Still feeling funny, but I need to do some sort of project.

I just found out from a friend on the radio that it was Roald Dahl’s 110th birthday today.  Im currently reading some of his books for this review.  So im trying to get as much as I can today and get something published today. 

(I can always do some edits later to fix huge mistakes later on)  

 I just reviewed Stuart Little. I was still feeling nostalgic. I had a look at my libraries; I noticed some films, and I happened to have those books. 

I decided to group them all in one blog.   These films are part of my childhood, and I want to see how they compare to their book.  

Charlie (Willy Wonka) and the Chocolate Factory

(Sorry if the first one is kinda messy! I tried to do better reviews with the other two!)

I just rewatched both films, and I enjoyed the first one, and I personally don’t like the 2nd one. 

I’m just curious what the books are like, and years ago,  I managed to get the ‘old 2018’ version (before the changes).

I am not gonna lie, but I had this expectation because I LOVE one of the movies, and the book is totally different from it.  That’s what happened with my experience with The Wind in the Willows and Stuart Little. 

I started reading, and I was surprised that the movie was incredibly faithful to the book. 

Do I really need a story summary of this story? 

……

Charlie is a poor boy who lives in a tiny house with his mother, father, and four very old grandparents. One day, the famous chocolate maker, Willy Wonka, reopens his chocolate factory and sends out 5 golden tickets for 5 lucky people for a tour around the factory. 

The only thing is both movies added an extra subplot ( a creepy rival trying to get an everlasting gobstopper or Wonka’s ‘daddy’s trouble’ (for some reason)); there are a couple of tiny little details. Eg; golden geese instead of squirrels, a broken animatronics concert?? That one confuses me!) 

The only thing I can think of is to increase the movie’s run time.

Ummm, reading the book I realised Grumpa Joe is in his 90s!

      It is also nice to read that Charlie acts like a normal kid in the books. He’s not perfect and makes a couple of….. selfish choices – he finds some loose coins, I think 50p? And instead of giving it to his parents, he buys himself a chocolate bar and scoffs it down, then buys a 2nd bar.

Ummm, I also love that when you meet up with Mr Wonka for the first time. I love how you can never be sure if he’s completely insane or someone with a childish passion for chocolate. 

      ( I do have a theory, properly not an original one, but it makes sense to me!   Let me know if I should add it here if you want to read it! ) 

Ooh, I just remembered!!  

A perfect example is the poem/song on the boat!! Can ANYONE tell me what that scene means? It’s almost unnecessarily unsettling! 

Haha, I can’t think of anything else.  (This is not really a review) I just love the story; it has a nice theme and wholesome vibe. 

I guess on to the next movie/book.

Matilda

Quick summary:  

“ …….Matilda, a super-smart little girl who’s woefully misunderstood by her parents, brother and an evil school principal. But with the help of a brave best friend and a wonderful teacher, Matilda discovers she doesn’t have to get mad to get even. ”

Matilda is often left at home by herself, and she takes care of herself, unlike the rest of the family and very quickly learns to take care of herself. She develops a love of reading, takes herself to the library, and reads every day.  

One evening, during family TV time, being forced to watch TV, the TV blows up.  Then she learns that she had ‘powers’. Moving objects with her mind ( kinda reminds me of other films: StarWars/XMen/The Shining)

At the age of 6? She FINALLY gets to go to school.  Matilda is so happy to go to school and make friends.  However, she sees her new principal, who is just as bad as her family or even worse.

She is happy to meet a new teacher, Miss Honey, the most wonderful, best teacher. At times, she’s the only one who tries to help her understand that life can be filled with positivity.   She supports her and helps her as much as she can.

OMG I love this movie! 

This time, while I was watching the movie, certain quotes stood out to me. 

These are some of my favourite quotes from the movie:

I just realised the first 3 points happen in the same 5mins of film! 

1. 

“ These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message – you’re not alone ”. 

The scene of her watching the kids play, then she’s sitting by the tree reading her book by herself.  That broke me! 

2. 

“You a liar” ( both parents repeat this over and over) &  “ you know sometimes  I think that something wrong with that girl”  

 * Talking about her behind her back * 

 Just seeing Matilda’s face about to cry, then her brother ‘bullies’ her by throwing food at her…….

You see Matilda’s tears falling on the page of her book,

3. 

“ Sometimes Matilda long for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous, people in her books, it occurred to her like talking dragons…..  such people might exist only in story books. ”

These 3 points during my rewatch absolutely DESTROYED me. 

The next two points I definitely heard before:

4. 

“ You make money?  You have a job?

Listen, you little wise ———

I’m smart, you dumb 

I’m big, you little 

I’m right, you wrong

And 

There’s nothing you can do about it ”

 Miss Trunchbull basically repeats this in the classroom!

5. 

“ I want respect, I want it now 

For now on, this family does exactly what I say exactly when I say it ….” 

The next one is Miss Honey talking to Matilda:

6. 

“ You were born into a family that doesn’t always appreciate you – but one day things will be very different ”

Maybe not that direct quote, but I don’t know,

 I wish that I had someone supportive who would say something this encouraging when I was at the lowest point in my life. Even back in my school days (I had 2-3 REALLY bad days when I needed someone like Miss Honey to help me go through the emotions). 

Or even today, it is SO TOUGH that I have to go through everything alone (no family/friends).  Or even when something positive happens, I have no one to celebrate with.  Which kinda spoils that moment. 

