Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Roald Dahl, of course.

Simply a classic. I think this should be taught in every grade school, as a book necessary to be read before the little tykes can graduate 5th grade.

No time to really go into it now, and although this is generally anathema to me, I can't help but read the book and think about both movies. While the new Tim Burton movie starring Johnny Depp follows the book almost word by word (until that woefully inadequate ending they tacked on), the original movie starring Gene Wilder indeed shows how a good book can be (with a little tweaking) be made into a great movie.

Points: the fizzy-soda burping Charlie/Granddad - only a sidenote in the book but transformed into the movie to make the major character foible and thus more well-rounded.

Points: the goose that laid the golden egg in the original movie were indeed a better twist and used much more effectively to authenticate the greed of Veruca Salt as opposed to simply wanting a squirrel, as used in the book.

Need to delve into this further at a later date, because it's a fascinating thought - how the screenplay evolved from the book, took its ideas, and made it a great movie. Side point to discuss whether if it was the screenwriter's idea or Gene Wilder's idea to evolve the Wonka character into the wonderfully mythic eternalchildscientist.

Again, these are notes for future discussions. Feel free to discuss them among yourselves and even post comments if you like.

VG