Every Roald Dahl Movie Adaptation Ranked Worst To Best

1. Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory

Matilda the fantastic mr fox the bfg split
Paramount Pictures

Perhaps in part fuelled by the nostalgia evoked by Gene Wilder’s recent death at the grand age of 83, but while Fantastic Mr. Fox might be the movie critic and film buff favourite, Mel Stuart’s Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory is the film that really captured the hearts and minds of generation after generation of young (and not so young) moviegoers.

It’s no secret that Roald Dahl himself despised what has undoubtedly become one of the most popular adaptations of his novels. Brought onto the project as screenwriter, Dahl was displeased by rewrites that deviated from his book and placed more focus on the eccentric chocolate factory owner than waif child Charlie and objected to the casting of Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka rather than his preferred choice, Spike Milligan.

But Dahl’s opinion notwithstanding, twinkly-eyed and top-hatted Wilder excelled as Wonka while the set design (admittedly outdated by today’s CGI saturated efforts, but charming still nonetheless) and music created a world of wonder that makes the movie the most delightful, scrumdiddlyumptious Dahl adaptations to date.

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