Most of us have seen at least one of the adaptations of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book, Charlie and the Choclate Factory, a tale of a young boy who finds a golden ticket and is allowed to see the inside of the choclate factory run by the eccentric Willy Wonka. Whether you’ve seen the 1970’s version or the Tim Burton adaptation or you’ve just seen the memes, you’re familiar with the story. I had grown up on the Tim Burton version and have just only seen the 1970’s movie and the newest addition to the Wonka-verse staring Timothee Chalamet. All I can say is: I have some thoughts.
The 1970’s Movie:
As weird as the Tim Burton movie was, this adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was the strangest. Sure, Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka made for a wild ride, but there was just something about Gene Wilder that made the movie so much weirder. While he didn’t do insanity as well as Depp did, he still managed to come off as strange and unnerving. I think much of this has to do with older appearance. At first, he comes off as your weird uncle who you only see once every few years, but later turns into a psycho who enjoys watching bratty children be potentially disfigured or mentally scarred for life. His performance makes you feel sorry for the kids and adults involved.
The color scheme and the general look of everything also really seperated the 1970’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from the others. In this version, the world looks like 1800’s London with technology from the 70’s. Everything looks pretty gray and faded, especially in Charlie’s world where he has very little. But then, we have that chocolate factory, which by stark contrast looks very bright and colorful, like a child’s wonderland. Sure, some things look like stage props and the Oompa-Loompas look like midgets in bad makeup and cheap costumes, but the factory still looks great, especially for something made before CGI.
The music in the original movie was also pretty good. It got the point across about what was happening and flowed mostly seamlessly throughout the major beats of the movie. I say mostly because for as much of a bop as the Oompa-Loompa song is, it seems like the directors and producers thought they could make it a MTV lyric video and it just doesn’t really fit with the rest of the movie.
Though this movie is an LSD-fueled trip through childhood, I would rate it an 8/10.
Tim Burton’s Version:
This was the one I grew up on and while I enjoy it well enough, it’s definitely a lot different from the original adaptation.
For one thing, it’s a Tim Burton movie and while he does strange and unusual very well (just look at the masterpeices that were The Corpse Bride, Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline, Edward Scissorhands, Alice in Wonderland, etc.), he doesn’t exactly pull off funny childhood wonder. While the original movie focused on Charlie’s time at the factory and made everything look very whimsical and bright, the Tim Burton version seems to focus more on Wonka’s backstory of having a strict father who never let him eat candy, inspiring him to leave and start his candy company as petty revenge. While it works since it’s Johnny Depp playing Wonka, it does kinda take away from Charlie’s story and becomes somewhat unnecessary.
The color palate was also very muted (as is a common theme with Tim Burton films). The outside world is very drab and gray, but the inside of the chocolate factory isn’t much better. In the scene where the characters enter it, the halls are huge and shadowy and everyone is pushed together as they walk behind Wonka. The atmosphere feels very foreboding, as though foreshadowing the horrors that are to come. It also feels like there’s a bit of a blue filter on everything (a-la Twilight) and so Wonka looks pale and somewhat lifeless until he starts acting really strange.
The timeline has also been put sometime in the early 2000’s in this movie, as we can see with the much more modern appliances, the changes in the kids appearances and clothing, and the tech that Wonka uses. While some of the more modern additions to the story work, most of them just don’t and end up raising an absurd amount of questions such as, “How are the Buckets still poor when the English welfare systems would probably help them if they just signed for unemployment?”, “How has their house been allowed to get that run-down by the insurance company or goverment?”, “How has no one – not even PETA – looked into the unethical ways that Wonka makes his chocolate and shut him down?” It just doesn’t make much sense.
The Oompa-Loompas are also in this movie (obviously you can’t have Willy Wonka and not have his lovable servants as well), but they seem to mostly be there for the sake of they need to be. Though they have some good scenes that are reminiscent of the original movie, they still have the quintessential Tim Burton vibes that don’t exactly scream “safe for children!” Their color palate and demeanor is as toned down as the factory and just as foreboding.
However, though it has it’s problems, I would still rate this version as a 7/10. It’s fun and watchable, but wasn’t as good as Gene Wilder’s Wonka.
Wonka
I’m not super sure if you can call this one an actual adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but since the 2023 movie Wonka does circle around Willy Wonka’s backstory, I suppose it could be considered as part of the trilogy of adaptations.
While it was pretty good and was absolutely one of the best movies of 2023, it felt more like a Broadway production than anything else. If you thought the original had a lot of songs, this one could barely go five minutes without a song and dance routine. The songs could basically be split up into two categories: exposition and “we-needed-something-to-remind-you-of-the-original”. The exposition songs were actually okay – if a bit cheesy – though they definitely took a lot from the original movie. However, the “we-needed-something-to-remind-you-of-the-original” felt thrown in for the sake of “Why not?” and took from the story. Most of the story was forced into the songs and there was hardly any breathing room.
Another thing that made it feel like a Broadway show was the acting. Maybe it was just from the amount of songs there were, but there were times where the actors would be giving it 200% and be overacting to the point of cringe, and then there were times where I think they might’ve been trying to strike a balance between overacting and underacting, but failed. For example, Timothee Chalamet’s Wonka really struggled with coming off as insane when compared to his predecessors, making it seem like he was underacting, but when he was trying to act more insane, it felt more like overacting. However, I think this could just be taken on a person to person basis since some actors did a better job than others.
This leads me to Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa. This was easily the best part of the entire movie. In this adaptation, the Oompa-Loompas actually get more lines than just the lyrics to their song and we get to see that they can be funny in other ways. Hugh Grant’s Oompa-Loompa also looked the best out of all the other versions we’ve gotten, with the mix of CGI and makeup really making him come to life.
The last thing I would like to comment on with this movie was how it looked. Though some of the CGI could’ve been better, it all in all looked really good, striking a pretty good balance between the visions of the 1970’s version and Tim Burton’s version. The CGI managed to make the inside of his shop look realistic and somewhat Burton-esque while the colors made it reminiscient of the original.
All in all, this version deserves a 7.5/10. It could’ve done a bit better with the story, but still did a good job staying true to the vision of the original story.
Until next time,
M.J.
The Tanuki Corner 
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