Remember the kid from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory? Well Charlie Bucket never acted again and decided upon a very different path for his like. The former child actor, Pete Ostrum, decided early on in his life that he wasn’t going to appear in any more films after Willy Wonka since it was just too long away from home and didn’t seem like the kind of life that he wanted to lead. You can’t blame the guy really since the number of child actors that continue on towards a successful career is very small when you look at it. Ostrum went down a path that led him to become a veterinarian for larger animals and he’s quite happy about it.
It’s not just anyone that walks away from the life of fame and fortune that could have been his, especially not a kid that thinks that they could really make something of themselves. A lot of kid actors however tend to get burned out very easily and at a very young age. Corey Feldman and Corey Haim aren’t exactly the best examples but they are examples all the same since they were almost all worn out by the time they reached their adult years. Several actors though that started out as kids have never had the same career as they did when they were younger, no matter that they’ve had moments of brilliance here and there. Ostrum chose to part ways with fame at a great time since it allowed him to go back to his studies and make something of his life.
That’s not to say that he hasn’t been well aware of the developments going on with the movie and how it’s been viewed and theorized over for the past four decades. He’s been well apprised of the way the movie has changed and what’s been going on. In fact he’s admitted that his kids have read the book and no doubt watched the movies. He still enjoys the infusion of morals that go into the movie, showing how being patient and hard-working can allow a person to attain what it is that they really want. That was most definitely one aspect of the movie that was often missed by people that were simply enchanted by the effects and wonderment of all that candy. In the the film does have a very strong moral center that is instilled by Wonka in a very strange fashion.
Every area they wander into during the movie, the original and the remake, is a test for the kids as they have to show their level of character and either pass or fail. Augustus was a glutton obviously and paid for it by being sucked into a tube along with the chocolate that almost killed him, while Veruca was tossed out with the trash, a fitting analogy really. Violet just couldn’t resist being impetuous and had to be the first to try something that no one save the Oompa Loompas had ever tried, and Mike just had to find a way to prove his point to Wonka. In the end the only one with any integrity was Charlie.
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