Lost in Adaptation: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Dom compares the 1964 Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with its two film adaptations, the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and the eponymous 2005 reboot.

Intro
The Dom: Hello, Beautiful Watchers; and welcome back to Lost in Adaptation, the show that scrutinizes the various decisions made while converting novels into cinematic productions. Ahhhh, Roald Dahl, beloved children's book author and FUCKING PSYCHOPATH! Seriously, have you ever stopped to think about how many people are brutally *killed* in his novels?! He's got herbivores eating people, and even *fruit* can be fatal!

Being of a somewhat weak-stomached temperament, I've decided to ease my way into his works by starting with an *early* story of his that hopefully contains the smallest body count...

=Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory=

Intro, Cont'd
The Dom: ...Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. *Huh*! For the first time, I'm presented with two options for feature films to compare it to. Which one to go with? I think it's gonna have to be-

(The Dom rapidly alternates between shirts and backgrounds, stopping on a background featuring the Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory poster)

The Dom: (looks around in confusion) Well, that was, uhhhhh...unusual. Anyway, as I was *about* to say, the only logical choice is the *original*, directed by Mel Stuart.

Poll
People Asked: 25

Saw the Film: 22

Read the Book: 21

The Dom: Originally released in 1971, it's one of those films that did *reasonably* well at the box office and then built up more momentum as the years went by, enjoying a much more profitable re-release in 1996. It currently appears to be enjoying the best of two worlds, being considered to be a cult classic *and* a household name. Anyways, without further ado, let's jump straight into...

What They Didn't Change
The Dom (V.O.): Just like with Jurassic Park, the author of the book also helped write the screenplay for the film; but *unlike* Jurassic Park, it seems that in *this* case, he was more successful at protecting the plot from being changed for no apparent reason. It's true to the novel inasfar as every cast member, important plot point, and the ending made it through just fine. In both versions, Willy Wonka is the proud owner of an *awesome* chocolate factory staffed by abnormally small workers and employing some unorthodox, but apparently very effective chocolate-making techniques; they spend their days CONSTANTLY pushing the BOUNDARIES of SCIENCE in a very chocolaty-specific manner. Eventually, he starts to feel his age and, currently having no heir, uses golden tickets to invite five children and their guardians to tour his factory so he can choose someone to succeed him. During said tour, the children continually get themselves into industrial accidents and have to leave early, until only Charlie remains. Wonka reveals his true intentions to an overjoyed Charlie, and it's sort of implied that the flaws in the other children *may* have been improved by their traumatic experiences -- sooooo I guess happy endings all round?

Charlie's first three failed attempts at getting a ticket are in the book; it was a very clever way of playing with your expectations, as you kind of knew he was going to get one, but he just never *seemed* to. Now, you would *think* that the musical numbers would be film only; and for the most part, that's true -- however, the Oompa-Loompas did, in fact, burst into ad-libbed songs about the fates of the lost children. Even though the book was generally very lighthearted, the scary boat ride was actually in it; although they didn't go as far as to decapitate a chicken or anything -- gosh, who would have thought the *other* movie that I'm *not* reviewing would turn out to be the less disturbing one?

The Dom: (singing to the tune of "Pure Imagination") Come with meeeee/And you'll seeeee/A whole new woooorld of minor movie changes!/I can't sing,/But you get the point...

What They Changed
The Dom: Taking an overview first, I'd have to say that the biggest change is the *comedy* in the film; it made a lot more effort to be funny than the book, which relied more on *whimsy* to engage the audience.

The Dom (V.O.): People like Charlie's eccentric teacher and other characters with short appearances are added to help infuse this new humorous element, along with gags like the Queen bidding on a chocolate auction. They also played up people's obsession with finding the chocolate bars to a new extreme level -- people were *very excited* about it in the book; but it wasn't the world-ending phenomenon, like it was in the film.

