Wonka (Paul King, 2023)

A subforum to discuss film culture and criticism.
Post Reply
Message
Author

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#2 Post by knives » Mon May 24, 2021 3:08 pm

Tim Burton already did this in like five minutes.

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#3 Post by beamish14 » Mon May 24, 2021 3:26 pm


Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl's heirs have had a long-running feud regarding which can inflict the most damage to their intellectual properties

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#4 Post by swo17 » Mon May 24, 2021 3:32 pm

Why hasn't anyone adapted The Great Glass Elevator?

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#5 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon May 24, 2021 3:39 pm

swo17 wrote:
Mon May 24, 2021 3:32 pm
Why hasn't anyone adapted The Great Glass Elevator?
I don't know, but I think it's the superior book and one of Dahl's best and would love to see it. Probably not safe for covid protocols right now tho

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#6 Post by beamish14 » Mon May 24, 2021 3:39 pm

swo17 wrote:
Mon May 24, 2021 3:32 pm
Why hasn't anyone adapted The Great Glass Elevator?

Good question. Burton's film wouldn't really segue into it, but Mel Stuart's could have. I thought that Dahl's autobiographies Boy/Going Solo were becoming films, but maybe that was called off due to more intense scrutiny regarding his antisemitic and racist beliefs.

User avatar
soundchaser
Leave Her to Beaver
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2016 12:32 am

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#7 Post by soundchaser » Mon May 24, 2021 3:40 pm

As I understood it (although the sourcing on this isn’t as solid as I thought), Dahl hated the 1971 adaptation and refused to sell the rights for Great Glass Elevator as a result. I also don’t know how well the plot (such as it can be said to have one) would translate as well as Chocolate Factory.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#8 Post by hearthesilence » Mon May 24, 2021 4:19 pm

beamish14 wrote:
Mon May 24, 2021 3:26 pm
Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl's heirs have had a long-running feud regarding which can inflict the most damage to their intellectual properties
I actually like Burton's stranger and nastier Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The bits with Wonka's father got backlash from fans of the book and the Disney movie, but I actually like those parts too - if you strip away the fantastic elements, it's very close to an autobiographical depiction of Burton's relationship with his own parents, from childhood into fame.

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#9 Post by beamish14 » Mon May 24, 2021 4:40 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Mon May 24, 2021 4:19 pm
beamish14 wrote:
Mon May 24, 2021 3:26 pm
Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl's heirs have had a long-running feud regarding which can inflict the most damage to their intellectual properties
I actually like Burton's stranger and nastier Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The bits with Wonka's father got backlash from fans of the book and the Disney movie, but I actually like those parts too - if you strip away the fantastic elements, it's very close to an autobiographical depiction of Burton's relationship with his own parents, from childhood into fame.


Oh, I like many facets of Burton's film, particularly the film-hopping scene with Mike Teavee and Wonka's "flashbacks". The film does have a weird anti-video game message to it, though. I thought Big Fish was also pretty autobiographical, as his desire to take it on was spurned by their passings.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#10 Post by knives » Mon May 24, 2021 5:44 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Mon May 24, 2021 4:19 pm
beamish14 wrote:
Mon May 24, 2021 3:26 pm
Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl's heirs have had a long-running feud regarding which can inflict the most damage to their intellectual properties
I actually like Burton's stranger and nastier Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The bits with Wonka's father got backlash from fans of the book and the Disney movie, but I actually like those parts too - if you strip away the fantastic elements, it's very close to an autobiographical depiction of Burton's relationship with his own parents, from childhood into fame.
It’s not a Disney film believe it or not.

User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#11 Post by hearthesilence » Mon May 24, 2021 7:17 pm

Ahhhhh, I keep making that mistake.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: New Films in Production, v.2

#12 Post by swo17 » Mon May 24, 2021 7:38 pm

It's an easy mistake to make since his three other PG remakes were for Disney

User avatar
jazzo
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 12:02 am

Re: Paddington 1 & 2 (Paul King, 2014/2018)

#13 Post by jazzo » Mon Dec 18, 2023 12:20 pm

After enjoying his work on the two Paddingtons and The Mighty Boosh, when I and my kids were offered tickets to an advance screening of Paul King's Wonka, I accepted with optimistic trepidation that it wasn't going to be anywhere near as bad as the trailers made it out to be.

I was wrong. This is the cynical, corporate cinema of IP, no different than any of the Marvel or Star Wars films or most of Pixar sequels. It exists only to sell tickets and no other reason, and the genuine whimsy King was able flood the Paddingtons with is completely absent in this new picture.

Its design, which I assumed would be its strongest attribute, was unimaginative and rote in the worst Burtonesque way. Only a single new song had any spark to it. The design and integration of
SpoilerShow
Hugh Grant
into the film as an Oompa-Loompa was, quite honestly, repulsive because all the scale of it and colour choices seemed so wrong in so many ways. The whole time I was in the theatre, I was experiencing a great deal of empathy for all of those multi-millionaire actors who must have gone through a rash of self-loathing having had to deliver the lines they were given.

There's not a second you believe anything onscreen, never mind that the characters exist in the world they're existing in. The only real time Wonka comes alive is through the performances of Timothée Swiss Chalet (as I like to think of him), who tries his damndest to do something with the nothing he was handed, and Sally Hawkins. Otherwise, I despised almost every phony, soul-less second of it.

Post Reply