#LitLove [2] Roald Dahl: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The #LitLove series is a bimonthly collaborative blog event with Topaz, AnQi, Christina, Taylor, (nicknamed ATTAC by Christina) wherein we each express our literary love for different books under the same overarching theme/topic/author. For a more detailed backstory, take a look at the first #LitLove post. This round of #LitLove is reserved for Roald Dahl.

Graphic by Christina. Isn't it gorgeous?

I'm doing one of his most popular works: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In case you haven't read it, (side note: where is your childhood?) it's about how Charlie, a poor downtrodden kid with a loving family wins a chance to visit an mysterious chocolate factory owned by a mysterious Willy Wonka. Accompanying him are four brats whose names I don't remember. I do remember their miserable endings, though. Whoops, spoiler!

In classic middle-grade book style, the bratty kids all get their comeuppance. This, by the way, is a good thing, because you will hate those annoying brats so damn much. Roald Dahl masterfully builds up your hatred for them and makes you cheer when they meet their deserved end — or do they?

One of my favourite things about Roald Dahl is that the villain's fate is grisly or at least quite horrifying. Here, all the other four kids are just that: kids (if rather whiny). And yet they're 1) sucked into the pipes, 2) turned into a giant blueberry, 3) thrown into more pipes by squirrels, and 4) shrunk down to a tiny size. It's this chilling, disproportionate retribution that really defines Roald Dahl. And it's why to this day, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory still has a special place in my mind.

I know. I'm wacko.

The movie adaptation

One of the reasons I did this for #LitLove is that I wanted an excuse to watch the movie. I know there are like thousands of adaptations, but I wanted to watch a very specific one: the one with Christopher Lee. I didn't really like Tim Burton's remake of Alice in Wonderland, but I decided to try it anyways.

And, you know, it sort of ended up like Alice in Wonderland. Obligatory Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter appearances. Like ... it didn't have the dark feel. Also: backstory. (But since backstory means Sir Christopher Lee, whatever.) Bottom line: if Honest Trailers or Cinema Sins got their hands on this, you wouldn't want to watch it. And the Roald Dahl feeling didn't translate well. But it's quite entertaining. (Plus, Sir Christopher Lee.)

Bonus: Lamb to the Slaughter

Random review of one of Roald Dahl's more insane short stories! It's about how a detective's wife kills him and tries to escape the blame. It's ridiculously funny and ridiculously gruesome at the same time, in the vein of Roald Dahl's other works. Basically my reaction was just "oh." and then "Ohhhh." and then "What the heck" and then "What the heck?? This is awesome!" and then "I know. I'm wacko." It's a very classic crime fiction-y short, and one of my all-time favs. If you love his MG novels, you'll love this too.

All right, that's enough from me! What was your favourite part of Chocolate Factory? Did you like the Tim Burton adaptation? And have you read any of Roald Dahl's shorts? Let us know in the comments, and don't forget to check out everyone else's #litlove posts:

Topaz Winters: Danny the Champion of the World
AnQi Yu: The Witches
Christina Im: Matilda
Taylor Lynn: The BFG

Love Roald Dahl? Click below to tweet about this post:

• Much #LitLove for Roald Dahl: morbid childhood memories via @AlyssaC_HK.
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: @AlyssaC_HK's childhood fav due to grisly fate of the baddies.