I never read any Roald Dahl as a kid, never even heard of him, not even relative to being a big fan of the original Willy Wonka. I later read (after college?) James and the Giant Peach, which was excellent. The inspiration for this read was the release of the animated movie of the same name, directed by Tim Burton.
I have been more than a little curious about the release of the Tim Burton directed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp, being a big fan of Tim Burton's abilities and also a big fan of Johnny Depp's ability to transform himself into characters. It came out at the end of last week and Faith and I went to a matinee yesterday.
First off, I am a huge fan of the original with Gene Wilder. Everything about the original was excellent. Having never read the book, I had no idea whether it deviated greatly from the source material or not, so I could never be offended that it took liberties and changed things that people loved.
There are many things to like about the new one, including the production values which continue Tim Burton's string of excellence. The kid that plays Charlie is probably better than the original Charlie, and Augustus Gloop is nearly the same. There's a good updated twist on the Violet Bearegarde character, including a hyper-competetive soccer mom, but for the most part, the other three characters (Violet, Veruca, and Mike Teavee) are all pale imitations of the original kids. Veruca, in particular, is not even close to as good as the original. And her dad is much more traditional upper crust than the slightly smarmy dad from the original, and it's less effective.
Ultimately, the most disappointing thing about the new version is Willy himself. He is simply unlikeable. This is where my lack of knowledge about the original my be leading me astray. The Johnny Depp Willy is not someone you can relate to at all. He's weird. Was the book Willy so weird? Gene Wilder's Willy was crazy, having lived alone with OOmpa Loompa's for years, but he was likeable, you could see the deep humanity behind the twisted facade. Depp is weird to the core.
I certainly can say I was entertained, but given the choice of Willy versus Charlie, I'll take Willy every time.
4 comments:
Sounds like you need to read the book.
Interesting difference in you & me. I can't stand Tim Burton's directing. Combine that with the fact I was never a fan of the original movie and you get a film here that I will never see.
I thought you were a Nightmare Before Christmas fan.
I did like it, kind of as a first of its genre kind of thing. Liked it particularly for the music which was very non-Danny Elfman in style.
Did not particularly like Batman. Didn't like Beetelguese (sp?) and pretty much everything else I'd seen by Burton (including James & the Giant Peach-just got thoroughly sick of that style).
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