Coyote's Comparison; Willy Wonka vs Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a dear childhood book for many who traveled through the pages to the amazing and mischievous Chocolate Factory of Willy Wonka and his Oompa Loompa's.

The book was written in 1964 by Roald Dahl about an poor but lucky boy named Charlie Bucket.
There was also a sequel to the book; Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator that was written by Roald as well and published in 1972, a year after the first film adaption Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder, came onto big screen. Dahl had planned to write a third book to the series but it was never completed-- with that information who wonders what the third book would have been like, hm!?

Well, on to the subject of this blogs first comparison writing!

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Overviews
        Both movies do follow the book's storyline. It is about a boy named Charlie Bucket who, down on his luck, happens to find the last of the five Golden Tickets that the mysterious chocolatier Willy Wonka has sent out after many years held up within his factory. The other tickets were found by children as well, albeit they all had better conditions of life then Charlie ever dreamed of having. These children were; Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregard and Mike Teavee.
         Upon entering the factory many mishaps happen after a while, perfectly fitting the flaws in each spoiled child. Augustus gets swept away by a chocolate river that he gorged himself upon, Veruca's greed for a goose, or a squirrel, proves to much for her, Violet can't help but chew on forbidden gum and Mike Teavee want's to be the first person sent by television, or Wonka-vision in this case. Charlie and his grandfather, in the end, end up winning more then just a promised lifetime supply of chocolate (a prize I wish I had won at times). Charlie also won ownership of the Factory as well. As Willy Wonka put it in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, "I can't go on forever, and I don't really want to try. So who can I trust to run the factory when I leave and take care of the Oompa Loompas for me? Not a grown up. A grown up would want to do everything his own way, not mine. So that's why I decided a long time ago that I had to find a child. A very honest, loving child, to whom I could tell all my most precious candy making secrets. "         Now each movie goes into different detail. While Willy Wonka tells about his adventures in the land of the Oompa Loompa's and how he got them, Charlie's Willy Wonka shows more detail, in a rather hilarious way. The detail goes even further in Charlie's Willy Wonka by showing some of Wonka's childhood with a dentist as a father while Willy Wonka makes the movie all about the factory and Charlie Bucket.
Comparison To Story
         I have read many online comparison's of each movie to the book, not to mention what parts of the book I remember myself, and I have to say that even though I favor the first movie and it does follow parts of the book, the second movie, sadly, does insert more from the book then the first one does. The squirrels instead of geese, the way they exit the factory, some things that are said or shown. These are in the second movie while fewer but still similarities that are not in the second movie but in the first are shared from the book as well.
Details
     As most of you know, the book is called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but only the re-make was named directly after the story. The first adaption was going to be called such, but a chocolate company was making Wonka bars that were due to be released about the same time as the movie, so to boost sales of their chocolate and candy, the movie was renamed. Before release though the company found out that the chocolate was not staying solid on shelves and began melting, so the movie was released before the chocolate so they could fix the issue. This was not the only chocolate company with this issue, by the way.
     There are many differences in details between the movies. For instance, in Willy Wonka, Charlie does not have a father, while in Charlie, his father works in a factory putting lids on toothpaste.
     In the first adaption of the film, Charlie and Grandpa Joe drink Fizzy Lifting drinks while in the remake, they remain closer to Charlie's character in the book as he remains honest and a good, whole hearted child.
     There is the obvious difference in the movies when the spoiled brat Veruca wants a goose that lays golden, chocolate eggs while in the second adaption she wants a nut chucking squirrel.
     While in Willy Wonka, Gene Wilder portrays the proper adaption of Willy Wonka as a bit older man (though Gene Wilder was no cane-walker himself), Charlie's Willy, portrayed by Johnny Depp, makes him younger and more eccentric.

There are plenty of more differences ranging from words said in one movie and not the other, the fact that you can see the children coming out from the factory in the Charlie one and all the way to how well and how differently the movies portrayed the book.
    
