As a kid, I may have been real keen to literature compared to the rest of my peers, or simply became snobbier much earlier than I remember. I hated so-called "children's books" or "juvenile fiction" or whatever demographic-label the publishing industry uses now.
Maybe its because I thought such authors talked down to me because of my age or were trying to tell some lame morality tales disguised as "adventure" books. Why bother with those damn kids of C.S. Lewis in the middle of their epic Christian allegory when I could be reading BATMAN?
But there was one author I did really like back then. Roald Dahl's books really are the Grimm fairy tales of this modern era, except in place of the Germanic sterness is English wit and dry humor.
Those writings have such little details of insanity that are just taken for granted by its characters, and the readers. There could be a Bill Gates-esque "chocolateer" who can make or break the global candy economy. There are people only as tall as your knees. You can get a job screwing caps on toothpaste tubes. Your grandparents do literally stay in bed for years.
Believe it or not, and I know a whole generation or two of people will be surprised by this, but I'm not much of a fan of the WILLY WONKA movie with Gene Wilder.
Yes, even as a kid.
Oh sure, Wilder was really charming and fun, but the rest of the movie to me was meh. That whole film was practically about how great the factory was, but it lacked those bizarre but whimsical organic moments that populated Dahl's universe. It's about as magical as a Hollywood studio tour.
Maybe this is why I was so pleasantly surprised with Tim Burton's adaptation of Dahl's iconic book. All those scenes I vividly remember all those years ago is here, pretty much as I remembered them.
The Indian Prince who loses his Willy Wonka-designed chocolate palace melts to the hot sun because of his ego. Wonka venturing into the deep jungles for new flavors where he rescues his tiny workers from being lunch. The fact that Wonka would use his genuis to break the laws of science just to make melt-proof ice cream.
Hell, even the backstory invented for the film in John August's-penned screenplay is Dahl-esque. You have kid Wonka threatening to run away to Switzerland from his dentist-father Christopher Lee, who warns that he "won't be here when you come back."
The kid returns, and not only is pops gone, but so is their entire apartment, leaving behind an empty awkward void on the city block. That's Dahl right there. God forbid, if I hadn't known any better since I haven't read the book in years, I would have mistakenly thought that sequence was always there.
Really, I was actually surprised that Burton would embrace the book in both script and in art direction, but I guess I shouldn't be. I was so burned badly by the quite lousy PLANET OF THE APES, and really....another CHOCOLATE FACTORY adaptation seemed like another commercial job for Burton to work so he could fund his precious little personal projects.
Instead, he bothers with good effort by bringing his fantastic visuals that dominated EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, A NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and SWEENEY TODD, but painted to a hyperbole with a very lightened-up color scheme instead of Burton's usual-Gothic look.
After all, CHARLIE is a sugar-coated fairy tale, pun intended.
Plus, we have Burton working with the one and only Johnny Depp. People made Michael Jackson allusions back in 2005, and its warranted, but I'm sure it wasn't intentional. This Willy Wonka isn't a surrogate-father figure for the kid hero like the Wilder movie. The kid has a decent dad back home.
This Willy Wonka is like Doc Brown in the BACK TO THE FUTURE movies. He's nuts with his eccentricities, but very intelligent. As the local mad genuis, that the kid seems inspired by him, or at least curious without prejudgement. He's wildly impressed with this oddball and his factory.
But I would have to say the biggest improvement over the Wilder version is the music. WONKA was old-school musical in it style, but an Aryan kid singing was a waste of my time. Especially when my alternative is Danny Elfman.
