Personal Beef -- Old vs New

Once again another installment of Out the Box Commentaries. This time focusing on Nostalgia Critic segment Old vs New. Admittedly, this is not my favorite segment of his, mostly because my opinion differs from his own, but hey, he isn't telling us what is good or what is bad, but rather giving his own opinion and explaining why he feels that way about a particular movie.

I am okay with the previous segments chronicling Batman (1989) vs the Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings (1970s) vs Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings one is probably my favorite one and not because he picked Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, but it is the one I most agree on with a few small differences in my opinion. The Batman one was alright, even though I have yet to see the original Batman and make a fair judgment of which is the better of the two or equal.

However, one personal beef in particular lies with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) vs Charlie and the Factory (2005). While I will agree with some of his comments about the recent one, I personally believe both are those type of films where the jury is divided. You have one group that will adore the original (the Critic), one that is neutral and accepting of both (me), and the other that think the recent is good to fantastic (ThatFellowintheCoat). But really, I believe the core problem with this Old vs New segment lies in that fact that I feel there was a greater bias towards the original without looking at it objectively. For example, I said before I agree with criticism about Charlie in the recent incarnation, but to be fair it's not a hundred percent of the actor's fault with the portrayal of the character. It's just the way the character was written in the script and a majority of the time, the blame can lie in the direction of the director, the screenwriter, and/or the actor in general. It's tough to say for sure.

Another beef is the songs. Let's be fair on this--there are some people out there who actually hate the songs in the original as there are some who hate the songs in the recent adaptation. It lies more with personal preference in what one would find charming and acceptable. For instance, the Willy Wonka song in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I actually don't mind the song itself, but I can understand how it can become annoying fast. But then again, I've heard far more annoying songs in the past and felt (and still feeling) that song is the least of it. In my opinion, it's along the similar vain as It's A Small World Afterall. Good for the first few times, tiresome so after.

While I cannot make a fair assessment on Willy Wonka as a character as I have yet to read the book, I can tell you that both actors playing him I feel bring their own spin on the character, whether sucessfully or not. Some people feel Johnny Depp's rendition was the best, others feel Gene Wilder's portrayal was the best. I consider these both extremes that can be interpretted in different ways, though it mostly depends on the person and their feelings about them again.

Lastly, one of my beefs is the mention that both deviate from their source material. While that is true, the recent one felt a little more closer to the book despite Tim Burton's additions. And before you ask, I did a quick Wikipedia search to find out as well as skim the book to find out. Whereas the original almost greatly deviated from the book. In fact, it's been said on multiple sources that the book's author Roald Dahl hated the way they changed his original script (which he wrote, but later a ghostwriter came in and made all the changes). So much so that he refused to even see the film. His wife would later claim if he was still alive, he would have greatly appreciated the recent incarnation. We may never know, but its interesting trivia.

Bottom line, we shouldn't take the Old vs New at face value as the segment is just the opinion of one person. Personally, the segment is good for voicing one person's opinion. But with that opinion comes a personal bias, which can be good or bad depending upon how well its managed. Same thing applies to Old vs. New. Whether you agree with said opinion or not, that's your business. After all, we can't agree on everything. We are not mindless followers, we have our own personal tastes and thoughts and shouldn't follow suit with anyone, even if they're popular.