10 Movie Moments That Pissed Off Fanboys (That Were Actually Great)

8. Tim Burton’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Mel Stuart’s 1971 adaptation of Roald Dahl’s much-loved kid’s book, enchanted a generation of young ‘uns so it’s probably quite surprising to discover that the man who first imagined it was less than taken with the final product. In fact, Dahl hated the film so much – mostly due to its deviating from the book’s original plot and focusing more on Willy Wonka than waif child Charlie Bucket – that he disowned it and vowed to never sell the rights to the books sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.

Tim Burton’s 2005 remake was, perhaps unsurprisingly, not much of a hit with those who had grown up watching Stuart’s version – star of the original Gene Wilder also slammed the film, denouncing it an ‘insult’ – but its fidelity to the book may well have had Roald Dahl rolling in his grave in glee.

While much of the criticism of Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory stemmed from the differences between Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka, branded by some as a creepy and camp man-child, and Wilder’s bright-eyed and energetic incarnation, it’s arguably Depp’s reincarnated Wonka that is closer to Dahl’s imagining of his strange, childish character and there’s no denying that the quirky and often wicked tone of Burton’s remake is much closer in mood to Dahl’s deliciously dark writings. In short, Burton’s film is quite possibly the cinematic Willy Wonka that Dahl wanted audiences to see.