by Ana-Maria Comanescu

Created on: April 06, 2009

Between Gene Wilder's portrayal of Willy Wonka and Johnny Depp's, I would definetly choose the Depp version.

First of all, I don't think the two films can really be compared, seeing that the first one (''Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory'', 1971, starring Gene Wilder) is strictly a children's movie, while the second (''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'', 2005, starring Johnny Depp) explores beyond the bright and sweet facade of the script, getting closer to the Roald Dahl book. The two actors' approach to the characters is clearly different and that is what makes it so hard for viewers to compare.

Gene Wilder's Wonka is portrayed with a naive quirkiness. The man is an eccentric chocolateer who is insanely fond of his factory. The character does not reveal any of the darkness that comes from the book. Personally, I find this to be quite a shame, because the framing of the story is colourful enough as to allow a more profound point of view (the songs, the factory's design, not to mention the Oompa Loompas who look positively frightening, despite the intention). Willy Wonka certainly does not represent a bad performance, but Wilder fully ignores other levels of character interpretation. He doesn't see Wonka's quirkiness as perverted; it's just something that makes him a little more special than any random candyman.

Johnny Depp's Wonka is what I can recognise to be Dahl's Wonka. Roald Dahl is known for writing books on subjects that appear to be for children, but if you search for other levels of interpretation, they are actually twisted and very dark in content.Tim Burton's vision is not only very close to this one, but moreover, it emphasizes this darkness in a specific way. Depp plays the part according to this vision, and it seems to work better than Wilder's. His Wonka is sick in an adorable way, from the way his eyes glisten when he sees his chocolate, to his manic laughter after the puppet-burning show. The main change would be in the including of the chocolateer's father in the plotline as a way of showing a more human side of him, but that still doesn't change the pace of the film (we can still hear the unnerving squeaking of Wonka's rubber gloves as he hugs his father in what could have become the film's cheesiest scene).

All in all, my pick is the Johnny Depp portrayal of Willy Wonka, as it gets close enough to the character approach in the book and it's just plain fun ("Good morning, Starshine! The Earth says hello!").

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