Have Roald Dahl adaptations had any better decade than the ’90s?
Collective critical and viewer assessments, along with formal accolades, say the era’s output had the quality to nourish an as-yet unsurpassed quantity.
Coming off a second screenplay of The Witches in October, Roald Dahl’s estate is again the center of anticipation. Days’ worth of trending talks followed Tuesday’s announcement of a Wonka prequel targeting a 2023 release for St. Patrick’s Day.
In terms of movies, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory shall again double up on The Witches and The BFG as the most adapted entry in Dahl’s bibliography. One may argue the Wonka franchise keeps trying to outdo itself a half-century after its first movie. Tuesday’s news also mentioned a budding TV series on top of what will soon be four films — one apiece from the 1970s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s.
This is not to say the Willy Wonka-Charlie Bucket saga is conspicuous by its absence in the ’90s vault. Yes, the real-life Wonka candy company kept drawing attention with its ever-evolving TV commercial campaigns. But Dahl-inspired movies subsisted well enough without a fix of sweets stories.
Beginning in 1990 with the first Witches movie, the final adaptation within the novelist’s lifetime, the decade yielded four films. Only the 2010s match that quantity, and the keenest of critics assert no other era equals the collective quality — Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory shelf life aside.
So take a breather from the cluster of confectionary chatter and delve into this space for a breakdown of the ’90s Dahl movies’ individual and shared radiance. (Advanced hat-tips to Rotten Tomatoes and the Internet Movie Database.)
In the wake of The Witches 2.0, whose scores are still taking shape on aggregators, ScreenRant’s Joe Gillis ranked all 15 adaptations. Four Rooms (1995) bottomed its decade’s subset, checking in at No. 11 overall. James and the Giant Peach (1996) finished sixth, the first Witches claimed fourth place, and Gillis bestowed bronze on Matilda (1996).
For what that one reviewer’s opinion is worth, the ’90s accounted for an unmatched three of the top 10, and that troika constitutes half of the top six. But Gillis’ ratio is hardly an anomaly. It continues a recent pattern from other critics on other prominent websites, such as TheWrap and Entertainment Weekly. Before some other releases, the latter had a narrower list of seven, with three ’90s movies among the top five and Matilda at No. 1.
Rotten Tomatoes has five Dahl-based movies scoring 90 percent or higher from its collection of professional critics. Matilda is tied for fourth on that leaderboard with 1971’s Willy Wonka at 90, and 2009’s Fantastic Mr. Fox splits the crown with The Witches at 93. Giant Peach holds third place at 91.
That is more than enough to make you forget that, not counting four ungraded films, Four Rooms is No. 11 out of 11 with a paltry 13 percent critical approval. But among paying customers, who tend to be stingier graders on the RT scale, it brushes the D-plus/C-minus borderline. A 69 percent score there surpasses that of eight other Dahl movies, and even gives it third place within the ’90s quartet, besting James’ 65.
Audiences combine to give Matilda and The Witches 73 and 70 percent approval, respectively, good for fifth and seventh in the Dahl domain. If this were a playoff bracket cutting off at the eight-team mark, three ’90s projects would advance. And James at least gives the decade full representation in the RT audience panel’s top 10. Conversely, two of the four films from the 2010s rank lower.
IMDB users give those groups a similar standing. On the site’s 1-to-10 scale, the four ’90s films constitute a tight, uninterrupted pack. Matilda and The Witches tie for fifth overall at 6.9, and James retains a 6.7, tying it for eighth with a pair of late-’80s releases.
Once again, though, two 2010s representatives sit lower, as does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Although the 2005 Johnny Depp vehicle is more decorated with four Saturn and BAFTA nominations apiece plus a Golden Globe nod for Depp and Oscar consideration for costumes.
Only two other Dahl novels turned movies can say they achieved Golden-Globe consideration, and none of those were made in the ’90s. But James does match Willy Wonka’s presence on the all-time roster of Oscar runners-up for music. It also joined its 1996 companion, Matilda, on the aggregate YoungStar ballot.
And other than Four Rooms — which only garnered the dubious nod for “best sandwich in a movie” via the MTV Movie Awards and Madonna’s title of worst actress from the Razzies — everyone was up for a Saturn, or three (Matilda) or five (The Witches).
Being devoted to science fiction, fantasy, and horror, the Saturns are the place for Dahl’s content to shine. To date, in terms of cumulative nominations and victories, only 2016’s The BFG surpasses the ’90s adaptations there with 10, including the lone two wins. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory rounds out the top five, sitting in third place one point behind The Witches with four.
But BFG is inconsistent between those accolades and its tepid celebration by paid and paying viewers. Its immediate successor in the Dahl adaptation timeline, 2017’s Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, holds back its decade’s quad squad all the more. That mitigates any liability by Four Rooms in the four-film decades’ head-to-head.
Of course, with its persistent resonance and belated honors — including a 2014 enshrinement in the Online Film and Television Hall of Fame — Willy Wonka singlehandedly carries the ’70s. One might say the same about the aughts with Fantastic Mr. Fox, which has a few assists from its lone partner in the next Chocolate Factory retelling.
But between those stretches of lighter activity, a wholly unremarkable ’80s, and a more glaringly hit-and-miss 2010s, no decade in Dahl movies matches the size and steadiness of the ’90s. Each project from that time achieved at least a little something to pride itself on. Three garnered more than a little across the critical and hardware landscape.
We shall see what tone the new Witches and Wonka set for the current challenger, let alone what joins the follow up in the name of the 2020s.