Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an adaptation of the eponymous novel presented through the enigmatic framework of Tim Burton’s imaginative directorial language. The original novel seemingly employed a moralistic narrative arc reflective of the perceived societal fallibilities and ethical ills that delineated the dichotomous distinction between gratuitous self-centrism and sincerity in kindness and generosity. From my perspective, Tim’s intentions for his divergent new inclusions and characterizations throughout the 2005 film appear to be the reconciliation of these older, commonly inculcated values with additional thematic elements purposed to achieve resonance with modern audiences. Projected through stylistically industrial visuals and a more cynical, charmless tone, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was generally criticized for these strange production and performance decisions as well as the muddled and incohesive message the film apparently attempted to invoke. Granted, there were transient precipitated moments that wrought potential intrigue from the re-conceptualization of certain character interactions, specifically between Charlie and Willy Wonka, which contributed to the solidification of their connection beyond the simple thoughtfulness Charlie demonstrates in the original novel and film. Flashback sequences were also provided to somewhat humanize and explicate the inscrutable behaviors of Willy, though it is arguable that such anatomization is antithetical to the intrinsic mystery surrounding his characterization and motivations. Additionally, these scenes generally failed to imbue Willy with any compelling new facets and complexity, or manage to inform his present personality in any meaning way beyond the introduction of an ostentatious physical inability to articulate the words “family” and “parents”. In my attempt to achieve comprehensibility and thematic consistency from Tim’s adumbrated ideas, I hope to adhere as closely as possible to the alterations Tim intended, including these flashbacks and the facilitated embellishment of the relationship between Charlie and Willy. The specific plot changes are enumerated below, and my associated rationalizations for these outlined alterations and the thematic coherence they induce will be subsequently expatiated upon.
The artificial and processed sounding opening music accompanying the sterile, shadowed visuals of the CGI credits will be supplanted by a softer main theme and practical and tactile imagery of the factory proceedings.
Charlie’s family exists in a state of impecuniosity, compounded by the recent loss of his father, which resultantly encumbers his mother with the majority of the financial and domestic responsibilities.
Grandpa Joe’s stories concerning Willy’s relations with the Indian Prince will be redacted.
Charlie’s imaginative expression is confined to rather transient moments where he is allowed to sketch with the curved ridges of his broken crayons before the exigencies of household upkeep require his attention.
During these artistic endeavors, prospective designs for new candies adopting the shape and form of various animals or children’s toys are prolifically explored.
His mother is understandably a bit stern about Charlie’s conviction to his chores at the expense of his irreverent activities, but his grandparents become conversely ardent that the boy deserves to engage his talents and enjoy a bit of indulgence once in a while.
Charlie’s mother seems to recall these same grandparents imparting a rather oppositional lesson when raising her, to which they respond that all parents should strive to be better than the ones that reared them, and that learning is often retrospective.
His mother reluctantly agrees for the time being, affording Charlie a few extra minutes to complete his drawing of a candy rope giraffe.
As in the film, Charlie finds the Golden Ticket, yet is hesitant in the acceptance of the opportunity given the extensive monetary compensation numerous people offered him in exchange for the ticket. Charlie’s mother pulls him aside and assures him that, while money is fleeting and commonplace, these tickets represent an exceedingly auspicious chance that few receive in their lifetimes which, for Charlie, would mean the realization of his deepest, most intrinsic desire. Charlie is grateful to his mother for allowing him to forgo the money and pursue his dreams.
The implemented, predominantly monochromatic color palette punctuated by vivid splotches of red in association with Wonka will be altered to maintain consistency in de-saturated, yet warm and inviting hues. The sweeping red curtain and bizarrely colorful puppet show proceeding Willy’s emergence should be replaced with a more understated, neutral-toned spectacle that retains the monochromatic precedent previously sustained throughout the earlier moments of the film.
Willy’s introduction and general characterization will convey a tempered version of the petulant eccentricity and demeanor he donned in the 2005 film, demonstrating quirky abnormalities in vernacular and speech patterns with unrestrained enthusiasm for the art of candy that others consider quizzically and perhaps a bit judgmentally.
Willy is somewhat cold and more sardonic to the adults, yet always maintains his vivacious veneer.
The formal adoption of a potent, refulgent spectrum of diverse colors in the film will be reserved for the moment Willy reveals the edible, verdant chamber of his factory.
The scene depicting Willy’s journey to Loompa Land and his encounter with the chief of the Oompa Loompas should be cut.
Charlie and Willy receive a few opportunities to exchange the fervidity of their mutual love of candy, and Charlie, endearingly, defends the existence of Willy’s more outlandish and bizarre inventions from the disdain and confusion of the other guests.
