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USA 2005
Directed by
Tim Burton
115 minutes
Rated PG

Reviewed by
Bruce Paterson
2 stars

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Synopsis: Director Tim Burton brings his vividly imaginative style to the Roald Dahl classic about eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) and Charlie, a good-hearted boy from a poor family who lives in the shadow of Wonka's extraordinary factory. Five lucky children, including Charlie, win a guided tour of the legendary candy-making facility that no outsider has seen in 15 years, and one will win a remarkable prize.

Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!
The great big greedy nincompoop!


Roald Dahl published the first edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1964. It was ravenously consumed by his young and old fans, but caused some indigestion amongst the morally upright. Typically for Dahl, it was a mischievous mix of dark and light themes and fantastic events. Charlie is the inoffensive protagonist who wins the day simply by being the last kid standing, rather than by any acts of derring-do. He is susceptible to temptation, being the kind of fairy tale kid hero that works in books (think Jack and the Beanstalk), but is clearly in need of a makeover for a major motion picture event. You can imagine the director shouting – “He needs motivation! And somebody get me a Coke! And cut out those bloody songs!”

Dear friends, we surely all agree
There's almost nothing worse to see
Than some repulsive little bum
Who's always chewing chewing gum


As an aside, Oscar Wilde thought temptation was the hardest thing to resist and he was a man who apparently knew a lot about the subject. I only mention this because Wilde’s “The suspense is terrible, I hope it will last” became one of Wonka’s best lines in the original movie, along with many other cunning literary allusions.

Veruca Salt, the little brute,
Has just gone down the garbage chute,
(And as we very rightly thought
That in a case like this we ought
To see the thing completely through,
We've polished off her parents, too.)


Mel Stuart directed Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in 1971. Seeing this movie for the first time is a highly recommended experience, and your face will hopefully light up in the same way as the children’s faces when they see the psychedelic factory floor/parkland for the first time. In fact, the first time they saw it was when the cameras rolled, capturing their genuine surprise and delight. Wonka is played with humanist zaniness by Gene Wilder, and the Oompa Loompas metamorphosed from the book into short-statured persons with orange faces. The screenplay lacked most of Dahl’s original songs, but made up for it with well-placed literary allusions here and there. Aspects of the story were sanitized, and some of the key changes were incorporated into the second edition of the book. The naughtier aspects of the first edition are thus now largely forgotten.

The most important thing we've learned,
So far as children are concerned,
Is never, NEVER, NEVER let
Them near your television set–
Or better still, just don't install
The idiotic thing at all.


For this second version, Director Tim Burton is well-placed to revision Dahl’s eccentric ideas but overall values style over substance. While Johnny Depp could have been a great Wonka, his tendency to come across as a cross between Michael Jackson and Dr Evil from Austen Powers is disturbing. The children’s performances are fairly solid, although Charlie is even more saccharine than his 1971 incarnation. For those new to the story, it is certainly impressive and entertaining. For old hands, it may not seem to add much that is particularly remarkable. The screenplay is in some ways more closely aligned with Dahl’s book, but in others deviates widely to capture a backstory to Wonka that reflects Burton’s own preoccupations with family and childhood dentistry. It is great to have Dahl’s original songs appear, but having them sung by hundreds of knee-high duplicates of the short-statured actor, Deep Roy, may or may not work for you, depending on your taste. As with many contemporary entertainments that rely heavily on CGI effects, it has its moments but for me didn’t achieve the synthesis of story and spectacle captured by Mel Stuart’s original.

If you are old and have the shakes,
If all your bones are full of aches,
If you can hardly walk at all,
If living drives you up the wall,
If you're a grump and full of spite,
If you're a human parasite,
THEN WHAT YOU NEED IS WONKA–VITE!

 

 

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