A brief conversation with my new nieces, one of whom seems to be a better judge of character than I am.
Lauren (age 7): We didn’t like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Me: Why?
Sophia: It was scary.
Me: How was it scary?
Sophia: I don’t know, it had real people.
Me: That makes it scary?
Lauren: Well, it had real people, and that’s scarier than cartoons, but it’s also like, when they were talking? They sounded mean, but the words they were saying were nice. So that was too scary.
kids are wicked smart.
Sounds like another version of the Nasty-nice. When you say something nice, but there is mean underlying message. scary indeed……
ha. yeah, the new charlie and the chocolate factory was kind of sinister. i didn’t like it either.
worlds apart from the gene wilder version, if only because gene’s a lot more subtle than depp, who does creepy better than he does eccentric.
roald dahl’s wife thought it was closer to the book, apparently.
it was much closer to the book, which is incredibly creepy – kids vanish (and presumably die) inside this factory while Willy Wonka laughs? this is not unlike most “fairy tales” – Disney took all the creepiness out of such horrid tales as Cinderella (in the original the stepsisters mutilate their feet trying to fit into the glass slipper), and so we no longer expect the evil to be so evil. i, however, liked it. scary – as it was meant to be, and i thought including the parts about the history of mr. wonka to add a great depth.
My son and I still occasionally look at each other and say “Come on little babies. I can take you.” Other words of wisdom from Mighty Girl.
i read that johnny depp based his speaking mannerism on mr. rogers…who scared alot of people…
This was often how I felt about my mother in law. She sounded nice but what she was saying was mean.
So I guess the opposite of what sophia was saying.
Never mind.
Real people are scarier than cartoons.
hehehe…
I think that they are smart. “They sounded mean, but the words they were saying were nice.”
It will be hard to fool them. I guess that’s a good thing.
I can’t stop on being amazed by how sharp and smart kids are nowadays.
=)
He was trying to imitate Mr. Rogers? I didn’t get that at all. More like an uber-animated Michael Jackson…who scares a lot of people.
I thought it was weird too how they even tried to make the new kids look like the old kids. I mean, neat I guess, but why even bother to make a new movie?
I dont know why but this reminded me of a friend’s domestic helper, a native Sri Lankan who was just learning English phrases. Everytime she served dinner for the kids, she would yell, ” Come on. Eat the Children.”
Your posts about the kids remind me of the TV show, “Child’s Play”. Kids say the smartest and most honest things.
Amy, I think the “and presumably die” in your comment is not quite accurate.
The penultimate chapter (entitled “The Other Children Go Home”) has Charlie and Mr. Wonka see them all leaving the factory. They all bear the (presumably permanent, except in the case of Veruca Salt) marks of their misadventures, but they’re all very much alive.
Kids are so perceptive!
From what I hear and read, this recent version of the film is supposed truer to the book.
And she’s right. It was creepy! ARRGGHH!