In the film, Charlie's grandparents took a highly *optimistic* approach to his chances of winning a golden ticket, which is a little annoying because their attitude in the *book* was a good balance of good-natured *encouragement* mixed in with setting realistic expectations. Charlie claims that he was buying the second bar of chocolate for his *grandfather* in the film; however, in the book, it was strictly for himself, bearing in mind that his family is starving to *death* at this point and the money that he found could be *very* important to them. This is interesting to me because the thought occurs that it essentially means that Charlie was richly awarded for his *only act* of selfish *decadence* in his life, which is a rather odd moral.

Unsettling things like the human hand coat hooks, the super fine print liability waiver, and the freaky perception corridor are film-only. Unlike the film, I didn't get the impression that Willy Wonka was *ever-so-slightly* aroused by the children's misfortunes in the book; he seemed more committed to trying to save them from themselves.

Willy Wonka: (unenthusiastically) Stop, don't, come back.

The Dom (V.O.): Gene Wilder's portrayal of Willy Wonka was...okay. He nailed the man's insatiable enthusiasm and his almost childlike desire to impress people with his creations, but he was also kind of a dick in the way the book Wonka wasn't -- things like him thwacking his cane in front of people all the time, his obvious pleasure at people's discomfort, and his full-on *rage-out* are film-only. To summarize, I quite *liked* the book version of Wonka; but THIS jerk can suck my...Everlasting Gobstopper -- just look at the way he responds to direct questions in some weird and clearly made-up gobbledygook language.

Willy Wonka: Mesdames et messieurs, maintenant nous allons faire grand petit voyage.

The Dom (V.O.): *Utter nonsense*, I say.

Grandpa Joe is actually meant to be 96; but...come on, try and find an actor that old -- (shows Wilbur Wonka from the 2005 film) oh, well, I guess Christopher Lee; heh, that's ironic. Book Charlie would have been *quite shocked* at Film Charlie's passive-aggressive whining at his mother, being more preoccupied with slowly starving to death after his father lost his job and could no longer feed them.

The happy-go-lucky chocolate store owner was CRAZY fat in the book.

(shows Charlie looking through the candy store window, with The Dom popping in behind him)

The Dom: Kid, he's giving away free samples; just go inside.

The Dom (V.O.): In fact, you'll notice most of these supposedly chocoholics are surprisingly slender in the film; even Augustus Gloop, whose character is based *around* being a glutton, isn't particularly massive.

Mr. Slugworth, a.k.a. Wilkinson, the creepy, scarred pretend spymaster wasn't in the book, and neither was the honesty test that Wonka employed him to perform -- Slugworth and the Everlasting Gobstoppers are both mentioned in *passing*, but aren't relevant in any way to the story. *This* extra plot point probably represents the *single* greatest liberty that Stuart took, as it *entirely* changes Wonka's method for choosing his successor -- he wasn't *testing* the children at all in the book; he was just planning to get to *know* them during the tour, and then pick his favorite out at the end! Charlie essentially just ended up winning by default. Also, Wonka was probably thinking, "Holy crap, there's only *one* boy with enough common sense to survive more than a *day* in here?!"

It may interest you to hear that the Oompa-Loompas were even *smaller* in the book, being described as being no larger than a child's doll. There's also not one single *word* about them being orange and green -- yeah, I was surprised, too! I'm now going to digress into something entirely irrelevant to this dissection; but I *couldn't* help but observe in the book, Wonka claimed that the Oompa-Loompas were having a *terrible* time in the jungle, and he was doing them a great *favor* and giving them jobs in his factory -- but he *also* then mentions they *ship* them there in *packing* crates with *air* holes in them, pays their wages in *beans*, and tests all his new inventions on them with sometimes potentially *fatal* consequences! Add that to the Oompa-Loompas apparently making up songs to sing while they work; and suddenly, you have *more* slavery overtones than I, Robot -- I dunno, maybe I'm reading too much into it; but, you know (shows a fake promo for "12 Years a Oompa Loompa")...fuck!

The Dom: Charlie and Grandpa Joe's disobedient consumption of the Fizzy Lifting Drink and their subsequent airborne shenanigans are not in the book; Wonka *talks* about the experimental liquid and how he *really* shouldn't have tested it on an Oompa-Loompa *outside*, then the tour moves on without incident.

