Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Book vs. Movie
Tim Burton's 2005 film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adapts Roald Dahl's book. Freddie Highmore plays Charlie Bucket, whose golden ticket brings him into the extraordinary factory of Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka.
From Books Adapted
How much of the book it covers
Burton returned to the book, rather than remaking the 1971 movie
The 2005 movie adapts Charlie and the Chocolate Factory through the end of Charlie's visit, then adds a further resolution. It is a separate adaptation from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971).
Producer Richard D. Zanuck said Burton asked John August to write directly from Dahl's book. One visible example is the Nut Room: Burton uses the book's squirrels, rather than the earlier movie's geese.
Dahl wrote another Charlie book
Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator continues the story after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It takes Charlie, Wonka and the family into space, including a visit to a space hotel.
The 2005 movie does not adapt that space adventure.
What changed from the book
The movie cuts four parents from the factory tour
In the book, Augustus, Violet, Veruca and Mike each bring both parents. The movie gives each child one accompanying parent. Charlie still brings Grandpa Joe.
August said a book can let a silent character fade from the reader's attention. A movie keeps that person visibly present, needing something to do. Cutting four adults kept the group smaller and the attention on Wonka and the children.
The choices also changed some of the families. Violet gets a competitive mother who encourages her ambitions. Mike gets a father who struggles to manage him, and his obsession expands from television to violent video games.
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Wonka's father gives the movie a new ending
Wonka's childhood with a dentist father is an invention of the movie. It gives his behavior a history that Dahl leaves unexplained, then gives Charlie a part in repairing that family relationship.
August said he and Burton wanted to connect two different kinds of wealth. Charlie has little money but a family around him; Wonka has the factory but no family life. The added ending lets Charlie gain the factory while Wonka reconnects with his father and finds a place with the Buckets.
About the book and the movie
- Author
- Roald Dahl
- Year
- 1964
- Pages
- 192Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 3 hr 18 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Douglas Hodge
Charlie Bucket lives with his parents and four grandparents in a house where food is scarce and chocolate is an occasional treat. Finding one of Willy Wonka's five golden tickets lets him and Grandpa Joe enter the factory he has long watched from outside. Inside, Charlie encounters inventions that seem impossible, while the other visiting children struggle to keep their appetites and demands in check.
- Director
- Tim Burton
- Writer
- Roald Dahl, John August
- Year
- 2005
- Runtime
- 1 hr 55 minWatch on Amazon
- Cast
- Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter
- Genre
- black comedy, Family, Fantasy, musical
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
Charlie Bucket lives with his family in a cramped house beside a chocolate factory that has shut out the world. A golden ticket brings him inside with Grandpa Joe and four other children, where Willy Wonka unveils edible landscapes and strange inventions. The tour becomes a series of tests, while the secretive owner struggles with ideas about family that Charlie takes for granted.
Other adaptations of this book
Charlie and the Chocolate FactoryWilly Wonka & the Chocolate Factory · Movie · 1971Details
- Director
- Mel Stuart
- Writer
- Roald Dahl, David Seltzer
- Year
- 1971
- Runtime
- 1 hr 40 min
- Cast
- Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum, Roy Kinnear
A worldwide search for golden tickets gives Charlie Bucket an unlikely chance to visit Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. Before the tour begins, a stranger offers money for one of Wonka's secret sweets, making the invitation more complicated for a boy whose family is desperately poor. Inside, Charlie and Grandpa Joe encounter a host whose wonderful inventions come with rules the visiting children struggle to follow.
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