Chocolate Factory: 1971 vs. 2005 vs. the Book. Open Spoilers!

Cafe Society
1

THIS THREAD, INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL POST, WILL HAVE OPEN SPOILERS FOR THE TWO CHOCOLATE FACTORY FILMS AND BOOK.

I’m starting this thread so we can have a reference of sorts for the differences between the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the 1971 musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the 2005 Tim Burton movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I haven’t read the book, so I’ll ask Dopers who are familiar with it to fill in the details.

Charlie’s Home Life

1971: Raised by a single mother.
2005: Raised by both parents (father works at a toothpaste factory, then is laid off, then re-hired toward the end of the movie).
Book: ???

Charlie Finds the Golden Ticket

1971: Charlie runs straight home and feverishly shares the news to everyone, wanting nothing more than to go to the factory.
2005: Charlie offers to auction the ticket so his family can have the money.
Book: ???

Grandpa Joe

1971: Eager to accompany Charlie to the factory for no other reason than that he loved Charlie.
2005: Eager to accompany Charlie to the factory because he had once worked there and wanted to see it again.
Book: ???

Willie Wonka

1971: Nothing is revealed about his life before the factory, or after Charlie inherits it.
2005: Reveals a backstory about being raised by a dentist father, being estranged from him, and reconciling with him (with Charlie’s help).
Book: ???

Charlie Inherits the Factory

1971: Hugs & Kisses all around.
2005: Charlie doesn’t want it because WW expects him to leave his family behind. Charlie convinces WW to allow his family to move into the factory with him and reconcile with his father in the process.
Book: ???

The Factory

1971: Suggests that the only employees have been oompa-loompas for as long as the factory has been open.
2005: The factory had human employees at first but they were all given the sack when WW’s trade secrets leaked out.
Book: ???

Slugworth

1971: Subplot about a shady character who tries to convince the kids to steal an Everlasting Gobstopper and sell it to him for an insane amount of money. Turns out this was a test to see if Charlie was honest and pure enough for the job.
2005: Named only as an ex-employee who stole some of WW’s trade secrets and opened his own candy company.
Book: ???

Violet Beauregard

1971: Accompanied by father.
2005: Accompanied by mother.
Book: ???

Mike TeeVee

1971: Accompanied by mother.
2005: Accompanied by father.
Book: ???

Charlie Steals Fizzy Lifting Drinks

1971: Charlie and Grandpa Joe steal a swig of WW’s expiremental Fizzy Lifting Drinks, and narrowly escape death as a result of their impertinence. WW overlooks this.
2005: Not mentioned at all.
Book: ???

Raft Sequence

1971: WW grosses out and frightens the kids with a raft ride through a tunnel of sorts where disturbing images play out on a screen.
2005: WW takes the kids on a harrowing white-water raft ride through the factory, catching glimpses of various rooms in the factory during the trip.
Book: ???

Those are all of the details I can think of for now. I’m sure later contributors to this thread can add some more questions and point out more differences.

TIA

2

I’ve only see the 1971 version, but there is the implication somebody else had once worked there. Grandpa joe said other candy makers had managed to send in spies to steal the candy secrets, so Wonka closed the factory. Later, the factory started working “All by itself”, presumably when Wonka managed to smuggle the oompa loompas in(and I would imagine that it’s hard for spies to blend in among oompa-loompas).

3

The 2005 movie seems to be much closer to the book

4

All of my book sources come the Puffin Modern Classic edition, first printed in 1998. If necessary, I can go back and list minutes in the film for references to the 1971 motion picture.

[QUOTE=HeyHomie]
THIS THREAD, INCLUDING THE ORIGINAL POST, WILL HAVE OPEN SPOILERS FOR THE TWO CHOCOLATE FACTORY FILMS AND BOOK.

I’m starting this thread so we can have a reference of sorts for the differences between the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the 1971 musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and the 2005 Tim Burton movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I haven’t read the book, so I’ll ask Dopers who are familiar with it to fill in the details.