The Dom (V.O.): The golden egg-laying geese are a film-only substitution for a room full of squirrels trained to test and deshell walnuts; considering that, with the special effects available at the time, the *only* feasible way of doing this would be to *actually* train an army of squirrels, I'm more than willing to forgive them for this change. There isn't a cream-blasting Wonkamobile in the book, and I'm beginning to suspect Mel Stuart had a few issues of his own to work through.

(shows the Wonkamobile squirting out creamy suds as "I Like Bukkake" by Doghorse plays)

The Dom (V.O.): Heh-heh, heh-heh, heh-heh. Uh, wha-what? What?! You thought just because I used long words that I wasn't a horrific pervert?! You don't know me!

Wonka's half-room -- creative and, *apparently*, entirely devoid of symbolism -- was not in the book at all.

The Dom: Okay, let's see if they managed to leave anything *out* of a full feature adaptation of a relatively short book.

What They Left Out Altogether
The Dom (V.O.): On a minor note, in the book, the kids were allowed to bring *both* their parents if they so wanted; and everyone except Charlie did so, so there are quite a few more adults knocking around in the original story. On a *major* note, CHARLIE'S FATHER WASN'T DEAD, and he was IN the BOOK; he just had a shit-paying job in a toothpaste factory! Why'd you kill off his *father*, Stuart, you mean-spirited git?!? This isn't a Disney film; you're allowed to have two loving parents!!

Near the start of the book, Grandpa Joe tells Charlie about the time that Wonka was commissioned by an Indian prince to build him a palace *entirely* made out of chocolate, which he does. The prince, unfortunately, then ignores Wonka's advice to eat it quickly, as he has decided to *live* in it instead -- the palace, of course, *melts* in the sun the next day. *This* sounds like a really hilarious scene, and it's a damn shame they left it out.

They confirmed without a *shadow* of a doubt that, at the end of the book, the other children have survived, albeit with some *deforming* abnormalities now. FUCK you, Stuart; I spent YEARS thinking Wonka might have MURDERED them -- hells, there's pages and pages of pointless conspiracy theories online now about how Wonka might be a cannibal, all because you just *had* to cut out the bit describing the bit where the kids walk *home* at the end!

The Dom's Final Thoughts
The Dom: (sighs) It's definitely a good movie; and as an adaptation, it was probably better than most -- but I gotta say, I was a *little* disappointed. It's the small changes -- individually, they didn't amount to much; but there was just so many of them at the end, and I couldn't help but feel that Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory wasn't *Charlie* and the Chocolate Factory anymore. So, there it is; kinda wish I'd taken a chance and gone with the reboot now, to be honest. Oh, well; until next time, Beautiful Watchers.

=Charlie and the Chocolate Factory=

(the review rewinds to the beginning)

Intro, Cont'd
The Dom: ...Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. *Huh*! For the first time, I'm presented with two options for feature films to compare it to. Which one to go with? I think it's gonna have to be-

(The Dom again alternates rapidly between shirts and backgrounds, stopping on a background featuring the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory poster)

The Dom: (looks around in confusion) Well, whatever that was, it was *quite* unsettling. Anyways, I thought just to be unorthodox, I might try going with the reboot, directed by Tim Burton.

Poll
People Asked: 25

Saw the Film: 18

Read the Book: 21

The Dom: Released in 2005, the film was received *remarkably* well, considering the growing hostility towards reboots. It's got Burton's fingerprints all over it cinematically; whether you like this or hate this will probably depend more on your feelings towards *Burton* than your feelings toward the *book*, so I deem it irrelevant! To be honest, I'm probably not gonna be doing that many other reboots after this episode -- the reason being that, for better or worse, they're not just adapting the book; they're adapting the first film as well, incorporating the successful elements and learning from its mistakes. However, for a number of reason -- including my belief that things have to be able to stand up on their own merits *and* I can't be out changing my format -- I am *not* going to be taking that into account in this episode; I'm going to be comparing the reboot straight to the book.

