August 11, 2005

Everlasting gobstopper

I watched the original Wonka movie as a kid over and over again with a mix of fascination and terror. In the fizzy lifting drinks scene, poor Charlie and gramps are nearly scissored to death by a ventilation fan. Augustus Gloop finds himself blocked in the (scatalogical--think about it) chocolate pipes. The movie was swept along by this wonderful tension between unmitigated childhood desire and sadistic justice. The pleasures of horrification are tough to recapture in adulthood, which is why, I would guess, not a lot of grown-ups I talk to are huge fans of the Burton version.



Check out the Wonka kids today. Charlie is "an even gayer Ned Flanders" a dairy veterinarian living in upstate New York. By odd coincidence, three of the others are now accountants. (Via Boing Boing).

posted by Charlotte at 8:51 AM | permalink | email it |