Actors
    The biggest differences in the movies is, of course, the actors. Obviously the same actors were not going to be used for the re-make, but an interesting fact is that almost none of the child actors from the first one continued on with an acting career much after the movie, nor did most of them have any real acting career before hand. Before starting, I must add that in all of these characters where I show what is different or the same, I have to admit that I fully like the children in the first movie better. They gave realistic performances and even the rotten eggs came across true to form on screen, while in the re-make everyone seems so forced in character and it doesn't have the same flow.
     Peter Olstrom played Charlie in WWCF while Freddie Highmore played him in the CCF version. While both Peter and Freddie played convincing, good hearted children as Charlie Bucket is I will have to go with the original every time. Peter had the act down and it came across less like acting and more real when he played the character then Freddie, not that I do not like his acting in some of his other movies. Finding Neverland for one, another Johnny Depp movie as well, I might add.
      Veruca Salt was played by both Julie Dawn Cole and Julie Winter. In both movies she is accompanied by her father, who needs to give her a good smack in the ass every now and then, but instead caters to her needs and desires. Whether it be trying to get her a golden egg-laying goose or a nut-chucking squirrel.
       Violet Beauregard is portrayed by Denise Nickerson and AnnaSophia Robb. In both films, she is the competitive little girl who took up a world record for gum chewing. She is rude and lacks certain manners, but in the first film while she is a bit of a portly girl who is accompanied by her business-grabbing father, in the second rendition she is a skinny, athletically advanced girl who is brought to the chocolate factory by her mother.
        Augustus Gloop, in both films, is not only a heavy-set eater but also accompanied by his mother. One could old guess from seeing the first one that if he had brought his father he would have eaten the factory itself. I have to say though, the second Augustus was terribly more creepy then the first.
         Then we come to Mike Teevee, or Teavee as the spelling is changed for the second movie. The character was played both by Paris Themmen and Jordan Fry. While in the first movie Mike is obsessed with TV and has a problem with authority not to mention a love for guns that his father said he can't get until he is a whopping 12 years old, but in the second one he is obsessed with video games (changing with the times, I guess) but is also a rather smart boy who created a math formula to devise where the ticket was located! (Cheating much??) This time though he is accompanied by his dad and not his snooty mother.
    

Willy Wonka, in both movies, however, left their mark as the character in their own ways.
     After the re-make was made, Gene Wilder made his feelings on the re-make well known. Slamming it and calling it an insult, but that didn't mean that many people did not like the re-make better then if not the same as the first one, if not only for their love of Johnny Depp. I mean, come on, Tim Burton was directing the re-make. Who ELSE would he get to play his Willy Wonka, the eccentric chocolatier, other then JD?

     While Gene Wilder played a very gentle and alluring, albeit sometimes creepy and strange, Willy Wonka, Johnny Depp added a boyish and down-right, sometimes, unlikeable aspect to the man.
       Each Willy made their memorable entrance though into our hearts the first time we watched the movie. Gene Wilder had our sorrows at the poor, hobbling Wonka until he surprised us to life and made the movie a bit more exciting with his rolling entrance that Gene Wilder, himself, asked to put into the film before he even accepted the role he was asked to play.
        Johnny Depp however, made us think he was going to pop out of a very, very creepy display that began to catch fire and melt, and cracked us up by popping up next to the children with a bit of logic. How could he watch the show from the stage? Good appearance right? And it made some logical sense too!
        I think I speak for a lot of people though when I say that comparing the creepiness between both Wonka's, Johnny Depp won by a land slide. His looks matched up with his germ phobias and odd facial twitches made him a great deal more terrifying then the gentle Wonka who terrified us by taking us through the black hole on the way to the Cream Room.

Overall, I think both movies are good. While the first movie shows a kind hearted but stressed Willy Wonka, trying to test each child for their good souls, the second shows a scary and evil Wonka in Depp's portrait of him. I mean, lets face it, Gene's Wonka accepted the fat that the children were going to ignore him and they would be punished, and he was a bit sarcastic about it, but Depp's character flat out enjoyed the torture the children put themselves through. The colors in the second movie are also a lot brighter and might capture the attention of a child more, but the songs and likable characters in the first movie are sure to overwhelm the kiddies as well.

In my opinion, the classic wins every time (regardless of how big of a Johnny Depp fan I am), but don't let that stop you from liking who you like or hating who you hate. If you have not seen the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory though, I highly suggest you take a leap back in time, sit down with the family and a bag of popcorn and let the film role. I hope it captures your heart like it did with my family and I!