I Want Candy

Here we are less than a month since Halloween, and just over a month away from Christmas - two of the biggest holidays for candy sales. If you are already tired of sugar, or if you are looking for a way to enjoy your sweets vicariously for fewer physical side effects, there are several stories in which magical candy plays a major role.

Candy and childhood seem to go hand in hand. Roald Dahl incorporated candy into many of his stories. In 1964 Dahl unleashed the unusual, unforgettable, and uber-creative confectioner extraordinaire Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory upon the world. This story made into two movies, the 1971 musical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2005 with Johnny Depp.

In 1971 the Willy Wonka Candy Company began. Eight years it later became part of Nestle, providing versions of the Everlasting Gobstopper and the Wonka Bar, among other treats. You can enter an online wacky Wonka world full of Oompa Loompas various games and activities at www.wonka.com.

In Dahl's book The Witches (1983), the witches insidious plan to rid the world of children involves setting up sweet shops and selling candy spiked with Formula 86 Delayed Action Mouse Maker. This was made into a film in 1990 with Angelica Huston as the Grand High Witch.

Hansel and Gretel were captured by the witch in the Brothers Grimm story with the house made of candy. You can read an annotated Hansel and Gretel here, as well as view lists of modern versions and similar tales from other cultures. (By the way, if you find the short story Crumbs, by Esther M. Friesner, in a collection and you enjoy reimagined fairy tales read it. It is a sequel of sorts to the original story involving descendants of the witch and the children with a different explanation of what happened and a twist.)

Joanne Harris published Chocolat in 1999, in which Vianne Rocher sets up a chocolaterie in a small French village and shares chocolates that seem to have unusual properties. Interestingly Johnny Depp played a gypsy in the movie in 2000. The sequel to the novel follows Vianne and her daughter Anouk in Paris years later. For some reason, in the U.K. the sequel's title is The Lollipop Shoes, while in the U.S. it is The Girl with No Shadow, losing any reference to candy.

Clover is always giving Levin Thumps candy with unusual side-effects in the uneven childrens' series by Obert Skye starting with Levin Thumps and the Gateway to Foo (2005).

Four children get involved in a war between magicians who make candy that gives the person eating it temporary, supernatural abilities in the highly enjoyable fantasy novel The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull (2007).

Now, maybe you have read any of these books, or watched any of these movies by yourself, with friends, or with your family and you are now in the mood for some candy related activities. There is plenty you can do.

You can always play the almost 60 year old boardgame Candyland, especially if you don't mind the possibility of a never ending game trapsing through the Candy Cane Forest or the Molasses Swamp.

This time of the year, making gingerbread houses is always in fashion.

Go ahead and watch the 1939 film Bright Eyes staring Shirley Temple, and learn the lyrics to "On the Good Ship, Lollipop," which became her trademark song. (You probably won't be able to get the music out of your mind now. You are welcome.)

If you live somewhere along the Wasatch Front, this Friday and Saturday you can attend the 4th Annual Utah Chocolate Show and sample and purchase all kinds of chocolates. (Click here for more information.)

Now, if you are in Utah and looking for cheap (mostly free), candy-themed activities for all ages, here are some other places you can go and, in some instances, get free samples:

Mrs. Cavanaughs in North Salt Lake (click here for information about tours)
Taffy Town in Salt Lake City (click here for information about tours)
Sweet Candy Company in Salt Lake City (click here for information about tours)
Kencraft (Peppermint Place) in Alpine (click here for more information - I don't think they have tours, but they did have an observation area and a video you can watch)

If you are in Las Vegas, you can visit M&M's World next to the MGM Hotel, and even watch a free 3-D movie starring Red and Yellow after making your way through three floors of M&M merchandise (click here for more information). You can also take a tour of Ethel's Chocolate Lounge in Henderson (click here for more about tours).

Lastly, if you are ever in Utah travelling on U.S. Highway 89 between Richfield and Junction, you can stop at and hike Big Rock Candy Mountain, see the Lemonade Spring and even stay at the Big Rock Candy Mountain Resort. Click here for more information.

If you pace yourself, you should be able to read a book, watch a movie, then go on a tour or to an event every other month next year. Have a sweet 2009!

Writing Outside the Lines

In a post in October, I mentioned that I discovered that James Clavell of Shogun fame wrote the screenplay for The Fly with Vincent Price and I got to thinking about some other movies I knew with screenplays written by authors better known for other works.

