SAlYAN posted... It's "closer" in the sense that it more closely follows the letter of the book, I guess. But its still woefully off base.
The Burton movie is dour, because he thrives off of eerie, weird things. Everything looks dark when it shouldn't. There's bizarre shit like the melting puppets. He Burton'd a story that didn't need Burton'd.
Wonka is all wrong; gene wilder is much closer to the book Wonka in personality. And he doesn't look like the lovechild of Michael Jackson and that Russian bitch in Indiana Jones 4.
The whole subplot with Wonka's dad is totally made up. As is charlie's refusal of Wonka's offer because wonka's an adult-hating manbaby.
When people say it "more accurately follows the book," they mean it on a superficial level. It's not a musical. Charlie's dad is alive and has a shit job. The golden geese are actually squirrels. There's no Slugworth subplot. They used the actual oompa loompa song lyrics.
I see. Maybe I'll give it a read after all.