anyway, I agree on the songs. the originals were really good. for these, you couldn’t remember a single word.

“Roald Dahl was reportedly so angry with the treatment of his book (mainly stemming from the massive rewrite by David Seltzer) that he refused permission for the book’s sequel, “Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator”, to be filmed. Seltzer had an idea for a new sequel, but legal issues meant that it never got off the ground.”

“Stories concerning author Roald Dahl’s immense dissatisfaction with this film are legendary; in fact, he was so unhappy that he refused to ever watch the completed film in its entirety. Once, while staying in a hotel, he accidentally tuned into a television airing of the movie, but reportedly changed the channel immediately when he realized what he was watching.”

Dahl HATED WW&TCF. that’s why his estate had it remade. Not to mention that it deviates so completely from the source material. Wonka magically likes kids, is a father figure, Charlie behaves badly but still gets rewarded. the entire crux and journey of the characters were changed. it’s a bad adaptation of the book. it’s a decent film.

i prefer the remake for numerous reasons.

I love Time Burton and Johnny Depp, but Gene Wilder freaked me out as a kid (just like the book), so he will always be the best.

Every time I see the original on TV, I am compelled to watch it to the end. The new remake? Meh! Had to force myself to watch it once.

I love Johnny Depp, but his performance here is atrocious. Gene Wilder inhabited the role perfectly, with just the right balance of screwball comedy and barely-contained menace. Depp doesn’t even come close to finding those notes.

And for those who complain that the 1971 film deviates too far from the book, well, the screenplay was written by none other than Mr. Roald Dahl himself, so apparently the author though that the novel as written needed some modification if it was to translate to the screen well. Judging by these two films, it’s hard to argue with that.

BTW is there really only one Johnny Depp? I find it very hard to believe that this is the same guy as the one who played Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribean. In every role, he looks to be some other guy, also very different from the guy with glasses that he always shows up as, in real life.

+1

NO ONE HAS MENTIONED THE SONGS! I’m a huge Elfman fan, but those songs were un-likeable, un-rememberable, had no heart, no humor, simply AWFUL.

The new vs. old Oompa-loompas argument is a wash. BOTH versions are creepy.

Deep Roy just skeeved me. Depp disappointed. I fell asleep watching the remake, TWICE.

I remember reading a blurb in a magazine about the then PLANNED “remakes” (quotes because that’s what it stated in the article)of Wonka, and, another favorite movie of mine, “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School”, and really wanting to see both. I now thank the studio powers that be that the remake of “R’n'RHS” hasn’t happened. Who would/could replace The Ramones in a remake? Maybe the Beastie Boys.

Which reminds me… both the Ramones AND “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” would make for excellent Trivia topics.

THIS is what makes the original a better film. Dahl is meant to scare you.

Wah-wah-wah. Coming from someone who’s read the book and loved it as a child, I prefer the way the original translates the spirit if not the letter of Dahl’s genius. Those who think that good adaptations are literal adaptations doesn’t understand the difference between books and film.

It’s all about the heart, and Wolper’s version has that in spades. It’s also far more menacing in a much more subversive way, which preserves Dahl’s intent in a completely different and completely complementary way.

And to be honest, with Burton and Depp, I was expecting this version to be MORE creepy and psychotic and unnerving than Wilder’s version (in subtext at least), and it was less so.

and i don’t care how many movies they make- tim burton and johnny depp are always awesome!

“It’s in the fridge, daddy-o! Are you hip to the jive? Can you dig what I’m layin’ down? I knew that you could. Slide me some skin, soul brother!”

seems to be an homage to Gene Wilder. He said those lines in Silver Streak, when he was trying to disguise himself as a black man with Richard Pryor’s help.

That’s pretty sweet.

I don’t want to talk about it. XD

The Depp version, I prefer it’s humor more. The oompa loompas aren’t as scary either.

Apparently Fred Astaire was considered for the role at one point. He would have been an interesting choice, but it would have been an entirely different movie: sweet rather than twisted, which is what Wilder gave it. I read somewhere that Wilder accepted the role on the condition that he could do that fake fall at his introduction, after limping up to the gate on his cane.

also, to everyone else…

IT IS NOT A REMAKE!! It is a new adaptation of an old book, they were not remaking the wilder film, thus is NOT a remake.

That’s perhaps the oddest sentence I’ve ever read.