Wonka's Shame

Rating: 5/10 (20 August 2005)

A horrid little film which glorifies one man's interest in side-stepping unionised labour, the human rights act, Industrial practise and creating mass unemployment in a small town while coining it in at the expense of a cheap child-sized workforce imported for overseas. Its an utterly shameful exercise dressed up as children's entertainment and its time it was stopped. So Wonka's the commercial genius with "the most fabulous chocolate factory in the world" well fine but not so good for poor Grandpa Joe Bucket who's poor family has to eat cabbage soup in a dilapidated town house with no roof because the old man lost his job without any form of redundancy package because of Industrial espionage in which he had no part to play. Yet the old man reveres Wonka as a wonderful eccentric and confectionery king, how the elderly forget! You don't hear old fleet street mob singing Murdoch's praises after they were replaced by computer software at the Australian American's Wapping plant do you? No, so we bear witness to the classic deference of the British working class - experts at keeping themselves ghettoised throughout the ages, revering the very people that keep them poor and socially-economically impotent. The same impulse that causes people from council estates to shake the hands of royalty generates statements like "Wonka's a genius Charlie!" He may be a genius but he's also the main cause of their suffering and deprivation. So we've seen that Wonka isn't exactly a humanitarian, in fact he makes his money based on the exploitation of childhood greed. He invites five kids to his factory to find an heir, fair enough you may think, but four are just there to be tortured, humiliated and in some cases, mutilated. The Candyman hates kids but he's happy for them to do back breaking work for beans. I know you'll say Oompa Loompas are adults but lets be honest, their no better than Malasian four year olds making trainers. Wonka the liberator? Don't make me laugh - hes displaced an entire nation and used them to make a fortune, money that must look good on the books as the wage bill is nil - nuts for squirrels and cocoa for kids - all written off as substandard ingredients. If you want to talk about the film itself then all I'd say is that its a confused little piece - can't decide if its set in America or England - all the characters speak like Brits but use Americanisms. British kids don't use the word Candy, its sweets or Chocolate OK? Burton true to recent form is complete anonymous - this thing could have been directed by anyone. Wonka's back-story is pointless - inserted to provide a horrid, syrup drenched ending which kills the sequel and turns the whole escapade into a dreary 'importance of family' chronicle. Utterly wrong. Oh and you can't hear the lyrics to any of the songs. Not only that but the critics who've said that this is a darker film than the 1971 version are blind, in fact the '71 was deceptively wholesome but had a healthy streak of cruelty running through it, this by comparison pretends to be dark while actually being safe and child friendly. Gene Wilder has been soiled. Wake him up and tell him someone!