10 Movie Remakes That Ditch Classic Elements

Let’s just set one thing straight before we continue: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the 1971 musical starring Gene Wilder, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is Tim Burton’s 2005 gloomy adaptation. We’re all clear? Great. Now, let’s begin.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the most colourful, vivid musical to watch. Seriously, if you watched it as a kid like I did, it’s sure to leave an imprint on your infant eyes. You know how your eyes go all blotchy after you glance at a bright light? Kind of like that. So when it was first announced way back in the noughties that Tim Burton was going to put his own spin on Roald Dahl’s children’s story, it did sound jarring. And, let’s be real, it didn’t really work.

Roald Dahl’s work is best known for its subtle morbidity. Willy Wonka is an eerily secretive character who essentially set traps for four of the five kids invited to his chocolate factory, all in the name of finding an heir to his vast confectionary empire. That’s what the Gene Wilder musical got so right, and why it works so well. Remember his entrance? A timid, frail man – hidden from the public eye for years – shuffles out of the doors and into view, only to drop seamlessly into a forward roll.

From that moment on, we know not to underestimate him.

Tim Burton’s approach to his adaptation is little more… sledgehammer-like. Wonka is dark, yes, but Johnny Depp plays him off only as twisted and quirky, with little wiggle room for the dimensional characterisation we’ve seen before. Dahl’s work is meant to be subversive – The Twits ends with Mr and Mrs Twit glued upside-down to the floorboards and left to rot, and George’s Marvellous Medicine has the titular George shrink his abusive Granny into nothing.

But Burton took it a step too far, and made Mr Wonka truly odious with one seemingly subtle but ultimately significant change from both the literature and the 1971 musical – he hates families. So much so, that little Charlie Bucket refuses the inheritance of his chocolate factory because Wonka would force him to leave his family behind to claim it – and of course there’s no chance our moral centre would ditch his loved ones for fame and fortune.

Cue an unnecessary 40 minute subplot where Willy Wonka has to reconnect with his dad (Christopher Lee, how could you?) for him to discover the true meaning of Christm- I mean, family. Or whatever.

I get that maybe Burton wanted to add some drama or twist to the already well known tale, but when you have kids being blown up like a party balloon or threatened with incineration, I think we had all the suspense that we needed.