Comments on: "Wilie Wonka" Review

By: PeaceBang

PeaceBang — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 15:30:52 +0000

I agree. Wilder was hardly sweet and sugar-coated. He goes completely psycho during the last confrontation with Charlie and the previous boat ride (a scene that truly upset the child actors while filming it, according to their DVD commentary). For me, his cold detachment during the demise of his various young visitors was perfectly true to Roald Dahl. Johnny Depp so underplayed the sinister nature of Willie Wonka that he came across merely as weird, not at ALL believable as a great mad genius.

And while I did appreciate some of the character development of the second screenplay,I was totally unable to connect to a totally animated Violet Beauregard-as-blueberry, or to a Mike TeeVee who left the factory as a piece of animated taffy. To have to show the children leaving the factory at all was, for me, the most sugar-coated mistake of Burton’s grand failure. I prefer to be left wondering if those kids made it out alive!!

Finally, the thing was so bloated it seemed much more an exercise in “Here’s Another Really Cool Scene” than in storytelling.

By: LaReinaCobre

LaReinaCobre — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 08:44:09 +0000

I haven’t seen the remake, but the original does hold up well after all these years. Gene Wilder, however, did not strike me as sweet at all, but rather a bit disturbed and even a little cruel, when he says all those mean things to Charlie and his grandfather - then suddenly says, SURPRISE, Just kidding!!

I haven’t seen the remake because JD’s smile in the ads gave me the creeps. And that hairdo. He looked like that superhero costume designer from The Incredibles, minus the glasses.

By: Chalicechick

Chalicechick — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 05:05:09 +0000

I see what you’re saying, but I still much prefer the Depp version. The Wilder version was just way too sugary sweet for this Dahl fan.

The dentist bit was indeed tiresome and one more example of Burton’s weird thing about fathers, but I thought Burton’s decision to give Violet Beauregard and Mike Tevee actual personalities did much to improve them.

And I’m sorry, Wilder can sugarcoat it all he wants and make it seem all sweet and OK, but there IS something freaky about a man who builds a palace of candy and just wants to share it with one special child.

By: Wally Nut

Wally Nut — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 04:25:59 +0000

I cannot really argue with the stuff you are saying about the movie, but I really liked it anyway. It is the genuine oddness of it that I liked. As the pirate, Depp pulled off the role as one who is just slightly brain damaged, and in Wonka, it is the surealism of it that captivated me, how although predictable in one sense, it is always just “off” a little, and I suspect, with tongue always firmly in cheek. — and I feel for you as you did for me with the back issue. I send loving healing energy to you. Blessings.