As a dad, I try and hold my opinions in on many subjects, especially what books, tv shows and or movies my kids watch. Some of the shows my kids watch are just awful and annoying like the Upside Down show and the Fresh Beat Band. Others I think are brilliant like Yo Gabba Gabba and Sesame street. But I try not to influence my kids on what to watch and more importantly, what to like or dislike.

One book I loved as a kid was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl . Being that my kids are only 2.5 and almost 4, it’s hard for me to read this book with them just yet–but luckily we have the movie versions.

So I tried a little experiment to see what my kids liked better, the 70’s version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder or the recent version directed by Tim Burton starring Johnny Depp. AND I got some surprising results.

Last Saturday night we watched the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory which my oldest has seen in bits and pieces before but never in it’s entirety. SHE LOVED IT! She was asking me to watch it again and again. My little one loved it too but was not as engaged as my oldest daughter.

Then on Sunday I showed them the newest Charlie and the Chocolate Factory version starring Johnny Depp. They both loved this one too.

However, my oldest daughter was really unnerved by Tim Burton’s Oompah-Loompahs. She hated the fact that they all looked the same. She also didn’t like their voices. She kept calling them Alvin and the Chipmunk voices. But visually she was hooked. She loved MikeTV all flat and tall walking out at the end. Visually my daughters loved this movie and my oldest kept asking me questions like why does this look different than the other one. It was kind of exhausting. My kids definitely like the songs better in the original but this is still a very cool movie for your kids because it’s so visually stunning.

All in all I think when I pitted these two versions against each other, it ended being that the original Willy Wonka was victorious. I think the pacing in the original version was a big factor. It moves a little slow for me because of the musical numbers but that is what my kids really liked. They also preferred the singing of the original Oompah-Loompahs, and their deeper voices. But either way, whichever Willy Wonka you show your kids, they’ll love it. Willy Wonka is a great movie for your kids! Either one!

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