The biggest flaw in the movie was the fizzy lifting drink scene. In the book’s strict morality, all the children got punished because they wouldn’t listen to Wonka’s warnings. All except Charlie. He never disobeyed, so he was rewarded.
But the movie adds this lame “redemption” angle…Charlie sinned with the lifting drink, yet redeems himself by giving back the gobstopper. No, sorry, nope. “Redemption”? No. If you disobey, you go down the garbage chute. There is none of this wussy redemption crap. One mistake and you’re finished. That is why the movie sucked, because it didn’t teach kids this important lesson.
Oh, and because the oompa-loompa costumes were awful. And what was wrong with the oompa-loompa songs from the book? Why did they have to go and try to make up their own songs, when the songs in the book were much better.
Thanks Lemur, you’re the first one to mention two of the things that bugged me the most.
The Oompa Loompas in the book that I read when I was 10 and in the 5th grade (ok, that was 30 years ago and maybe my memory isn’t perfect) were extremely small, dark skinned people wearing animal skins. They looked african to me. I purchased a later edition of the book and they looked different than I remembered and I thought maybe they had to make them look more politically correct. But maybe it was just my bad memory.
Also, the songs in the book were 100% better than the songs in the movie. I was very disappointed.
I loved the book, I like the movie. It’ll be interesting to see the remake if they ever do it.
Thanks Lemur, you’re the first one to mention two of the things that bugged me the most.
The Oompa Loompas in the book that I read when I was 10 and in the 5th grade (ok, that was 30 years ago and maybe my memory isn’t perfect) were extremely small, dark skinned people wearing animal skins. They looked african to me. I purchased a later edition of the book and they looked different than I remembered and I thought maybe they had to make them look more politically correct. But maybe it was just my bad memory.
Also, the songs in the book were 100% better than the songs in the movie. I was very disappointed.
I loved the book, I like the movie. It’ll be interesting to see the remake if they ever do it.
Alas, Anthony Newly songs can sometimes be a chancy proposition. Don’t blame him for “The Candy Man,” though. He hated Aubrey Woods’s rendering, and asked to be allowed to sing it himself. I have to say that Woods did not get the movie off to an auspicious start.
But why does no one bring up the fact that all of these Golden Ticket finders were set up by Wonka and Mr. Wilkinson (the ersatz Oskar Slugworth)? It stretches the bounds of credulity that the same man just happens to be on the scene in Dusselheim, Germany, the Salt Nuts factory, Marble Falls, AZ, dammit-I-can’t-remember-the-town, MT, and wherever-the-hell-the-Bucket-family-lived, Vaguesylvania on the very day each ticket turned up. They couldn’t possibly have tracked the destination of each ticket. Wilkinson must have planted them. But did he plant them so as to be found at random, by a lucky(?) candy bar buyer, or did he actually select each recipient? My instinct is to believe that he personally selected the contestants, as he must have known that any ticket found in Henry Salt’s factory was going to go to Veruca (I do wish the script had included Wonka telling Veruca what her name meant (when spelled “verruca”)). But how much autonomy did Wilkinson have in selecting the winners? Was he acting on Wonka’s explicit instructions, or did he actually choose Mike, Augustus, Veruca, Violet and Charlie?
It’s pretty obvious from the rest of the movie that Wonka has magic powers. It probably was relatively simple for him to keep track of the tickets and teleport Wilkinson to the proper locations. Wonka’s powers are not unlimited, though; if they were, he’d be immortal and there would be no need for him to find a successor.
In the book, not only did Charlie completely obey Mr. Wonka, he also listened intently. Didn’t ask questions, just accepted what Mr. Wonka told him. Throughout the book (and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator) he expressed frustration and irritation with the other children and their parents, who didn’t just blithely accept everything Mr. Wonka said. He also made snide remarks about the bad kids’ parents. I’m still on the fence about whether he wanted someone with imagination and wonder to run his factory (he said as much in the book) or just a loyal “apprentice”.
I’ve been reading a couple of chapters of both books each night to my son and we’ve enjoyed them immensely. I had never read them before but I loved the movie, as, well, dark as it is. Next up: James and the Giant Peach.
In fact, in the book Wonka explicitly states that he wanted a child to take over the factory because a child would do things exactly the way Wonka wanted them done, and not try to pollute Wonka’s vision with his own ideas! That was the whole point of the Golden Tickets…to get a kid who would shut up and follow orders.
An interesting side note: The drug/“candy” parallels are pretty obvious in WWATCF, and it’s always seemed really psychedelic to me. After seeing The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon as the soundtrack, I began speculating on the possibilities of other movie/Floyd album “synergies” (for lack of a better term or explaination). Anyway, after a short search on the web I found some stuff that linked MGM and also Stanley Kubrick to Pink Floyd; namely notable synergies when starting “Wish You Were Here” about 2 seconds into the blue lion at the beginning of the film (after the oveture).
