I had this on VHS <3333333

Beta

Gene Wilder was brilliant. I'll never understand why Roald Dahl hated him and this movie.

Was he one of the writers?

Yes he wrote the screen play.

If so it could be one of those John from Cincinnati situations where a role (bill jax) was written by David milch with Ian mcshane in mind however ed O'Neil ended up with the part... it went over ok with me but the show didn't fair well with the masses overall. Milch has said if mcshane got the role it might have gone several seasons.

Sounds like ego got involved. I don't know anyone that didn't love wilder, maybe he screwed his wife.

I think you are right, i remember reading he had Spike Milliagan in mind for the role.

Thank god someone came to their senses.

Its the best of the two. I never get tired of it.

It really is a splendid film, very true to the spirit of Dahl - I was not aware that he didn't like it. One can only wonder what he would have made of the lumbering Tim Burton nonsense.

@rudely_murray said:

It really is a splendid film, very true to the spirit of Dahl - I was not aware that he didn't like it. One can only wonder what he would have made of the lumbering Tim Burton nonsense.

Not only did Dahl (the author of the book and screenplay) not like the original film, but it was said when the second film was made that he infinitely preferred that movie as he felt it was closer to the book than the original was.

Fans of the original disagree that the second one was better. I am amongst those. Depp was horrible and totally creepy in the role to me. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but I later realized that his creepy smile was exactly the same smile as Carol Channing. In fact, Depp even sounded like her when he spoke in the film. I have no idea if his performance was supposed to be a tribute to her or not, but I completely hated him in the role and really hated the whole movie. The original was so much better!

It's not unlike The Shining and Stephen King though. He hated the Jack Nicholson version and in 1997, made his own SIX HOUR T.V. movie. It SUCKED in spite of having Rebecca de Mornay in it. It was so boring. King is a great writer, but has always failed to understand that you can't put things which might work into a book, into a movie. Not everything translates well from the brain into visual effects. Basically, just because you can visualize things in your mind based off the words you read, does not mean that you can make it "real."

@Satai Delenn said: Fans of the original disagree that the second one was better. I am amongst those. Depp was horrible and totally creepy in the role to me. I couldn't put my finger on it at the time, but I later realized that his creepy smile was exactly the same smile as Carol Channing. In fact, Depp even sounded like her when he spoke in the film. I have no idea if his performance was supposed to be a tribute to her or not, but I completely hated him in the role and really hated the whole movie. The original was so much better!

After seeing the trailers for it, I refused to watch it for the same reason: Depp's Wonka was just over-the-top creepy. Maybe it was Dahl's vision, but I much prefer Wilder's edgy, unhinged, yet benevolent Wonka to...whatever Depp's was. I just couldn't bring myself to watch it, and won't. Sometimes Burton does terrific, new things with his movies and other times he's just weird.