Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

OPINION

This week Warner Bros. will release a new movie version of Roald Dahl's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Tim Burton, who directed it, (I think) expects to top the original. But I don't think that's possible.

Here's a sample of a conversation that I believe is all too common between moviegoers who are talking about this film:

Person #1: Oh, there's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Person #2: Yep, yep...there is. Johnny Depp...

Person #1: I don't know. I like the original a lot. Gene Wilder (smile)

Person #2: Yep. That was very good.

Person #1: So with this movie, I don't know.

I believe audiences worldwide like the idea of seeing Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. But with Tim Burton along for the ride, I can only say that even though Johnny Depp and Tim Burton are a good team (see Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands, and Sleepy Hollow) Tim Burton is clearly set out to show audiences that the version with Gene Wilder got Roald Dahl's novel all wrong. For Tim Burton, he thinks audiences need to see the real Willy Wonka and the real Charlie. You may remember Tim Burton doing something of this nature some years ago when he created a remake of Planet of the Apes. That movie didn't take off like he had hoped simply because the original was so good. People didn't want to see it changed up.

I think the same thing will happen here with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Despite whether the original got Dahl's novel right or wrong, Gene Wilder's performance made the movie a classic. You can't undo his work and say that the original didn't properly portray Willy Wonka after so many people have become fans of it. Now, people will come to see this movie and will check it out because people want to see how it's different from the original. But I believe that the majority will walk out still liking Gene Wilder's version of Willy Wonka more than Depp's version of Willy Wonka.

Yet, as Fantastic Four shows, a film like this could be horrible but it's "fun" tone is just what audiences might be wanting to see after being gloom-ified by Batman Begins, War of the Worlds, and Revenge of the Sith.