Charlie’s Home Life

1971: Raised by a single mother. The four grandparents live with them, in 2 beds.
2005: Raised by both parents (father works at a toothpaste factory, then is laid off, then re-hired toward the end of the movie).
Book: Raised by both parents. Mr. Bucket is not laid off from his job, the toothpaste factory is shut down. He is not re-hired at the factory. (pp. 5, 38)

Charlie Finds the Golden Ticket

**1971: Charlie runs straight home and feverishly shares the news to everyone, wanting nothing more than to go to the factory. Actually, Charlie is mobbed for the ticket and the candy shopkeeper tells him to run straight home with it. On his way home, Slugworth tells Charlie he wants a gobstopper from the Wonka factory and will pay him $10,000 for one.
2005: Charlie offers to auction the ticket so his family can have the money.
Book: Charlie is mobbed for the ticket and the candy shopkeeper tells him to run straight home with it. (page 46)

Grandpa Joe

1971: Eager to accompany Charlie to the factory for no other reason than that he loved Charlie.
2005: Eager to accompany Charlie to the factory because he had once worked there and wanted to see it again.
Book: Mrs. Bucket thinks Mr. Bucket should go, but Mr. Bucket says “the person who really deserves to go the most id Grandpa Joe himself.” Grandpa Joe did not work at the factory, but he is the one who has told Charlie all about Willy Wonka. (p. 52 for Mr. Bucket, pp. 9-18 for Grandpa Joe telling about Willy Wonka)

Willie Wonka

1971: Nothing is revealed about his life before the factory, or after Charlie inherits it.
2005: Reveals a backstory about being raised by a dentist father, being estranged from him, and reconciling with him (with Charlie’s help).
Book: There is no information about Willy Wonka before he became a candymaker.

Charlie Inherits the Factory

1971: Hugs & Kisses all around.
2005: Charlie doesn’t want it because WW expects him to leave his family behind. Charlie convinces WW to allow his family to move into the factory with him and reconcile with his father in the process.
Book: After Wonka destroys the Bucket home by crashing the GGE into it, they manage to get the bed with the 3 grandparents into the GGE to take everyone back to the factory. (pp. 153-155)

The Factory

1971: Suggests that the only employees have been oompa-loompas for as long as the factory has been open. Actually, Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that the factory closed down because of spies from rival candymakers, only to begin running with no (apparent) workers sometime later.
2005: The factory had human employees at first but they were all given the sack when WW’s trade secrets leaked out.
Book: Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that the factory closed 10 years ago because of spies from rival candymakers, only to begin running with no (apparent) workers sometime later. (pp. 14-18)

Slugworth

1971: Subplot about a shady character who tries to convince the kids to steal an Everlasting Gobstopper and sell it to him for an insane amount of money. Turns out this was a test to see if Charlie was honest and pure enough for the job.
2005: Named only as an ex-employee who stole some of WW’s trade secrets and opened his own candy company.
Book: Named only as a rival candymaker who began making candy balloons with a formula stolen from Wonka. (p. 16)

Violet Beauregard

1971: Accompanied by father.
2005: Accompanied by mother.
Book: Accompanied by both parents.

Mike TeeVee

1971: Accompanied by mother.
2005: Accompanied by father.
Book: Accompanied by both parents.

Charlie Steals Fizzy Lifting Drinks

1971: Charlie and Grandpa Joe steal a swig of WW’s expiremental Fizzy Lifting Drinks, and narrowly escape death as a result of their impertinence. WW overlooks this.
2005: Not mentioned at all.
Book: Fizzy Lifting Drinks are in one of the rooms they pass. Wonka describes the effect and tells them that to get down, one must burp. Grandpa Joe and Charlie do not steal any; the whole group just moves on. (pp. 105-106)

Raft Sequence

1971: WW grosses out and frightens the kids with a raft ride through a tunnel of sorts where disturbing images play out on a screen.
2005: WW takes the kids on a harrowing white-water raft ride through the factory, catching glimpses of various rooms in the factory during the trip.
Book: WW takes the kids on a boat tide that goes into a dark tunnel. The Oompa-Loompas row faster and faster as WW recites a creepy little ditty. The kids and parents become quite upset and begin screaming, until WW finally shouts “Switch on the lights!” They continue to move at a rapid rate, going past storerooms with signs indicating what is stored there (creams, whipped creams, and beans), finally coming to a stop in front of the inventing room. (pp. 83-87)
Mr. Burton does not stay any closer to the original story than the 1971 film.

5

Except for several of your descriptions are incomplete. My changes in bold, my conclusions in italics.

