Movie Poster Comparison

        

For my movie poster comparison I chose the film Willy Wonka and The Chocolate factory.

Though there are many differences between the two film posters I would first like to point out the similarities. Both posters have the main character Willy Wonka centered and large on the poster, the reason for this is largely because he is the main character of the movie, but there is also another reason and it has to do with advertising. In both movies Willy Wonka is played by big stars of their time. Gene Wilder played Willy Wonka in the first film while Jonny Depp played Willy Wonka in the remake. Having the actors in the front and center of the poster really encourages people to see the film without even knowing what it is about. The actors and their past work speaks for itself. Both posters use the actors to draw in the potential viewers.  I’ve noticed that film posters that don’t have major actors on them have a lot more action going on in order to grab potential viewers attention, because they can’t assume what the movie is going to be like based on the actor.

            Another similarity between the two posters is that they both have the other characters that are important in the film displayed, like Charlie and the other children that visit the chocolate factory. Also both film posters have a lot of color on them probably due to the fact that they are both children’s movies.

            Now that we have gotten the similarities down I am going to focus on the differences between the two posters. The poster from the original Willy Wonka film appears to be drawn or painted and the colors are not as bright. This probably has to do with the time period in which the film was made; obviously our ability to make posters more visually enticing has greatly improved.

            The second difference that I noticed is the amount of activity going on behind Willy Wonka in the posters. For example in the original film poster Willy Wonka has all of the characters on his arms, as well as the boat and an image of the factory in the back round. Also on the left on Willy Wonka’s arm is Charlie holding the golden ticket in his hand.  On the right it shows the ompa loompas trying to keep violet on the ground. This is definitely enough to make the potential viewer wonder what is going to be in this movie.  Also the way Willy Wonka is in the center with his arms raised as if he is conductor and everything around him is apart of his show.  All of these elements really make the poster visually appealing.  The person observing the poster really has to look and focus on all the detail in the poster. This movie was also done after a book so that helped as far as getting potential viewers.  However the more recent poster with Jonny Depp is completely different. The poster is relatively plain the main focus of the entire poster is Jonny Depp. The characters of the movie are shown in small bubbles above Jonny Depp’s head, and not even and Oompa Loompa is displayed. In my opinion the reason for this is the fact that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory was such a popular movie that when doing the remake all they needed to do for the poster was put Jonny Depp’s face and the title and people already wanted to see it. The history of the movie did the advertising as well as Jonny Depp’s acting skills.

            The final difference that I am going to point out between the two posters is the actual title of the movie. The original movie title was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, while in the remake the movie was named after the book, which was originally called Charlie, and the Chocolate Factory. I thought this was an interesting change, though both the movies are extremely similar, I feel that the remade version was not based any more on Charlie than the first, yet the name of the movie was changed.  Also in the original film poster the title is not the first thing that you notice as far as words go. The largest wording on the original poster reads “It’s Scrumdidilyumptios!” This is used to sell the movie more than the title is, because, it not only a made up word, but it’s interesting and describes the movie at the same time.

            These are the differences and similarities I noticed while comparing the film posters. I thought that this assignment was very interesting and definitely will force me to pay more attention to what message film posters are actually sending.