Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Director: Tim Burton)














CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY has been nominated for Costume Design (Gabriella Pescucci)

Burton is another one of those guys whose resume is stacked with iconic films. My favorite of his is Ed Wood. Some might say Pee Wee's Big Adventure. You might even get Batman or Batman Returns. And yes, although he was heavily involved with A Nightmare Before Christmas, he did not direct it (that was Henry Selick). Then you have Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands, which are both cult faves. My instant reaction to Tim Burton is that he usually makes films that are teeming with promise and don't deliver. The last one of those was Big Fish. Then there's Sleepy Hollow, which had some fun, but was not nearly as great as I imagined. Mars Attacks! has its fans, and there are enjoyable parts to it, but it's not quite a classic. Then there's easily Burton's worst film, The Planet of the Apes remake. I know there's a post long ago where I went over this before, but it's been long enough to make mention of them again.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the second film to be made from Roald Dahl's novel, the first coming in classic form (albeit a bomb at the box office) in 1971 as Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, where Gene Wilder played the title character, the title changed in order to advertise a new candy on the market. Screenplay is from John August, who collaborated with Burton on Big Fish. He also wrote Go and the two Charlie's Angels movies. This is Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's 4th movie together.

It's easy to see how a story like this would appeal to Burton, considering his forte is the portrayal of the weird/eccentric, outsider/loner, as Willy Wonka is. And who better to portray this sort of character than the eccentric Johnny Depp, whose career is filled with oddballs? Bring along the excellent Freddie Highmore who got raves for his performance in Finding Neverland, and now we're talking a sweet updating of a movie that is already a classic to many! The problem is, this movie really, really had to be good to make you forget about the 1971 movie, in which Burton professes not to be a fan.

Willy Wonka (Depp) closed his giant candy factory years ago because some of his workers were stealing his ideas and the competition was running off with bestsellers. Now, after a quiet re-opening, he has placed a Golden Ticket within his Wonka Bars that will allow 5 lucky children to visit the mysterious factory. Of course, 4 of the children are spoiled brats, and 1 ends up being Charlie (Highmore). At the end of the tour, one of the children will receive a prize "beyond their wildest dreams."

Of course, the 4 brats get caught up in greediness and selfishness; just call it the mini-version of Seven. It's a nice, damning verdict on the upper class, and Wonka, who has a troubled past, is a little bit more than happy to see the pseudo-demise of these children and their parents. The dark humor comes from his inability to contain his glee that these kids are getting theirs, and assuring the parents in full-on nonsense mode that nothing is the matter. But then of course, all of that was covered in the 1971 version, with small differences.

Johnny Depp, always interesting to watch, is a great Wonka, but I still like Wilder's sublime performance over Depp's showier interpretation. The reason why Depp is always fun is that he spouts the text in an amusing way, and then there's the "secondary text" with Depp's facial mannerisms that he included in Pirates of the Caribbean, Ed Wood, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas so well. This movie is good. It is, in fact, enjoyable. But again, it's totally pointless, like most updatings or remakes.

Stealing the show: David Kelly as Charlie's tour guest Grandpa Joe, and David Morris (in his first film!) as Grandpa George, who spouts off in a funny curmudgeonly way. Helena Bonham Carter is in this as Charlie's mom, playing plain, even though she's much too beautiful to hide that. Noah Taylor (The Life Aquatic, Vanilla Sky) plays Charlie's dad. A Tennessee connection: Missi Pyle (Galaxy Quest), who went to Germantown High School and plays the mother of Because of Winn-Dixie cutie Annasophia Robb. Also, little person Deep Roy plays every single Oompa Loompa, each of which can vary from amusing to scary throughout, as Danny Elfman provides his usual Burton score along with songs he sang himself.