Overall, my opinion is that 2005 is closer to the original book, though I still like the '71 version for Wilder and the music.

6

I thought of another one:

Charlie at School

1971: Charlie’s class at grade school listens to the teacher try to explain why, through a complicated series of schedule changes, they’ll have to take a test on material before they’ve learned it.
2005: Not mentioned at all.
Book: ???

7

I know in the book it says he skips recesses to conserve energy, and I think that might be mentioned in the '71 movie as well.

8

IIRC WW does not overlook it. At the end of the movie they go into a room full of half objects, (half a clock, half a pair of spectacles, etc) WW reads from a contract with very small print, and tells Charlie that he broke the rules and is disqualified. I’m pretty sure this was for stealing the fizzy drinks.

Then Charlie gives back his gobstopper, instead of selling it to Slugworth in spiteful revenge against WW. Then WW tells him he has won after all.

9

That’s exactly it. IIRC, Wonka was yelling at Charlie and Grandpa Joe that he’d have to get the metal ceiling of the room cleaned, and some other nonsense. I can’t remember exactly what he said, but I do remember thinking it was fairly funny he was getting spittle-mad and ranting about some rather off-the-wall stuff.

But yes, Charlie nearly loses the “game” because of the fizzy lifting drinks until he redeems himself with the gobstopper.

10

A couple corrections:

In the 1971 movie, all the grandparents slept in a single bed and Grandpa Joe does tell Charlie about Willy Wonka.

11

Garfield226–I’m gonna reply in bold (there’s the damned “can’t quote a quote” bug-sorry for messing up your coding.) I disagree with some of your conclusions.

Grandpa Joe

1971: Eager to accompany Charlie to the factory for no other reason than that he loved Charlie. Is not the one who tells Charlie about the Willy Wonka and the factory.
2005: Eager to accompany Charlie to the factory because he had once worked there and wanted to see it again. Is the one who tells Charlie about the Willy Wonka and the factory.
Book: Mrs. Bucket thinks Mr. Bucket should go, but Mr. Bucket says “the person who really deserves to go the most id Grandpa Joe himself.” Grandpa Joe did not work at the factory, but he is the one who has told Charlie all about Willy Wonka. (p. 52 for Mr. Bucket, pp. 9-18 for Grandpa Joe telling about Willy Wonka).

Advantage: slight advantage to 2005.
Why? They both depart equally–the addition material pulls it away from the book too. So in 1971, Grandpa Joe doesn’t tell Charlie about the Factory (I thought he did, actually), and in 2005, Grandpa Joe is an ex-employee. Advantage: neither

Willie Wonka

1971: Nothing is revealed about his life before the factory, or after Charlie inherits it.
2005: Reveals a backstory about being raised by a dentist father, being estranged from him, and reconciling with him (with Charlie’s help). Also reveals backstory of Willy Wonka traveling to Loompa Land and bringing back the Oompa Loompas.
Book: There is no information about Willy Wonka before he became a candymaker. The book does, however, give the backstory of the Oompa Loompas.

Advantage: 2005
**Again, crappy addtional material is just as bad as missing material (actually it’s worse), plus, the 1971 movie does give backstory for the Oompa-Loompas: **
Violet Beauregarde: Well they can’t be real people.
Willy Wonka: Well of course they’re real people.
Mr. Salt: Stuff and nonsense.
Willy Wonka: No, Oompa Loompas.
The Group: Oompa Loompas?
Willy Wonka: From Loompaland.
Mrs. Teevee: Loompaland? There’s no such place.
Willy Wonka: Excuse me, dear lady…
Mrs. Teevee: Mr. Wonka, I am a teacher of geography.
Willy Wonka: Oh, well then you know all about it and what a terrible country it is. Nothing but desolate wastes and fierce beasts. And the poor little Oompa Loompas were so small and helpless, they would get gobbled up right and left. A Wangdoodle would eat ten of them for breakfast and think nothing of it. And so, I said, “Come and live with me in peace and safety, away from all the Wangdoodles and Hornswogglers and Snozzwangers and rotten Vermicious Knids.”
Mr. Salt: Snozzwangers? Vermicious Knids? What kind of rubbish is that?
Willy Wonka: I’m sorry, but all questions must be submitted in writing. And so, in the greatest of secrecy I transported the entire population of Oompa Loompas to my factory here.
Veruca Salt: Hey, Daddy, I want an Oompa Loompa. I want you to get me an Oompa Loompa right away.
Mr. Salt: All right, Veruca, all right. I’ll get you one before the day is out.
Veruca Salt: I want an Oompa Loompa now!
Violet Beauregarde: Can it, you nit!
**Frankly that’s much closer to the book, IMO.

