Charlie and the Chocolate factory; a mouth full and a half

Rating: 10/10 (17 August 2005)

The problem with Tim Burton's latest movie Charlie and the Chocolate factory was you could not help but compare it to the original Movie, or if you haven't seen it, the book.
The movie begins with a CGI thing about how the chocolate is made and how the five tickets got into the chocolate and really, it just wasn't needed but was still a nice touch. It was impressive as far as computer graphics go.
Although this new one is far more closer to the book, and had the more recognisable Roald Dhal Charm, Tim Burton has yet again added his own little signature as he does in all his movies. I could not help but look at the candy sticks while in the candy meadow scene, it kept reminding me of the cliff that jack stands singing on from Nightmare Before Christmas. Look at them and see for yourself! They're exactly the same! I'm not saying that was a bad thing, but it was rather distracting. One thing I loved about the movie was that Willie Wonka was slightly scared of the children, and people in general. He had no idea how to greet them and had to read off flash cards that no doubt were written for him by the oompa loompas. And plus, the audience hated those children and therefor related to Willie as he obviously hated them too. (apart from Charlie of course) He hid behind a smile most of the time but you could tell. Being in isolation for fifteen years will do that to you. Still, I think he should of been a little more reluctant to meet Charlie's family. Don't get me wrong, Jonny Depp did a great job, as he always does and although a lot of the expressions reminded you a lot of Jack Sparrow from Pirates and a hell of a lot of Micheal Jackson for some reason (coincidently Willie Winka also reminded me of the Child catcher from chity chity bang bang for some other odd reason.) it was closer to Roald Dhal's character than I expected. I did miss some of Gene Wilder's carefree not bothered attitude about and how perfectly normal his factory was to him. Jonny kind of emphasised on how weird the factory was and how twisted and mentally ill Willie himself was. What was with the flash backs? Were they to explain why Willie was the way he was or just to say, here's why this guy is off his head! "I'm so sorry I...just had a flash back. Hee hee."
"...Do these flash backs happen... often?"
"On with the tour! K?" Really, that wasn't needed. A character is nuts just because he is nuts. He lives in a chocolate factory for God's sake. You need no explanation.
I just didn't like the ghost white skin which by the way got paler and paler all the way through the movie. There were laughs and the odd joke, but unusually, it wasn't actually a children's movie as such. Not because of the Pg they slapped on it, but I think little six year olds would be a bit freaked out by the melting puppets. (I know I was although I thought they deserved it.) The bit when the boy got sucked up the chocolate pipe thing wasn't that different from the original movie really so nothing new there. The squirrels attacking Veruca Salt was a little...yikes though. Do children really need to know how violent squirrels can be? After all most children cannot decipher reality from fantasy these days. And blowing up like a blue bery and then become as flexible as chewd chewing gum? No wonder our children are disturbed these days. But then, that's the thing about Roald Dhal. And Tim Burton in fact. Reality and fantasy merging together. There's no fine line.
Another thing that surprised me was how emotional the movie was. It didn't quite fit. Willie would suddenly seem to have some sort of panic attack and mumble something about his father. It was the root of the movie's dark side really, and it kind of got you off guard. It was the only thing really that kept you watching the movie.
All in all it was a very charming Tim Burton creation and was written quite well, just a lot of it wasn't needed and seemed to just make the movie longer than it needed to be. I'm a bit mixed about it really. I'll say this though; I was not disappointed. Do not compare it to the original movie. That will spoil it for you.