CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

After reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory I decided to watch the original movie from 1971. To be honest, I don’t know that I have ever seen this movie before. I have seen the Johnny Depp version (which was the movie of my childhood) and it’s called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

My first thoughts were: I wonder why they named the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory instead of sticking with the book title? I am still not really sure on that one. I did feel like the movie followed the book pretty well. It did add songs and a side story of a competitor to Willy Wonka trying to get the kids to give him the gobstopper recipe. They did kill off Charlie's dad in the movie which I guess they did so they could cast one less person for the movie.

I was a little disappointed that the Oompa Loopma’s didn’t sing the songs from the book. One of the best parts of the Johnny Depp version is the “Augustus Gloop, Augustus Gloop, the great big greedy nincompoop”. I just remember finding that part very funny as a child.

They did change how one of the kids got eliminated. They had her wanting a golden goose egg and falling down the trap door, instead of wanting a squirrel like in the book. I did find it interesting that they had Charlie and the Grandpa drink the soda and kinda get in trouble with that leading to him having to return the gobstopper to “win” where in the book he simply “wins” by not getting into trouble like the rest of the kids.

Overall the movie was cute and entertaining so you can’t go wrong by watching it, I would also recommend watching the Johnny Depp remake from 2005 as well. They are both good movies for a good book.