Willy Wonka and the Great Glass Chocolate Factory

I love Roald Dahl.

But I digress.

I just watched Charlie and the blah blah (the new version), and it's interesting...

If I concentrated on seeing it as a story in and of itself, it was quite good, and visually stunning. Twisted as Tim Burton ever is. And the new Grandpa Joe (Grampa? whatever you feel like, I guess) was very good, and I like Charlie, and I always like Johnny Depp, even when he plays weirdos (he plays weirdos most of the time).

BUT, most of the time I couldn't help but constantly compare it to the first movie. It made me realize just how good of a job they did with that. All the tiny details of the story that made it magical, like Charlie's paper delivery or his mom washing clothes in that big vat that were missing in this version kind of poked at me, I suppose mostly for sentimental reasons. A few other things, like making the tiny door into the candy room anticlimactic by not showing the hall shrink or leaving out the part where Charlie and Grandpa Joe break the rules and drink the fizzy drinks that make them float towards the fan and they have to burp to get down, made me prefer the first version. I also thought the first movie was cool because of the scary bits (like the part in the tunnel, for example). The flashbacks and history lessons were an interesting addition, I thought. However, I know the point is not to live up to the original but to be its own film, and for that I respect it as a unique work.

Of course, none of this takes into account the actual story by Mr. Dahl, which I've mostly forgotten by now. It's been a while.

Anyone ever read The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More? Those were amazing...