Abstract
This article explores the two film adaptations of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Mel Stuart’s 1971 Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Tim Burton’s (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Warner Bros., Burbank, CA, 2005). It champions Robert Stam’s approach to adaptation, which looks at the way a text positions itself in relation to earlier texts in the light of the surrounding cultural environment, arguing that this is a more flexible and “adaptable” approach than earlier favoured models, such as Geoffrey Wagner’s influential tripartite approach. It is argued that these adaptations, despite some attempts at political correctness (especially regarding the Oompa-Loompas) have been at the expense of the feminine, which has been marginalised.