Some movies hold their value over decades and 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is one of them. The movie is supposed to be for kids, but I found myself going back to it more as an adult. There were themes there that I can appreciate more now than I could then. Even so, as a kid, it was a fun, albeit frightening spectacle to behold.

A lot of that was chalked up to the incredible performance of Gene Wilder as the eccentric yet brilliant candy-maker Willy Wonka. Wilder managed to bring a quality to the character that was equal part comedic, warm, and terrifying. He managed to make children in peril seem like a dark comedic consequence of their parent’s inactions and spoiling of the child. It was great social commentary and frankly, one that’s severely lacking nowadays.

They tried to recreate this in 2005 with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp playing the sadistic chocolatier, and while it had its qualities and was technically more faithful to Roald Dahl’s book, it didn’t hit with the same punch as the 1971 version did. While Depp’s Wonka was also eccentric and comedically dark, he seemed rather bumbling and awkward. Wilder’s Wonka seemed far more in control and had his machinations well planned in advance. Wilder’s Wonka was a villain, but you learn by the end that he’s only a villain to bad seeds.

Perhaps that’s a matter of preference, but my preference for Wilder’s Wonka brings me, sadly, to the upcoming Wonka. Judging by some of the art style and character designs, 2023’s WONKA, starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, is based on Wilder’s version of the character. The film, coming this Christmas, looks to be a prequel to the 1971 film and looks to be the story of how Wonka got his start. The trailer makes several references to the 1971 film, including music and the look of the Oompa Loompa.

So far all we have is a trailer giving us a taste of Chalamet’s Wonka and if I’m being honest, I’m not at all pleased with what I see. Have a look for yourself before we continue.

Judging by what we’re being shown, this Wonka maintains the eccentricity and inventiveness that the chocolatier is famous for…and that’s about it. Perhaps a nod could be given to the consumer design, but that’s hardly my focus. My kid could dress up as Jack Sparrow, but it wouldn’t make him Jack Sparrow.

Given what we get in the trailer, Chalamet looks as if he’s trying to split the difference between Wilder’s Wonka and Depp’s Wonka and it’s just not working. Both of those actors played the same character but in two different ways. Wilder’s Wonka was a confident madman who almost comes off as a Bond villain. Depp’s Wonka was an eccentric dreamer plagued with insecurities who needed the guidance of innocent youth to complete a character arc. These characters worked for the style and feel of their movies, but they are oil and water. They don’t mix together, yet I see both characters pushed together by Chalamet.

But Chalamet’s attempt at marrying two different Wonkas is hardly my main gripe, it’s that he married them while seemingly leaving out some of Wonka’s most important traits. This Wonka…isn’t Wonka. The 2023 Wonka looks to be hopeful, kind-hearted, and full of dreams and determination. None of these are necessarily bad qualities, but when you mix these ingredients together, you don’t get Wonka, you get Maria from The Sound of Music or Flik from A Bug’s Life.

Both Depp’s and Wilder’s Wonkas might have been vastly different in portrayal but both were devious, conniving, and borderline sociopathic. Almost every child that entered his factory came close to dying and was left permanently scarred in some way and Wonka’s reaction to them all was indifference. In some cases, he waited to help only when the parent begged for his intervention. Wonka might have been a character from a child’s book but he was darker than a German fairy tale underneath it all.

I’m getting none of this from Chalamet’s Wonka and I really feel like I should.

You may be saying “But Brandon, this is a younger Wonka. He needs to go through the necessary motions to leave behind his youthful rose-tinted glasses and boundless enthusiasm in order to get to the Wonka you know.”

Yeah, maybe, but in Wonka’s case, that kind of soft maliciousness comes stock because it makes up such a huge portion of who he is. His genius-tinted darkness is what makes Wonka Wonka. The 2023 film is looking to take all the wonder and whimsy of the Wonka story and leave behind everything that makes the story of the chocolate factory what it is; a dark comedy about people getting what they deserve, and delivering a message about not being a useless jackass.

I realize we only have a trailer to take all this from and perhaps the villains of the story, the chocolate cartel, will be outsmarted in Wonka’s trademark way, but this trailer gives us no indication that this will happen. It’s advertising that Wonka is going to win people over with his quirky imagination and can-do attitude. The feeling this film is giving off is less Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and more “Mary Poppins and the Chocolate Factory.”

Any writer worth his or her salt would understand that, so my question is why they’re going this route. I’m sick of this word in the modern era, but it’s appropriate here. They’re reimagining Wonka.

It’s like they didn’t want to give kids the Wonka we all know in the modern era. Judging by what I can see, they want a softer, kinder, happier Wonka, and I just think that’s wrong. Wonka isn’t a hero, he’s an anti-hero and one of the best in children’s literature. He exhibits the trope to the very definition.

It should be okay for the main character to be a little bit frightening and a bit dangerous. It’s what gave the Wonka story its flavor. That touch of darkness was also the delivery system through which a virtuous message was delivered to kids. This play-it-safe attitude from the entertainment industry has made too many movies absolutely flavorless. Full of spectacle but ultimately hollow. This can be seen with almost every modern Disney live-action remake. They’ve been stripped of anything considered distasteful by modern standards and have been reimagined for modern audiences.

(READ: The Lie of the “Modern Audience”)

I fear the same thing is happening here. They’re de-fanging Wonka in order to give us something colorful but venomless. It’s a sterilized version of Wonka.

It looks boring.

There is a virtue to the anti-hero. It demonstrates thinking that goes off the beaten path and helps those who might not inhabit the traits that typify goodness understand that they can still be the good guy. Sometimes it takes a little bit of a darker edge to win the day or get the message across. Wonka was a great introduction to that concept, but now it seems they’ve neutered the man.

I hope I’m wrong and the trailer is very misleading, but I doubt it. Luckily we’ve still got Wilder’s Wonka.

If you agree or disagree with my assessment, let me know. Moreover, if you liked this article, consider joining the VIP program here at RedState. Right now you can get 50% off your monthly subscription by using the promo code “WITCHHUNT,” and get tons of articles, podcasts, and videos you don’t get as a non-subscriber. Join up today!