Charlie occasionally prompts Willy to expound upon his past and the emergence of his inspiration for becoming a chocolatier in possession of such an anomalously unique factory to house his creative processes. For example, Charlie begins by asking whether Willy can recall the first candy he ever designed. These questions incite the flashback sequences which are clearly portrayed as visualizations of the tales Willy regales.
Flashback 1: Willy’s father, Wilbur is a diligent, dedicated practitioner in his prestigious field (of which specifically is irrelevant) who regards his son’s investment in sketching various candy ideas with strident derision, insisting that Willy recalibrate his time towards more useful and educational pursuits such as reading medical journals as his own father once encouraged him to do.
Flashback 2: Willy continues to listlessly dream and ponder creative new designs for candies, surreptitiously keeping his notebook obscured from his father’s knowledge. Amongst his work are interior plans for a fantastical factory to house the spectrum of vividly disparate concepts appertaining to a variety of candies and chocolates. Wilbur eventually finds these sketches and burns them in the fireplace, threatening to rescind his financial support of Willy if he proceeds with these childish, pointless behaviors. He quells the impetuous ferocity of his anger and firmly explains to his son that his actions are solely derived from affection, as he can’t contend with the prospect of someone he loves becoming an artist and being relegated to a life of penury and degradation, especially when better prospects are just as available. Despite recognizing the likely veracity of his father’s words, Willy protests that he was never truly supported anyway and hastily determines to run away from home.
Flashback 3: Years later, Willy is working with devoted intensity at the shop of Slugworth, providing menial physical labor, designing candies uncredited, and still keeping his creative mind scintillated with continued contribution to his dream notebook. He is suddenly notified about the unexpected passing of his father and is brought forth to have the will read, which, to his surprise, remains unchanged, thereby allowing Willy to inherit his father’s considerable accrued fortune. Willy refuses to open the vast documents and letters Wilbur left behind and believes his inclusion to be attributable to Wilbur’s untimely death rendering him unable to have yet removed his son’s name.
Pondering the true veracity of this, Charlie questions whether Willy has ever read these papers and ascertained with certitude of how his father truly felt with regards to the ardent devotion to the pursuit of ideals that Willy employed as a young man. Willy answers with curt, laconic impetuosity about his assurance in his father’s mentality towards him.
The recognition of Charlie’s ascendency as the sole child devoid of demonstrable, destructive faults incompatible with Willy’s ideals earns him apparent ownership of the factory as the inheritor to Willy’s property and fortune.
The contract ordains that Charlie reside alone in the factory to allow for the uninterrupted collaborative efforts between him and Willy to avoid the intrusion of distractions that family will inevitably induce.
Charlie concedes that familial responsibilities can be occasionally stymying to the creative process, but rejects the platitude which decries their presence as incongruous with support or artistic stimulation and inspiration. Consequently, he refuses to accept Willy’s offer to abandon his family, especially when they need him most.
Grandpa Joe, present for these deliberations, fervidly expresses the desire for Charlie to acquiesce if it means the acquisition of everything Charlie has aspired to accomplish. He professes that, with his newfound physical fortitude, the family will be more than able to sustain in his absence, and the deprivation of Charlie’s company will likely not be permanent.
Willy declines even the opportunity for visitation, to which Charlie responds once again with his unequivocal rejection, and questions the origin of the resolute devotion and defensiveness that Charlie describes his family, knowing the restraint they impose on him. Willy conveys his exasperation and inability to rationalize the prioritization of familial bonds above individualism and the pursuit of personal success. Charlie relays the antithetical perspective, and believes that satiating the need to act in accordance with self-interest and the desire for accomplishment are important, yet not worth the sacrifice of love, physical communion with others, and external support. Willy replies that “family” and “support” are incompatible concepts.
Recalling the psychological distress underlying the flashback narratives Willy mournfully recounted, Charlie discerns the cause of Willy’s parental disdain to be his tempestuous relationship with his austere father, which inspires him to inquire once again if Willy ever learned the entire, comprehensive truth surrounding Wilbur’s perception of his son becoming a self-sustaining chocolatier.
Willy regards the repetition of this inquiry with impulsive vehemence and demands that the two Buckets leave his factory with haste.
Charlie replies that he refuses to leave Willy at this time, and inquires if he would prefer for the two Buckets to stay with him while the reads through these inherited documents. Willy’s sudden anger dissipates and he apprehensively assents to Charlie’s proposal, retrieving the files from a crooked, forgotten cabinet in the far corner of his office.
Willy reads with deliberate intensity and, as he persists, his face contorts in palpable distress while he flips through newspaper clippings of Slugworth’s new candies and the beginnings of multiple apologetic letters addressed to him from his father. Coming to the realization of the veracity of Wilbur’s affections towards him, Willy’s demeanor softens as he professes that, in denying Charlie access to his family, he would be stifling Charlie’s own creative process just as Wilbur once did to him.