The revalation occured in a certain Blockbuster video. I had just gotten my hands on a copy of Pink Floyd’s “Animals” and then I saw the WWATCF movie sitting there and it just clicked… The cover art of the album features a factory with a giant inflatable pig floating above it. The album criticizes about 3 or 4 or 5 types of people (dogs, sheep, pigs, etc.) Now, obviously the movie (and book) is all about criticizing different types of annoying people, like the rich, spoiled kid, the loud kid, the fat kid, and the couch potato kid (television became the primary object of songwriter Roger Waters cynicism during his later solo career in his album “Amused to Death”). Anyway, if you like Pink Floyd or you just like this sort of thing, check it out. I haven’t found a “best” way of doing it, but start the album on repeat right when the you first see candy. Or maybe a little before. Injoy. Especially the end when they take off in the elevator…
I guess you haven’t read any of Roal Dahl’s books. Charlie, the Giant Peach, etc. are all verry dark. Charlie starts off will a full depressing piture of how squalid people can get. Everyone is bedridden and has to eat cabbage soup. They aren’t for eveyone.
I didn’t imagine it! I knew that I had seen the decapitation the very first time I saw this movie on video (back when VCRs had wood grain and dials) and I have not seen that particular bit since.
velvetjones named my biggest discomfort: the oompa loompa slaves. Make no mistake: a captive people - held by the addiction that WW encumbered upon them!
Adults are always with a touch of evil and/or idiocy in Dahl’s books. It resonates with our feelings as kids: we at the mercy of these morons and their selfishness.
Velvet is right. In early editions of the book the Oompa Loompas were African or the fantasy equivalent. Now they are described as white people. I don’t know how Dahl reacted to the request to make a change. Probably better than P. L. Travers did when it was suggested to her that one chapter of Mary Poppins might be interpreted as racist and needed to be changed (she threw a hissy fit and only gave in when they said, well, they were sorry but they would have to out-of-print the book in that case).
And BTW, the movie does pale in comparison to the book. (Spoken as a former Willy Wonka in a community theater production closely following the movie.)
I always thought that the Wonka you see throughout the movie is a persona, an act put on by the real Wonka. When Charlie gives back the everlasting gobbstopper, Wonka becomes a kinder, gentler, more caring man, very unlike the guy we saw throughout the rest of the movie. Just as the rooms in the factory are fantasy, glorious rooms filled with wonderous things with stark brick walls in the background and rooms hidden from view where, one suspects, the real work is done, I thought of the Wonka showing the children around as a character invented by the real Wonka, a mad scientist-esque character, slightly muddled, who lives in a world totally unlike the real world. He may bluster and yell throughout the whole movie, but in the end we see the real Wonka, a mortal man looking for an heir.
I remember watching WWATCF at school when I was a little girl, and the tunnel scene scared the life out of me! Yet it’s still one of my most loved movies, and I’ve been thinking of buying the DVD lately as I find myself humming “Cheer up Charlie” most of the day!
I simply must add that this movie kept me up at night for years when I was in Elementary School ! I would actually throw up at night from the nightmares this film gave me. I still get upset when I think about the horror this film projected into my childhood. I am very surprised to hear so many people praise this thing. Sorry for heading into Cafe Society talk but I had to add my experience to this discussion.
For those who don’t know, there is indeed a special edition DVD out and a wide-screen version due on 13 November. Features include:
[li] interviews with and commentary by Peter Ostrum (Charlie), Julie Dawn Cole (Veruca), Denise Nickerson (Violet), Paris Themmen (Mike), and Michael Bollner (wearing an outfit similar to his Augustus costume).[/li][li]“Pure Imagination,” a documentary.[/li][li]Sing-along songs.[/li]Theatrical trailer
Ever since I first saw this movie, I have held this opinion as well. When I heard Willy Wonka’s explanation of why he brought them here, in my head I was thinking “Willy Wonka captured the Oompa Loompas, ripped them from their natural habitats, and forced them to work as menial servants for his diabolical candy making schemes”.
The Oompa Loompas are cheap labor who are not allowed to leave the grounds and are forced to work long hours in abominable conditions.
Willy Wonka is awesome, though. I don’t know about anyone else, but I thought that the scene when they first see the factory floor, and Wonka singing that song about pure imagination, was eerie. I don’t know why it was, but I always got the sense that the room was outwardly cheerful and full of candy, but it hid dark and terrible secrets.
All in all a brilliant piece of movie-making. I want to read the book, but my local Barnes and Noble doesn’t carry it, so I’ve had to special order.
I don’t have a copy of the book with me, so I’m not sure of the chapter number. There is a compass which Mary Poppins owns which will transport you in the direction indicated. North lands you among a very stereotypical Eskimo family, West a group of “How!”-type Indians; East gets you a group of squealing heathen Chinese; South a really offensive and geographically challenged slave mammy [in Africa??]. Each, IIRC, is worse than the last, and it’s embarrassing to read today, though surely very few people batted an eyelash when the book first came out.
The changes–they deleted the people altogether and replaced them with animals–polar bears, etc. Safer. Less offensive, too. Thanks for asking…
I was thinking about this. And perhaps it’s because it’s not Charlie’s idea to drink the Fizzy-Lifting Drink but Grandpa’s idea. In fact Charlie at first says no, but Grandpa pushes him into it, and so he does. Thus he wasn’t punished like the other kids, was allowed to continue on the tour and given the chance at redemption in the end.
Injoy. Especially the end when they take off in the elevator…