl's warning for kids - and perhaps some adults too, who possess negative/child-like selfish qualities. The film has this amazingly sweet tone when disposing of, say, Augustus through the pipe in the chocolate river (which leads to the fudge room) and it offers this darkly ironic tone that feels like exactly what Roald Dahl was trying to achieve with the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book. Whereas with 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the dark tone was too obvious, in the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory makes it much more subtle and it feels truer to the way the book wants the deaths to be seen.
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory even manages to improve on the book. Charlie may still appear too perfect but here the character is actually allowed to make a mistake. Charlie and Grandpa Joe both try the fizzy drinks in the Fizzy Lifting Drinks Room despite Wonka's warning to them and in the aftermath of their mistake they cause expense to the factory to clean up the mess left behind by their disregard for the rules. Charlie as a result feels much more of a rounded character than he did in Roald Dahl's story; he actually feels real as opposed a typical 'Mary Sue'. Everybody has their flaws, everybody makes mistakes - even those who appear kind-hearted are capable of them - and the screenplay by David Seltzer acknowledges that. Charlie is still not as selfish as the other kids by allowing him to make a mistake, if anything you want him to own the factory more because of it.
The cinematography by Arthur Ibbetson is one of the strongest components of the film. Arthur Ibbetson perfectly captures the magic and wonder of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Everything feels like the fantastical candy land it should be, everything brightly lit to appear sweet and colourful and certain shots like this one give a real sense of depth like the factory is its own mini-world living upon our own:
Willy Wonka's chocolate factory feels like the Hogwarts of 1971. It has that real sense of awe that can be found in the Harry Potter films and it's a shame that Roald Dahl didn't allow a return for this world.
I don't understand why Roald Dahl hated this version of his book so much as it is definitely the best take of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory there will ever be. The movie is perfectly cast: Gene Wilder is a revelation as Willy Wonka and it was obvious Johnny Depp wouldn't be even half as good in the part. The original songs are catchy and addictive, the cinematography is spell-binding and the child actors are among the best that there ever has been in a film. Unlike the 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory realises that Charlie is too perfect to be the main protagonist and wisely makes the decision to have a more flawed character in Willy Wonka as the lead. It also improves on the book by allowing Charlie to make a mistake. This Charlie is 99% perfect rather than 100% and the story is vastly improved because of it. Simply put: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a classic and there will never be a Willy Wonka better than the late Gene Wilder.