What They Didn't Change
The Dom (V.O.): The part at the beginning about Wonka being driven into closing his factory due to spies stealing his secrets was true to the book, along with it mysteriously reopening despite no one entering or leaving. The manner in which each of the kids gets themselves in trouble inside the *factory* is the same in the book and the film, as well as Wonka's motivation for sending out the tickets -- i.e. to find someone to inherit his business. If you've not read the book, it would be *understandable* to assume that things like people telling Willy Wonka that Oompa-Loompaland didn't exist and that a lot of his actions and statements were, at best, contradictory and, at worst, *criminally insane*, was the film gently poking fun at the novel; but oddly enough, *no* -- those lines were actually in there, along with Wonka's obvious deflections.

Burton also successfully visualizes a story that Grandpa Joe tells Charlie near the start of the book about the time Wonka was commissioned by an Indian prince to build him a palace *entirely* made out of chocolate, which he does. The prince, unfortunately, then ignores Wonka's advice to eat it quickly, as he has decided to *live* in it instead -- the palace, of course, *melts* in the sun the next day. This was a remarkably stupid scene, and quite possibly a *racist* one, which I *really* wish they'd left out.

The location or setting of the book was a little vague, presumably so the reader could subconsciously set it in their own country and therefore relate to it more strongly -- *difficult* to do in the film because, well, you've got to pick an accent. But Burton managed to salvage at least *some* of this by mixing in some American accents with the British and other subtle things you may not have noticed, like the money being in dollars rather than pounds. Also, little fun fact for my American brothers, the word "candy" isn't a synonym for "chocolate" over here; so it was a *little* weird hearing a British kid using it as such.

The boat ride down the chocolate river is true to the book, although they *may* have made it a tad more dramatic -- has anyone else noticed that a lot of films these days are going out of their way to include future theme park rides (shows the dwarfs riding barrels down a river in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)? Characters like Augustus Gloop, the morbidly obese; and Veruca, the spoiled brat were pretty much perfect to their book counterparts. Charlie himself is pretty accurate; in my opinion, when Roald Dahl wrote in a *kid* as the lead, he tended to leave them pretty bland -- I'm guessing so whoever was reading it could project *themselves* into his place.

So, *wow*, I was expecting Burton to take a dump all *over* the original story; but he's actually stuck to it really well! I mean, he's modernized everything, but *that's* okay; it's sometimes *nice* to see things from your generation's perspective -- and so far, there hasn't been any- (shows a swirling scene transition in the film) Wait, what's happening? Burton, what are you doing? Burton, no! What are you doing? (shows a young Willy Wonka with an orthodontic device on his head) NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! What is this silliness?

What They Changed
The Dom: Nnnnneeeeerrrrrrrrrgh- I'm gonna come back to that later, Beautiful Watchers. For now, taking an overview, I'd have to say that the biggest change is the *weirdness* of the film -- with Johnny Depp in the lead and Burton directing, what else would you *expect*? But Dahl's preferred weapon of choice was childlike *whimsy*, so this represents a *significant* shift in tone.

The Dom (V.O.): Faced with a much-harder-to-impress modern audience, the film adaptors made the inevitable decision to EXTREME UP everything that you saw in the factories. Machines that once went "putter, putter, putter, putter, putter, putter, zoink!" now go "FEEEEEEEEEEEERM! VVVVVVVVVVVUTS! SSSSSSSNIOWWW! (makes exploding sounds)" -- um, sorry, that really *was* just the best metaphor I could come up with for these changes. You're more than welcome to disagree with me, but I found I couldn't hate the film for this; we have, as a society, just come to *expect* more pointless explosions from our films.

In the film, Charlie's grandparents take a highly *pessimistic* approach to Charlie's chances of winning a golden ticket, which is a little annoying because their attitude in the book was a good balance of good-natured encouragement mixed in with setting *realistic* expectations. Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka is funny, visually quirky, and NOTHING like the Wonka in the novel -- a friendly, jovial man full of enthusiasm is suddenly a socially awkward introvert with creepy and rude mannerisms. It also amused me that this was the cleanest-shaven I'd seen Depp in a long time because in the book, Wonka had a goatee.