After suffering an heart attack in 1964, Ian Fleming decided to try his hand at writing a children's spy story. Originally published as three separate books, they were later published together as Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In 1968 the movie musical was released (and now you can see stage musical based on the movie). The movie boasts music and lyrics by the Sherman brothers Robert and Richard, the same team that Disney used on many projects and movies including Mary Poppins and The Jungle Book.

I found the book to be dreadfully boring. Perhaps that is because I read it as an adult, and after seeing the movie numerous times (it used to be a Thanksgiving Day afternoon broadcast tradition of sorts). The screenplay was co-written by Roald Dahl, author such children's classics as James and the Giant Peach (1961), Charlie and Chocolate Factory (1964), The Witches (1983), and Matilda (1988). The movie actually feels more like one of Dahl's stories then Flemings', with a dark humor, and role reversals between children and adults.

Interestingly, Dahl also worked on the screenplay for for the Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967).

Michael Crichton, known for books like The Andromeda Strain (1969), The Great Train Robbery (1975), and Jurassic Park (1990) that were made into movies and television shows, also wrote screenplays for movies such as Westworld (1975) and Twister (1996) and episodes of television's ER (1994-2008). He also was involved in many of these projects as director and/or producer.

Earlier this year my son and I watched all five movies in the Planet of the Apes cycle (and the Tim Burton movie remake). The first one from 1968, which was based on Pierre Boulle's book Planet of the Apes (1963) actually has held up pretty well for being 40 years old. (Much better then the subsequent four that had lofty ideas but degenerated in quality and diverted more and more from the original source material.)

The book is more of social commentary like Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1926), and less of an action adventure story that the movie is. While it has it's own twist ending, it is different then the movies. Once you realize that Rod Serling, writer Twilight Zone in print and on television, was involved with the screenplay, the atmosphere and ending of the movie falls right into place.

I would love to add more to this list. Let me know if you know of other screenplays for movies or television shows that were written by authors who may be better known for their work in other media or genres.

Tim Burton on Alice in Wonderland & more

If you didn't already know, Tim Burton is working on a 3D, motion-capture movie of Lewis Carroll's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland due out in 2010. In this version, Johny Depp is the Mad Hatter and Anne Hathaway is the Queen of Hearts.

In this interview, Burton talks about being awarded the Immortal Award at the Scream 2008 Awards, Batman movies, Johnny Depp, and other film versions of Alice in Wonderland. In it, Burton also discusses how much of his work is based on movies from books he watched while growing up.

Enjoy.

[10/18/08 EDIT - I have come across conflicting reports on the type of movie it will be, live action, CGI or a combination so I am not sure of the format. If any of you have an official link, let us know.]

Danny Elfman

(It started taking me forever to complete each post as I was including links for every book, DVD, CD, etc. and my links to the Davis County Library system weren't working so I held off to decide how I wanted to continue. This explains the gap between postings. For the time being I am not going to set up as many links and I hope the posts are still as useful without the links.)

When it comes to music done for movies based on, or inspired by, classic and well known stories, I think you would be hard pressed to find a composer who has done more than Danny Elfman.

His portfolio of movies based on books for which he composed the soundtracks, or at least developed the main themes for, includes:

Scrooged (1988) – an updated version of Dicken’s A Christmas Carol
Black Beauty (1994)
Sleepy Hollow (1999) – a decidedly different interpretation of Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Planet of the Apes (2001) – which version was even more removed from the Pierre Boulle’s original book than the 1968 version
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Charlotte’s Web (2006)

If you allowed a couple of more contemporary author’s works in to this list, these would also count:

Meet the Robinsons (2007) – based on William Joyce’s children’s book A Day with Wilbur Robinson
Dolores Claiborne (1995) – from a Stephen King novel

Then, if you were to include well known comic book characters, the list grows with:

Batman (1989)
Dick Tracy (1990)
The Flash (1990) – actually a TV series that Elfman did the theme music for
Batman Returns (1992)
Spider-man (2002)
Hulk (2003)
Spider-man 2 (2004)

And while this doesn’t even complete his musicography, he did these movies which are also based on stories that originated in comics – Darkman (1990), Men in Black (1997), Men in Black II (2002) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008).

Edward Scissorhands (1990) and The Corpse Bride (2005), are two movies which could just as easily be included in this list as the first has shades of Frankenstein, and Beauty and the Beast, and the second is loosely based on a Russian-Jewish folktale.

Lastly, if you wanted to stretch this list you could add the theme for The Simpsons TV series (1989+), which after 20 seasons and a movie is on its way to becoming an institution of its own (besides, The Simpsons has probably spoofed more classic and well-known books, movies and fictional characters then any other current series.)