The 1971 “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” is the only version of Roald Dahl’s classic that truly gets it right. Here’s why the 1971 film is far superior to its newer, more expensive variations.
A very strong advantage that the other movies don’t have is the one and only Gene Wilder. His Wonka is the perfect blend of genius and madness. He’s eccentric, but he’s also charming in a way that doesn’t make you want to call the cops. Johnny Depp’s version in Burton’s 2005 version is more “psychotic elf” than “candy genius,” which is great if you’re making a horror movie, not a family classic. In the newest adaptation with Timothèe Chalamet, it fails to capture the magic and whimsy of the story.
The 1971 film keeps it simple—greedy kids get what they deserve, and Charlie learns a valuable lesson. Burton’s film spends far too much time on Wonka’s backstory, as if we really need to know what happened in his childhood to understand that he’s great at making chocolate. We don’t. We just want to see him hand out golden tickets and laugh at spoiled kids getting stuck in chocolate rivers. This is similar to “Wonka,” the plot is much more complicated than it needs to be.
Finally, the whole demeanor of Willy Wonka is completely different in all of the movies. In Depp’s version, we learn way more about his backstory than in the other movies, and Wonka just has a weirder personality to him. Chalamet gives a performance that makes “Wonka” a lot more upbeat and musical, which in my opinion was a little overwhelming. However, Wilder’s Wonka was a perfect blend of insane and normal. The best part about Wilder’s work was making the audience feel like they could and couldn’t trust him at the same time, almost as if he was on the brink of going crazy the entire movie.
In short, the 1971 “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” is the perfect blend of weird, wonderful, and timeless. The newer versions don’t compare to the memories and nostalgia that the first movie provided for so many people. No matter how big of a budget a remake has, nothing can beat the original.