Willy decides to avoid these same mistakes before he makes them and once again offers Charlie the factory with the understanding that the entire Bucket family will be in accompaniment. Charlie agrees with jovial rapidity, and all ends well.
Tim Burton’s natural propensity for the application of color in his films is in distinct emulation and reverential of the transition between Dorothy’s home in Kansas and her emergence into the land of Oz. Specifically, he employs de-saturated and often monochromatic neutral palettes to represent the mundanity or somber atmosphere of a location in contrast with the eventual adoption of a vivid, colorful veneer to signify hospitable vivaciousness and intrigue. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, however, this proclivity in direction is diluted by the frequent, staccato moments of color seen during the earlier, intentionally grounded moments of the film, particularly when showcasing stories of Willy’s past exploits as a chocolatier. Willy’s introductory scene was quite apparently selected as the transitional sequence delineating the dour nature of Charlie’s impoverished existence from the fascination of Willy’s fantastical factory, yet, this bizarre musical number with burning, melted puppets seemingly compromised this potential whimsical experience with its cynical, flippant subversion of the expected amazement. The film again attempts to instill this sense of wonderment in the characters and audience when Willy finally reveals the edible, verdant fields and chocolate river flowing through the inner chambers of his factory, however, this sensation is arguably tempered considering the sudden contrast and saturation in color was already utilized prior during the strange puppet number. A realization in totality of the true beauty evoked from Dorothy’s awakening in Oz would have presented the entire opening minutes focused on Charlie in these muted hues while savoring the reveal of color to the moment this quirky, dream-like world of Willy’s inner factory would be shown at last.
The predominant supplementary thematic conversation Tim seemingly intended to include to distinguish his version of the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory narrative from its film predecessor appears to be the relationship between creative exploits and familial influence. Condensed in one of the latter scenes of the film, Willy articulates the necessity for chocolatiers to have artistic freedom to follow their passions and liberation from the presumable encumbrance of family, which causes him to reject Charlie’s desire to bring his family along to the factory. The prospect of the discussion on this interrelation between having deference and adhering to familial responsibilities and demands in possible contest to the pursuit of one’s ideals is potentially fascinating and could have certainly elevated Tim’s version of this narrative through this differentiation from the original themes. However, upon retrospective analysis, Willy’s perception of the concept of familial interruption to creativity was not effectively established or informed through the flashback sequences and his own apparent relationship with Wilbur. Essentially, in defining Wilbur as a dentist with disdain for candy due to its corrosion of oral health, the somewhat humorous, ideological incompatibility between dentist and chocolatier commandeers and takes precedence in the audience’s collective attention. Willy is shown engaging in the analysis and design of candies as a child, yet the paramount source of argument with his father is the interest in a field which promotes and encourages insalubrious behaviors or demands in children, not the fact that this pursuit is inherently creative in nature. Therefore, Willy’s denial of Charlie’s family is a rather tenuous projection considering none of them are involved in an antithetical career nor have showcased ardent dismissal of candy creation as an art. I thought it consequentially apt to alter each of the flashback sequences to generate a more comprehensive rationale for why Willy is apprehensive of parents and inclined to assumed that monetary considerations and responsibilities will always take precedence at the expense of supporting artistic expression and dedication. A more realistic conversation, this nebulous discussion on prioritizing passion versus financial saliency is likely to find resonance with a fair number of individuals.
To persist in the instillation of thematic parallels and significance to Tim’s original work, assigning an almost compulsory behavior to sketch and design candies to Charlie further augments the established connection that Tim elected to generate between Charlie and Willy. Both characters will now engage in similar actions, solidifying their extant intrigue in the art of candy making and further proving that Charlie deserves to win the factory due to his expertise and desires in conjunction with his generosity and kindness. Additionally, there will be an invoked conversation appertaining to the concept of parental mistakes and the necessity of self-reflection to ensure that the negative messages or lessons inculcated by earlier generations are not repeated or propagated forward unwittingly in new contexts. Specifically, Charlie’s mother realizes the importance of demonstrating support and allowing her son time to develop or cultivate his vested interests, which directly contrasts the mentality of Wilbur who seeks to replicate his own father’s insistence in learning a lucrative skill from a young age. Wilbur repeats these mistakes, Charlie’s mother overcomes them. Willy himself adopts a pseudo-paternal role over Charlie, and initially insists that Charlie follow the same life trajectory that he did, without at first recognizing that Charlie’s oppositional wishes require the presence and support of his family at his side. In deviation from Wilbur, who came to his own realization after formally severing his relationship with his son, Willy is sufficiently malleable to immediately concede, allowing Charlie the inspiration he truly needs to flourish at the factory.