www.bakersfieldvoice.com

Last Friday my son and I decided to watch Tim Burton's 2005 "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in order to refresh our memory. Since we planned to see the 1971 "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" with Gene Wilder on Saturday, we wanted to be ready to compare the two movies.

At a previous double feature at the Fox, the air conditioning was broken. Still, we were glad for the opportunity to see "The Wizard of Oz" on the silver screen! This time we enjoyed the Fox Theater in fully functioning air conditioning — thank goodness!

My son used to watch the Gene Wilder movie regularly when he was younger, but two years later all memories of the earlier movie seem to have been replaced with the Johnny Depp version.

Perhaps that was for the best, as the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka movie was as magical and fresh as seeing it for the first time. What could be better than seeing Violet Beauregarde blow up into a blueberry on the big screen?

We enjoyed the opportunity to compare the movies, though we have yet to compare both movies to the book by Roald Dahl. Both movies had the same characters and oompaloompas, a boat, a waterfall. They both movies had similar problems, such as being sucked up a pipe, going down a garbage chute, turning into a blueberry — but in the Gene Wilder movie, Charlie and his grandfather stole a drink that made them float up by a fan (but they burped and fell down just in time). What I particularly enjoyed about both movies was that each Willy Wonka seem benignly odd — perhaps just a bit disturbed.

I'm grateful that the Fox Theater is offering this free summer series of films — it's a great way to stay cool and share some local heritage with my son. Imagine if the Fox Theater offered a double feature every Saturday — or even some cartoons!