Advantage 1971**

Charlie Inherits the Factory

1971: Hugs & Kisses all around.
2005: Charlie doesn’t want it because WW expects him to leave his family behind. Charlie convinces WW to allow his family to move into the factory with him and reconcile with his father in the process.
Book: After Wonka destroys the Bucket home by crashing the GGE into it, they manage to get the bed with the 3 grandparents into the GGE to take everyone back to the factory. (pp. 153-155)

Advantage: 1971
**
Actually, I’d give this to neither–Although the 1971 movie had the far superior (to both the 2005 movie AND the book) “Charlie gives the Gobstopper back and earns the factory” addition, the question isn’t “Which is better?”, it’s “Which is closer?” and it’s just as far from the book as the WW wants Charlie to ditch his family thing. I’d say
Advantage: Neither (although 1971 is better)**

Slugworth

1971: Subplot about a shady character who tries to convince the kids to steal an Everlasting Gobstopper and sell it to him for an insane amount of money. Turns out this was a test to see if Charlie was honest and pure enough for the job.
2005: Named only as an ex-employee who stole some of WW’s trade secrets and opened his own candy company.
Book: Named only as a rival candymaker who began making candy balloons with a formula stolen from Wonka. (p. 16)

Advantage: 2005.

Since they’ve both got addtions, I’ll grant that the 2005 addition is smaller so I agree with you on this one. Aren’t you glad? :wink:

Mike TeeVee

1971: Accompanied by mother. TV-obsessed person.
2005: Accompanied by father. Technology-obsessed know-it-all.
Book: Accompanied by both parents. TV-obsessed person.

Advantage: 1971.
Although I gotta say I liked the 2005 ‘upgrade’. The cowboy suit wouldn’t have looked right anyway.

Raft Sequence

1971: WW grosses out and frightens the kids with a raft ride through a tunnel of sorts where disturbing images play out on a screen. The boat is a fantastical paddle-wheel contraption.
2005: WW takes the kids on a harrowing white-water raft ride through the factory, catching glimpses of various rooms in the factory during the trip. The boat is glistening pink, resembling a Viking ship.
Book: WW takes the kids on a boat tide that goes into a dark tunnel. The Oompa-Loompas row faster and faster as WW recites a creepy little ditty. The kids and parents become quite upset and begin screaming, until WW finally shouts “Switch on the lights!” They continue to move at a rapid rate, going past storerooms with signs indicating what is stored there (creams, whipped creams, and beans), finally coming to a stop in front of the inventing room. (pp. 83-87) The boat is: "a large open rowboat with a tall front and a tall back (like a Viking boat of old), and it was of such a shining, sparking, glistening pink color that the whole thing looked as though it were made of a bright pink glass. . . (p. 81)

Advantage: 2005.
2005-all sorts of glimpses of rooms and the boat is closer to the book’s description, but no very memorable creepy poem.
Advantage: neither

12

Here’s another:
1971: Other children are not seen again after their “accidents”.
2005: Other children are seen leaving the factory. Violet’s been de-juiced and is super-flexible (still blue), Mike’s been stretched tall & flat, Augustus is still chocolate-covered, Veruca and dad are garbage-covered.
Book: Other children are seen leaving the factory. Violet’s been de-juiced (though the super-flexible thing is not mentioned, and still blue/purple), Mike’s been stretched tall & skinny, Augustus is skinny from being squeezed in the pipe, Veruca and both parents are garbage-covered.
Advantage: 2005

13

I incorrectly posted that the grandparents occupy 2 beds; they do in fact occupy one bed. Thanks, HPL. It can bee seen 8 minutes into the film.

Also, Grandpa Joe does indeed relay the story of the Wonka factory in the 1971 film. (9:30 into the film)

also…

1971: WW does not have a father, has no childhood story revealed.
2005: WW has a dentist father, etc.
Book: WW does not have a father, has no childhood story revealed.