In the book, Grandpa Joe has no particular history with Wonka; and while this *seems* like a pointless tie-in at first, it does go a way to highlight something that even the novel skipped over, i.e. the depressing consequences of laying off an entire *workforce* without warning (text appears reading "Local economy destroyed. No wonder this town looks depressing."). While it was admittedly a health and safety inspector's worst nightmare, Charlie having his own part of the house to live in was actually a big improvement to having to share a mattress with his mum and dad in the *hallway*, like he had to do in the book.

Violet liked to chew gum; that was pretty much the beginning and end of her character -- her overachieving obsession and overbearing mother are a film-only addition. The film modernized the *hell* out of Mike Teavee; rather than just being a television-obsessed kid, he's now a smart genius with *anger* issues and a video game enthusiast -- now, if they were going to do *that*, they probably should have updated his name as well, something like...Mike...First-Person-Shooteree? Shut up, I'm hilarious.

Even though it's not in the book, I'm glad Mike pointed out that Wonka is kind of wasting his inventing talents by only applying them chocolate; if you think about it, if Wonka and the Oompa-Loompas had dedicated themselves to, say, applied physics instead of *junk* food, they might have hit the technological singularity by now -- but, oh, well; at least they invented *ice cream* that doesn't melt. In the book, Wonka doesn't give out any hints about there being a big prize to win at the end; he promised everyone who attended a lifetime supply of chocolate -- and he was true to his word on that, but that was it. The Oompa-Loompas weren't identical to each other in the book; they were also kind of dickheads singing about how the missing children were dying horribly, even though you *clearly see* that they survived at the end.

The Dom: Okay, I guess I can't put it off forever. Here's where things really start to fall *apart* adaptation-wise.

The Dom (V.O.): I'm willing to bet that even if you *haven't* read the book, you would have figured out that the story arc involving Wonka's depressing childhood with Saruman the dentist is 100 percent Burton-only! At the end of the book, Wonka positively *insists* that the whole family comes along; he even helps Charlie *kidnap* them against their *will* because they weren't too keen on *coming*! Uh, forget I mentioned that; let's not complicate matters.

The point is that the last twenty minutes of the film manages to *undo* all the good will Burton had managed to *win* from me thus far. I could have *lived* with the flashbacks if they hadn't interfered with the original plot, but it just *completely* takes over at the end -- and it doesn't even *go* anywhere; him and his father just *instantly* hug and make up, and that's the END of it!!

The Dom: Burton, buddy, what *happened*?! You were doing *so well*! Did you really have-

(miniature versions of The Dom start dancing in from either side of the screen)

Mini-The Doms: (singing to the tune of "Oompa Loompa" from the 1971 film) Oompa Loompa doo-ba-dee doo,/Burton's working through his daddy issues./He doesn't care if he screws up the plot;/He'll do it his way, whether you like it or not./It could have been good if he'd thought a little harder/And not just cast Depp and Bonham Carter./Roald Dahl would have kicked him right in the jewels;/Oompa Loompa doo-ba-dee dooooooooooool!

(the miniature Doms dance off-screen as the regular Dom looks after them in confusion)

The Dom: You guys saw that, too, right? Hey, wait, that tune was from the *other* movie, you idiots!

What They Left Out Altogether
The Dom: As you can probably tell, my beef with this film is more about them crowbarring stuff *in* than leaving stuff *out* -- Roald Dahl's book was surprisingly short, so it was quite easy to include everything. I think for the first time in making this show, I can't think of a *single* thing they left out; even *small* things in the book, like passing the *literal* mountain of fudge, was included. Like I said, it's all modernized, but it's all there. So I guess...

The Dom's Final Thoughts
The Dom: You *fucked* it up, Burton! You were doing *so well*; but you just *couldn't* stick the landing, could you? I was fine with them embellishing the surreal and borderline magical elements of the story, using the all-powerful CGI to *hyper-charge* the outlandish things described in the novel; but when you change the message to the same bullshit "family togetherness" moral that's crowbarred into every movie these days, it leaves me wishing I'd gone ahead and reviewed the *original* after all! But such is life; farewell, Beautiful Watchers.