Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This is one of the few titles where I love the book and the movies. I am going to choose to talk about the original movie with Gene Wilder in comparison with the book not the remake with Johnny Depp. There were a couple of things in the newer movie that I liked better than the old one. Technology and the special effects have come a long way since the first movie, so some of the scenes definitely looked good enough to eat and were more realistic looking. I'm not sure why the first movie is my favorite of the two. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the book, was written by Roald Dahl and is well-liked by everyone I've known who has read it.

Charlie's family is so poor that there is never enough food in the house, and he receives one 10cent candy bar for his birthday, which also shows how old the books is. He has to walk by Wonka's Chocolate Factory everyday and smell the wonderful chocolate without ever being able to taste any. When Wonka announces the contest with the Golden Tickets he is realistic enough to realize that he will probably not find one, but on his birthday is excited at the prospect, none the less. He doesn't find one then nor when Grandpa Joe gives another ten cents to him in secret, but when he finds a dollar in the snow, he hits the jackpot when he isn't really trying. He's just so hungry that he wants to eat!
He and Grandpa Joe get to be with the lucky few to enter the factory along with Violet Beauregarde, Veruca Salt, Mike Tevee, and Augustus Gloop. When on the discussion board we were talking about characters with socially redeeming qualitites, this book comes to mind, although it is not multicultural. Each of the characters, besides Charlie, has glaring character flaws that Dahl maximizes, and each meets his or her demise at least in terms of continuing the tour, as the book progresses. At the end only Charlie remains and finds out he is going to inherit the factory, which Dahl has also set up the fact that he is the only one deserving of this.

This book definitely uses humor throughout and has laugh out loud funny parts! The director did a great job casting Gene Wilder because he can act a little crazy, and Dahl made his character out to be that way, too. This movie followed the book fairly closely with only a few changes.
In the movie there is a man who wants to entice Charlie into being a spy for a competing candy company. In the book Wonka has had trouble with spies, but none approach Charlie. The Oompa Loompas in the book wear leaves and the children wear nothing. The movie has them in clothes and orange. There is a fizzy lifting drink in the book, but Charlie and Grandpa Joe don't break the rules and drink it as they do in the movie.

The book is very worth reading, and the movie is worth watching, also!