Advantage: 1971

1971: WW does not hate children.
2005: WW hates children. (Cite)
Book: WW does not hate children.

Advantage: 1971

14

My kids and I just watched the '71 movie this weekend. Two people tell Charlie about Willy Wonka. First, he pauses at the gates of the factory on the way home from school, and a strange and creepy man pushing a knife sharpener’s cart recites the “We dare not go a-hunting / For fear of little men” verse, and tells him “nobody ever goes in, nobody ever comes out”. Later, Grandpa Joe fleshes out the details, with the espionage, the factory closing, and then later re-opening, mysteriously, without anyone seeming to work there. So Grandpa Joe gives Charlie at least half of the story, maybe more.

My personal interpretation, by the way, is that the apparent itinerant knife sharpener is another Wonka plant, just like Slugworth, to set Charlie up to inherit the factory. But it’s not like I’m going to defend that to the death or anything :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, Charlie asks Grandpa Joe to go with him. It’s clear from the start that the two are especially close.

I haven’t read the book in ages, and my kids only have the Norwegian translation (Dahl is very popular here, for perhaps obvious reasons), so I’m going to see if I can find it in the original English at our local library today. Haven’t seen the new movie, it’s not due to open here until mid-September. Hey, Norwegian Dopers! Remember when the movie people promised us we’d soon be getting movies at the same time as the rest of the civilized world? They lied :frowning: :mad:

15

I haven’t yet seen the 2005 movie. But…

This is exactly what I hated about the '71 movie. Charlie is not a morality play. It wasn’t a piece of wretched didacticism teaching children to be noble. All it did was portray an absolutely normal kid; any child reading the book would not have had trouble doing what Charlie did, because all he did was avoid doing anything stupid. Charlie got the factory because he wasn’t a little brat like all the other kids, not because he was some sort of selfless hero.

This is reflected in Dahl’s far superior Oompa Loompa songs. In the '71 movie, the Oompa Loompas are snotty little shits intent on preaching to children the correct way to live one’s life. In the original novel, however, the Oompa Loompa’s were gleeful sadists crowing about how the children fell victim to their own greed and stupidity. They weren’t telling children what they should be doing. They were just pointing and, Nelson-style, laughing “haw haw”.

The 1971 didn’t realize that the sugar should have been in the candy, rather than in the plot.

16

Haven’t seen the new movie yet, but I do remember seeing the original in the theater. (Yes, I’m very old.) When they get to Wonka’s office at the end, I remember thinking, “Oh, Mr. Wonka’s divorced.” Told my brother and we giggled about it all the way home. :smiley:

17

Major advantage to the new version: the Indian Prince’s story. It’s a lovely bit of whimsy, and the filming of the scene perfectly captures the book’s illustration.

Daniel

18

So, in the original novel, what was the story arc? How did it end?

Every story, by definition, must have some sort of transformation at the end, where the main character learns something he/she didn’t know before, or makes a decision that he/she wasn’t able to make before. This is the essence of narrative fiction, otherwise it’s “just a bunch of stuff that happens.”

In the '71 film, the story arc pays off when Charlie returns the Everlasting Gobstopper. In the '05 version, it’s when Charlie tells WW that he’d rather stay with his family than live with that creepy guy in his factory. (Plus all the bullcrap they added about WW’s dad.) Neither ending matches the novel – so how did the book pay off? Or, was it really just a bunch of stuff that happened?

19

The story arc of the book is that the poor kid, by keeping his nose clean, becomes fantastically wealthy in the coolest way imaginable. He’s not a dynamic character, in the way you suggest; the only change that happens is that his goodness finally pays off. It’s not a terribly complicated book :).

However, I think that wouldn’t have worked for a movie: the book really ends abruptly, and something needs to happen to soften that for the screen. Neither ending works beautifully for me, but I like the Burton one better.

Daniel

20

LHoD–I disagree: Wonka chose to tempt the other 4 kids first and Charlie was never tempted–there is no arc for Charlie. He basically stands around doing nothing, he’s never tempted and outlasts the others–he doesn’t show any goodness, he never has the opportunity. That’s the single flaw in an otherwise magnificent book. There should have been an obvious “Charlie” temptation that Charlie denies (or fails, but admits his failure). As it is, he gets the chocolate factory via attrition.