A Sweet Treat

This is not the first time I have watched Johnny Depp and craved chocolate. His role as a gypsy in the film Chocolat, also starring Juliet Binoche and Judi Dench, made my mouth water. "I'll come 'round sometime and get that squeak out of your door." Just those words sent shivers down my spine. But it was Binoche's chocolate concoctions that made me long for the Ferrero Rocher chocolates stashed in my purse when I saw this movie on the big screen. I was prepared, having already read the book by Joanne Harris, a slightly darker, more mystical version of the story.

Willy Wonka, Johnny Depp's character, in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is much less sexy yet, somewhat endearing and darned if he doesn't make the best candy ever. This film is a brave effort undertaken by the creative genius, Tim Burton. I loved the original 1971 version of the film entitled Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and adored the book by Roald Dahl. Dahl remains one of my favorite authors. It doesn't matter if he's writing wicked short stories like "The Landlady" or "Lamb to the Slaughter" or any of the others featured in his book Skin or if he's writing wonderful children's books like Matilda, James and the Giant Peach (another done by Tim Burton--and is it just me or does Freddie Highmore, the actor playing Charlie, look an awful lot like James?) or this wonderful tale about a poor boy named Charlie.

No, despite the oddity of Wonka's character, an almost man-child rather different from the Wilder version of Wonka, I think Burton got it right. He is one of the few I'd have trusted to do the job and yet, there is another.... Robert Sabuda, the pop-up book master. He's created works of art out of the stories of The Wizard of Oz and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and I think he could do likewise with this story by Roald Dahl.

The magic in the Burton film exists in the details. I loved Charlie's decrepit, sagging slanting house, his model of the chocolate factory made from defective toothpaste caps brought home by his father at the toothpaste factory. I marveled at the vivid colors and the vintage/retro/ modern feel for the entire film. The added flashbacks were fun and the Oompa Loompa songs were straight out of the book. I loved our first glimpse of Wonka as he is gleefully watching his Willy Wonka number go up in flames. It promised all sorts of weird adventures and didn't disappoint. Gene Wilder delivered all sorts of slightly sane wackiness in '71 and Johnny Depp takes that to a new level not in imitation but in a continuation.

While I can't begin to say which film version was better. I will say there are elements in each I prefer, and in each film there are elements of the book... at times, lines lifted straight from the pages. In some ways I think the two film versions are misnamed. The film from 1971, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory seems to be a bit more about Charlie considering the additional scenes added with him on his paper route and in school, and the 2005 version, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, is definitely the Willy Wonka story as an entire back story is revealed about Wonka's sad childhood and his angst and struggle with the notion of parents.

I think each version stands alone and yet they can all work together as well. The 1971 version takes from the novel and invents too. It adds to the drama and creates more tension in the ending... Charlie isn't quite perfect in this film. Then the 2005 version remembers bits of the book forgotten in '71 and it also takes from the previous film as well. The character of Willy Wonka takes Wilder's efforts to a whole new level of wacky and then it invents a deeper look into the chocolate madman and candycoated genius. I loved it all. And I'm sure you will too. Be sure to have some candy on hand; it's hard to watch either of these without a sweet treat nearby.