[knife_fight]

The book's content is certainly not horror, but what makes it scary is that Roald Dahl wrote it. All of his stories have a dark side, even in the midst of all the playfulness. That's why I think the pairing of Burton and Dahl's work is going to be good. They both have a way of blending horror with that just-enough hint of childish innocence.

I think the original really nailed that insinuated, subtle, dark side of Dahl's work (although I could have done without most of the songs). What I'm saying, I guess, is that you have to go into the story of the Chocolate Factory within the context of the rest of Dahl's work in order to really be looking for, and finding, that darker side.

It's kinda like that book "Hollywood Babylon". To the surface reader, it's just a pulpy, tabloid-esque, book about different scandals during the Golden Age of Hollywood. But when you know the author, Kenneth Anger, the entire book takes on a sinister foreboding tone, which makes it a classic.