I’m just reading the book for the first time.

The movie is mostly the same as the book; I think the only big difference is how it describes what happens when Matilda uses her powers.  The first time was kinda eerie!!

Oh, and Miss Trunchbull is even worse in the book!  She held a kid up by his hair and another kid by his ears!

This was so good to revisit!  I love this book/movie. 

 A tiny bit more in the film, there are more emotional quotes/moments where the story slows down to maximise the emotional/loneliness sink in!     

On to the last book….. 

James and the Giant Peach

Movie :

I can’t tell you why, but this movie terrified me as a kid!

When I watch it now as an ‘adult’ it still creeps me out!

And I’m not 100% sure why. There are definitely more creepy kids’ films out there, but this one stands out to me. 

I think the first thing that stands out to me is that it……(how can I say this)……. Umm, it doesn’t make sense to me.  And I know ‘It’s a kids’ story is not meant to make sense’.  Now stay with me to explain.  The opening scene is James with both his father and mother at a bench, celebrating James’ birthday.  Everything feels lovely and like a nice family moment; however, out of nowhere, a rhinoceros storm cloud eats up James’ parents. 

HAHA WHAT! 

Now James lives with his aunts:  Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, who are the worst! They definitely mistreat James and force him to do EVERYTHING around the house while they do nothing but sit around doing nothing.  

During his break, James sits by some rocks by himself, minding his business, wishing he could escape his aunt’s house and travel to New York City. 

Everything that happens, I can’t tell what is happening ?happened? Or if it’s all in James’ head…. Because, 

 then a strange man, just called The Old Man, tells James the city is closer than he thinks.  And gave him the same magic ‘worms’ (im not 100% sure myself what they are.)

 One of them goes into a peach, and it grows and grows and grows……

Into a HUGE giant peach. 

  James accidentally eats one, and somehow he enters the peach (turns into a cartoon), and then he meets up with the other characters. 

1. Mr. Centipede 
2. Miss Spider
3. Old-Green-Grasshopper
4. The Earthworm
5.  The Ladybug (Ladybird)
6. The Glow-worm

Then the giant peach rolls off, with the new crew inside, off to the sea, and the journey begins. 

What happens next makes me think it can’t be real: 

• There’s a robot shark. 
• James, Spider and Centipede can breathe underwater and the ?Figurehead? (The statues at the front of the ship) are carvings of Sponge and Spiker. 
• THE WHOLE TRIP ITSELF!  And the fact that everyone just accepts James’s word at the end with 0 questions.

Im sure there’s more, but I can’t think right now! 

(I know it’s a kids’ story and is meant to not make sense, but look at the chocolate factory; that idea is so over the top and yet kinda believable in that story.)

Ok, I can’t think of anything else; time to read the book:

I didn’t realise the book was first published in 1961, which explains some of the language in this ‘children’s book’.

The first thing I realise is that, at the beginning, everything is less fantasy than in the movie. I like the first page where it says  

• “Mum and Dad took a trip to London and then got eaten up by an angry rhinoceros. A REAL rhinoceros! 

Even when they landed in the water and sharks came by to have a meal of the Peach. Real sharks…. But then the down little damage to the Peach 

That was until chapter 27.  Where the story introduces the ‘Cloud- Man’ up in the clouds, digging up rocks and snow to make hailstones, which Centipede managed to get their attention, and they started throwing stones and causing damage to the peach.

Also, the same Cloud-Man was ‘making’ a rainbow??

(I got too honest; I get so confused at this point)

Being such an old book written in the 60s, there’s no sense of danger that a random old man shows up and offers magic worms to James and tells him to use these to ‘escape this horrible place’ or something?? I forgot what he said now?……

………  Now I’m thinking about how there was no idea James had to go to New York in the book. He just climbed in the peach and left his aunt’s horrible house.

I like the book;

 However, I prefer the story plot of the movie more. 

That’s the review done. 

Before I finish the blog, I was just wondering if anyone finds it interesting?  Talking more about Matilda and James’ stories.  

Why is it that I find these characters relatable, if only just for a little bit?

(I would also put Harry Potter, very similar to Matilda’s family situation)  

I understand that these stories take a bad situation and dial everything up to 100%.  And yet I feel such… strong emotions about what these characters are going through.

 The anger, sadness, tears, the loneliness, the desire to escape the house (but unable to for whatever reason. 

 Every time AGU 31 comes by, I would also hope for my Hogwarts Letter to drop in my letter box, and I would be on the train to go to school for most of the year, far away from my home life.

This is why I think that Matilda rewatch hit me in the feels. With quotes like these

1. “ These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message – you’re not alone ”. 

2. “ Sometimes Matilda longs for a friend, someone like the kind, courageous, people in her books, it occurred to her, like talking dragons…..  such people might exist only in storybooks. ”

Those hit me in the feels so much harder now because today I use movies and books to escape the boring, complete silence and loneliness I call life nowadays. 

Ha, sorry for such a downer ending, but I have to express my feelings somewhere.  That’s probably why I like most stories that follow the ‘hero’s journey’ format. For at least a couple of hours, I can absorb myself into the hero and escape. Then im back to reality, and I have to start another book/oview and the whole experience starts again. 

Is there anyone else who feels the same, or just me slowly going through insanity?