Evan Joyce Prompt #3

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory vs. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: a pop culture comparison

Published in 1964 by the illustrious Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a children’s book about an underprivileged boy, Charlie, and the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity he receives to visit an eccentric chocolatier's factory. Upon its initial release, the book was met with overwhelming commercial success and critical acclaim; however, it was the book’s film adaptation by Mel Stuart – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – that brought its renown to new heights. Further, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory became an instant classic among fans and critics, transforming the timeless chocolate factory story into a pop culture mainstay. As with all things pop culture, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was bound to be readapted. In 2005, Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released. Unlike Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was not universally enjoyed, marking a divisive departure from Mel Stuart’s original film adaptation. To understand the varying receptions of these films, one must understand the nature of pop culture. Susan Sontag and Walter Benjamin are two pop culture authors who can aid in dissecting the differing quality of both movies. Sontag informs readers on camp, an aesthetic view of pop culture that emphasizes irony and superficiality. Benjamin, on the other hand, helps audiences grapple with mechanical reproduction, works of art that are reproduced in different mediums; in this case, a book being reproduced as a movie. Ultimately, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory take vastly different approaches to adapting a popular children’s novel; one is playful and sweet while the other contains dark chocolate, leaving audiences divided on whether they appreciate the novel bitterness or prefer its sugary predecessor.

According to Sontag, camp is “a variant of sophistication but hardly identical with it” (Sontag 1964, p.1). Further, a movie about an idiosyncratic confectionist and troubled children exploring his chocolate factory hardly seems sophisticated; rather, it is bizarre and fantastical but this unusuality is precisely what makes it substantial. Sontag also notes that “the essence of camp is its love of the unnatural: of artifice or exaggeration” (p.1) Throughout both films, viewers are shown colorful, elaborate environments that feel otherworldly. Likewise, Willy Wonka has a zany demeanor and wears outlandish clothes, rendering audiences utterly transfixed. However, the Wonkas of 1971 and 2005 are not the same and, by the same token, neither are their respective films. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory effectively uses camp to elevate its story while Charlie and the Chocolate Factory misuses camp, resulting in conflicting tones and unsatisfying story beats.

A great comparison of the use of camp in both films is represented by the dispatch of Veruca Salt, one of the children, from Wonka’s factory. Veruca Salt is a spoiled, ill-tempered girl who always gets what she wants. At Wonka’s factory, however, her wishes are not granted, enraging Veruca and transforming the scene into an animated spectacle of camp. Moreover, near the end of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wonka shows Veruca and the other children a room in the factory where geese lay golden eggs. Upon seeing this, Veruca immediately says to her father, “I want a golden goose” (Stuart 1971). Wonka tells Veruca’s father that the geese are not for sale, infuriating the spoiled Veruca. Veruca, now agitated by Wonka’s answer, begins singing about how much she wants a golden goose, while simultaneously destroying the room, and eventually falls into a garbage shoot meant for the geese’s rotten eggs. Sontag declares that “there is a sense in which it is correct to say: ‘it’s too good to be camp” or ‘too important,’ not marginal enough” (Sontag 1964, p.3) In this scene, director Mel Stuart does not attempt to add dramatic flair or even have Veruca’s father defy Wonka’s wishes; rather, he invites the audience to witness Veruca’s descent into juvenile madness through music. A scene like this would likely not garner Julie Dawn Cole, the actress of Veruca Salt, any accolades because it does not feel “too important” and audiences would not consider it to be “too good.” As such, it becomes a moment of camp. The scene is simple, self-contained, and pure fun.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s version of Veruca’s removal from the factory, while not entirely unenjoyable, lacks the campiness of its 1971 forerunner. Sontag states that “pure camp is always naive. Camp which knows itself to be camp (“camping”) is usually less satisfying” (p.6). When watching the 2005 reneditions dispatch of Veruca, one cannot help but feel as though each and every action was calculated. Furthermore, the way in which Veruca walks towards the squirrels (formerly geese), her anger towards her father when he is unable to buy her a squirrel, and the austere expression on her face all communicate a rehearsed, wooden temperament. Tim Burton is known for his films distinctive looks; while this film certainly has his signature stamp, it plays out as a work that is too self-important and self-aware to achieve true camp.

Mechanical reproduction, and specifically aura, is another way in which Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory outclasses Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Aura is described by Benjamin Walters as “the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you experience the aura of those mountains, of that branch” (Walters 1936, p.52). Aura, in a film’s case, is its general relatability—how close to the movie the audience feels, whether that be emotionally, environmentally, or comically. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory succeeds in creating a brightly colored world that feels lived in and relatable, yet fantastical. A scene that exemplifies the aforementioned duality comes half an hour into the film when Charlie finds a coin. When Charlie finds the coin, flutes begin playing a bright melody, transporting audiences to a time when they were young and found a coin to buy a gumball or, in this case, chocolate bar (Stuart 1971). Despite the relatability of this situation, the film remains true to its source material by having Charlie enter a candy shop unlike any in the real world, with candy filling up the whole store and a ladder that slides across the room to reach even the furthest corners. In this way, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory creates an imaginative yet grounded aura that viewers are able to relate to. By contrast, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does not evoke youthful emotions that one can personally recount as the moment is brushed by irritatingly fast, depriving audiences of the sense of wonder that Charlie should possess (Burton 2005). Walters argues that “aura is tied to [an actor’s] presence; there can be no replica of it” (Walters 1936, p.56). Given this fact, it is a filmmakers duty to recreate an actor’s aura as best they can through film. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory does a lackluster job of conveying the aura of a child’s joy or a fantastical world due to its exceedingly drab color palettes and post-industrial environments.

Another important factor to consider is the time period of both films. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory released in 1971 during a time of American inflation and presidential issues with Richard Nixon (Garten 2021). Perhaps the movie’s sense of play and optimism was spurred not only because of its source material, but also to oppose the gloomy state of America. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was distributed to theaters in 2005 at the height of the Iraq war and less than four years after the momentous world trade center attacks (Associated Press 2005). Burton’s approach to the film may have been more sullen due to the way everything around him seemed to be falling apart. He possibly wanted to create a dreary, lusterless world to reflect his reality rather than creating something that would help audiences escape from it like the 1971 rendition.

All in all, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the definitive version of Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s book due to its effortless campiness and unforgettable aura. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is not all bad, but suffers from a failed attempt at true camp and an aura that leaves a bitter taste in viewers’ mouths that they will either come to savor or be underwhelmed by.

References

1) Sontag, S. (1964). Notes on 'camp'.

2) Benjamin, W. (1936). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction.

3) Stuart, M. (Director). (1971). Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. [Film]. Paramount Pictures.

4) Burton, T. (Director). (2005). Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. [Film]. Warner Bros. Pictures.

5) How the 'Nixon shock' remade the World Economy. Yale Insights. (2021, July 13). Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/how-the-nixon-shock-remade-the-world-economy

6) Press, T. A. (2005, December 26). Chronology of news events in 2005. The Seattle Times. Retrieved October 17, 2022, from https://www.seattletimes.com/nation- world/chronology-of-news-events-in-2005/