I'm going to compare the two versions as I found it interesting to do so.
Current IMDB score: Charlie: 6.7, Willy: 7.8
Director: Charlie: Tim Burton, Willy: Mel Stuart
Main Actors you care about: Charlie: That guy that's in every Tim Burton movie - Johnny D, Freddie Highmore, that girl that's in every Tim Burton movie - no name needed. Willy: Gene Wilder
Why I liked it: Willy: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is good. It has a feeling of happiness, mystery, and caring. It has some thought provoking quotes. It has some good lessons for children to learn while still being fun I feel like.
Charlie: The Charlie one is weird. There are still a few good quotes but nothing compared to what thoughts could come out of the first one.
Thing(s) I would change: Willy: Willy Wonka is SLIGHTLY too mean. He should be just a little bit nicer I think. He needs to only be a little conniving and mean. He does not need to make me feel like he wants to kids to die which only slightly occurred in the Willy Wonka version. It needs that but more under the covers than the movie let on I think.
I forgot that it was mostly a musical. I think I get why they did that but it could do without it I think. The Umpa Lumpa songs I think would have been good enough. I don't need the "I want it now" song for instance. It is a kids movie and kids like songs which is why Disney movies are littered with musical aspects but it's not needed for this movie to do well.
Charlie: Hmm a lot. The main character was better casted I think. Johnny Depp could have done better for sure. They compare it to the late Michael Jackson and his playground place. Johnny was toooooo weird. He went to far with a lot of things and his statements that were suppose to make him look weird made him look TOOOOOO weird. They didn't make sense. Willy Wonka should be weird but yet still make sense in like a smart eccentric person sort of way.
I don't need Willy Wonka's back story. That was unnecessary for the essence of the story. It should focus more on the wonder of the chocolate factory and life lessons about how to act. I think that's what the main theme of the story. It is not to highlight how Willy became Willy Wonka. It felt like it was just fluff and a waste of time.
The Umpa Lumpa was and an older man. I don't think that fits with what an Umpa Lumpa represents. They should be more like minions and not like the seven old dwarves from Sleeping Beauty with no personality-face.
Favorite Line(s)/Scene:
Willy Lines/Scenes:
Willy Wonka: Try some more. The strawberries taste like strawberries, and the snozzberries taste like snozzberries.
Veruca Salt: Snozzberries? Who ever heard of a snozzberry?
Willy Wonka: [grabbing Veruca's mouth and pinching it a bit to hold it open] *We* are the music makers... and *we* are the dreamers of dreams.
Anything is possible. Nothing is 100%ly true. There are pluses and minuses to everything.
Willy Wonka: [singing] If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it. . . [singing] There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free if you truly wish to be."
This mindset it astonishing, an actual "game changer", and fantastic. You need not be upset with your "position" in the world. No matter how crappy your life is you are alive. If you want to view better things then simply looking and view it. It's just a mindset. Even the worst of times has some good in it. Even the best of times has some bad in it. If you truly wish to be happy you will be.
FBI Agent: Mrs. Curtis, did you hear me? It's your husband's life, or your case of Wonka bars.
Mrs. Curtis: [after a brief pause] How long will they give me to think it over?
Most of these scenes are only slightly funny. Just kind of makes your smirk. That's exactly how this movie should make you feel. Smirky.
Mike Teevee: Look at me, I'm gonna be be the first person in the world to be sent by television!
Mrs. Teevee: Mike, get away from that thing!
Willy Wonka: [unenthusiastically] Stop. Don't. Come back.
Perfect amount of sarcasm
Sam Beauregarde: Violet! You're turning violet, Violet!
Smirk
Willy Wonka: Oh, you should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about.
Example of an interesting thought. I think he's just being silly here but also if you take out the off-double negative then it is how you should be thinking. You should doubt what everybody is sure about.
Similar Movies/TV Shows: Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Seven? each kid could be a deadly sin persay with not all sins being represented but I think the connection could be made.
"Side" note: Willy Wonka was originally (and was played better by) Gene Wilder. He's a good guy from what I could tell. He really loved life and was a bit of an eccentric himself. You should look into his life if you have the time. His marriage to the wonderful and a bit eccentric Gilda Radner was quite wonderful I'm sure. I hope he had a good life. He died recently which inspired me to do this review.
When I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I had a sister-in-law tell me it was closer to the book than the original Willy Wonka. I disagreed at the time mostly because bias of not liking the newer Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She said that the songs were closer to the original. After looking it up the songs in the new movie are closer to the book but they are not what they are in the books. They just borrow more from them. After reading the Ronald Dahl book I think the essence and spirit of the book was more in Willy Wonka than in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Maybe that is why I disagreed.For instance Willy's back story was not in the book at all. The Umpa Lumpa's back story was in the book. It has a whole chapter but nothing about Willy's dad not giving him chocolate. The new one took liberties with the book as well. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in my opinion did it better.
