Enjoy this tour of the "Factory"

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2005)

Director Tim Burton has interest only in those you would consider outsiders. Normal people hold no appeal to him, so Burton is at his best when the film he makes focuses it's attention on those we would consider to be outside the norm. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, based on the novel by Roald Dahl, is a film right up Burton's alley, featuring the eccentric character of Willy Wonka and his amazing candy factory. Dahl's point of view, to attempt to teach morals featuring rather reprehensible "normal" people, puts all his attention toward the oddities. I don't think Burton would want it any other way.
For the few that don't know, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was previously adapted for the big screen by directory Mel Stuart in the early-1970s film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that starred Gene Wilder in the title role. Willy Wonka has become recognized as a classic, famous among other things for it's funny morality songs belted out by the diminutive Oompa Loompas. Burton was not among the fans of the original film, which was reportedly not enjoyed by Dahl himself. Burton's take on the material is similar in many respects, but very different in others.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory focuses on Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), a poor boy who lives in a slightly off-kilter house with his mother (Helena Bonham-Carter), father (Noah Taylor) and two sets of grandparents. Soon, eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp), has announced that he has placed five golden tickets in five random Wonka chocolate bars. He has kept his candy factory closed off to outsiders for years, and now will allow the five children who find the golden tickets in the candy to have access to his factory, along with one guardian each. Four of the five tickets are discovered by some rather unsavory characters: Augustus Gloop (Phillip Wiegratz), a fat overeater, Violet Beauregarde (Annasophia Robb), a gum-chewing overachiever, Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), a spoiled brat, and Mike Teaveee (Jordan Fry), a genius who is infatuated with video games. Charlie makes the fifth, and is accompanied by his Grandpa Joe (David Kelley), who used to work at the factory. They are greeted by Willy Wonka at the entrance at the factory and are escorted throughout by Willy as they visit the various exotic sections of the factory and the surprises contained within.
The center of the film is the performance of Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka. With a long velvet coat, white face, perfect teeth, and bob haircut, Depp creates a rather naïve but at the same time strangely twisted character. Wonka is a shut-in who has lost all contact and sense of the real world, who is repulsed by the children he has invited and cannot bring himself to say the word "parents", because of his damaged relationship with his own father, a dentist who forbade him candy, portrayed by Christopher Lee. Unlike Wilder's interpretation which was a little more warm, Depp is off-putting and distant, but enormously fun to watch. Depp is nothing if not entertaining, and he makes Wonka his own.
The majority of the film unfolds in Wonka's factory, which has been realized by production designer Alex McDowell as a rather unique environment, full of curves and elliptical environments, appearing very much as if designed in the 1960's. The factory is once again populated by the Oompa Loompas, here realized by a single performer, Deep Roy, replicated digitally to create an entire population of small workers. And, once again, the Oompa Loompas belt out a number of funny musical numbers, realized in a variety of styles and dance numbers that are very amusing.
It's obvious that Dahl was trying to teach some values to children about selfishness and excess, and most of those sequences as each of the children are treated to their fate are appropriately over-the-top to get the point across but not so much that it turns the audience off.
As with almost all of Burton's films, the production design and cinematography go hand in hand to create a visually arresting picture. The factory interiors, an Indian temple created out of chocolate, the Bucket household that is latterly listing to one side, all of it is rendered in Burton's usual unique style that is arresting to look at.
If Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has one weakness, it is that once again, Burton has chosen to focus the attention on Wonka, and Charlie and his family feels a little short- changed by the script. They are not completely underused, but you don't quite feel to attachment to them that you should. Again, Burton's lack of interest in the "normal" world comes back to haunt him.
Aside from that minor complaint, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an entertaining and enjoyable romp that is worth checking out.