Willy Wonka Silliness

[noddin0ff]

Makes me wonder what a remake of the whole movie would be like.

[ForeverAutumn]

This is awesome! Gene Wilder is the only Willy Wonka IMO.

[Worf101]

Actually pretty good!! Being rather old school I was surprised how much that techno remix/mashup entertained me.

Worf

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

Man, I was really feelin this. I love Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, but Johnny Depp was absolutely off the hook.

[Woochifer]

Pretty good mashup.

As far as Wonka goes, I'll go elitist a-hole on y'all and proclaim that my allegiance is to the book and that both Wilder and Depp got it wrong!

Between the two movies, the 1971 version is actually a bastardization of Roald Dahl's writing -- that whole "you get nothing" scene never took place in the book, and the movie basically f*d up the book's subversive humor and whimsical sense of mischief. And for anyone who reveres that 1971 movie and thinks us book purists should just bend over and enjoy it, I gots a three word reminder-of-suckiness for you ... "cheer up Charlie!" If that bit of musical memory pain doesn't make your skin crawl, then I sentence you 14 days in front of a TV watching nothing but Lifetime Movie Channel!

The 2005 Tim Burton movie is actually closer to getting it right than the more general wrongness of the 1971 movie.

[ForeverAutumn]

I don't think I've read the book, but I've yet to see any movie that was better than the original book. So I believe you.

But between Wilder and Depp, I still prefered Wilder.

[Worf101]

SOMEONE woke up on the wrong side of the cage dis mornin'! Beating up on poor ole little Willie like dat (boy does THAT sound wrong)! Ahem, ahem ah say... be fully awake and bright and cheeful before spewing bile on beloved childrens movies like that young man! You'd probably have liked them both better if you'd... errrr... been in a slightly altered (see chemical) state of mind but still, why be such a grumpys gus?

(snicker)

Worf

[Woochifer]

SOMEONE woke up on the wrong side of the cage dis mornin'! Beating up on poor ole little Willie like dat (boy does THAT sound wrong)! Ahem, ahem ah say... be fully awake and bright and cheeful before spewing bile on beloved childrens movies like that young man! You'd probably have liked them both better if you'd... errrr... been in a slightly altered (see chemical) state of mind but still, why be such a grumpys gus?

(snicker)

Worf

Argh! Symptoms of a misplaced childhood, I guess! Since I was 5 years old the first time I saw Willy Wonka, I think it's safe to say that I was in an au naturale state of mind! Oh well, my loss.

Of course, this is one of those cases where I liked the movie as a child, but reveled in my smarmy sense of self-important snobbery once I figured out that I liked "the book" even more. And oh man was that book brilliant fodder for feeding a youngster's learned curiosity on the forbidden fruits of sarcasm and mischief with the written word!

In much the same way that Bullwinkle has a subversive message brilliantly hidden underneath the crudely drawn stick figures, Roald Dahl wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with a similarly subversive edge. The 1971 movie blunted the book's edginess, heaped on a sugary layer of sap and sentimentality, and turned Charlie into a whiny little beyotch. I know the movie's beloved, but the artistic license that the movie took basically turned the original story into a morality play (hence, the whole "you get nothing" scene), which is hugely different than the snarkier sense of schadenfreude that dominated the book.

Tim Burton stayed closer to the book's roots, but good gawd did Johnny Depp blow it with his creepy Megan's Law vision of Willy Wonka. I'll probably show the movie to my daughter just so we can play word association with "pedophile." Hey little girl, you want to come to my factory, so I can give you a lifetime supply of candy? I got yer Golden Ticket right here!