Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl

Still quickly running though childrens books and still avoiding Australian Lit.  Mainly i'm blaming Ebay and the seller who I bought off last week.  I really want to start with that book but it still hasn't arrived yet so it's obviously a sign that I should continue with childrens lit. 


Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is another of the books that I loved as a child so coming back to it as an adult was interesting.  I get that there are issues with the original publication and yeah it's racist and wrong to be talking about the Oompa Loompas as African Pygmies being paid in Cocao beans but since the re-release with Quentin Bryce's new illustrations I kinda forgot all about that.  Wrong of me I know but it didn't occur till I checked Wikipedia because I was sure I remembered Charlie tasting a sweet that wasn't in my book (turns out it's from the movie). 

This one is really different to both Alice and Wizard because I have no emotional connection to the movie.  I saw the Gene Wilder version growing up but I didn't love.  I really enjoyed the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp version but that was more because I am a fan of both Burton and Depp but the book has always been foremost in my mind.

Is it a great book?  Probably not but it is fun and enjoyable and the Buckets are sweet and the greedy kids getting their comeuppance is well timed and perfectly mean and Willy himself is crazy as a loon but I really do wish there were more like him in the world.  And yeah I still love the Oompa Loompa songs. 

I'm thinking that once i've done the books I might have to do a re-watch of all the movies as well just to see how different they seem to me now.

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