Tim and Johnny Disappoint

Rating: 3/10 (27 July 2005)

If the only justification for this being a great movie is that it is true to the book, then it shouldn't have been made at all. Tim Burton has successfully digitized and sterilized the Chocolate Factory universe, and in so doing has destroyed a wonderful piece of pop culture. No longer will orange-faced, green-haired Oompa Loompas populate my imagination (and nightmares). No longer will I wonder just what in the world an American boy was doing living in a ramshackle house in a nondescript Bavarian town. And no longer will I wonder what drove Gene Wilder's Wonka to be such a lovable sadist, or just exactly what drugs he popped before taking that insane boat ride. In short, the imagination of the original film is gone, replaced with a shallow, bloated, big-budget disappointment.
When the film was first announced, I was ecstatic that Johnny Depp and Tim Burton would be taking it on. I thought only Johnny would have the skills to successfully reinvent the enigmatic Wonka, and only Burton (or maybe David Lynch) would be able to make the disturbing Oompa Loompa's even more disturbing. The film fails in both respects.
Visually, Depp does a fantastic job of capturing the essence of Wonka. His buggy sunglasses, velvet coat and top hat were faithful both to Wilder's Wonka and the whimsical nature of the character himself. But Depp's acting and/or the material he was working with fell flat. In the few lines of dialogue that actually fit into the context of the scene, Depp's delivery was synthetic and provided no insight into the character. Perhaps this was intended, but for me it backfired. If they wanted me to loathe the character, it worked. By contrast, Gene Wilder's take left no doubt about his distaste for children - Think of his wonderful eyerolling while saying, "No, please, stop.." - or his true reversal when he finally finds a child of virtue - "You did it Charlie! I knew you would!" His performance is nuanced and genuine. Depp's is taut and plastic. Where is the playful and inventive dialogue like "Oh, you should never, never doubt what nobody is sure about." and "So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it."?
Now to the Oompa Loompa's. Those little orange buggers have been scaring the hell out of me ever since I saw the original as a child. I couldn't wait to see Burton's twisted take when the movie was announced. Then I heard that the Loompas would be played by one actor, Deep Roy, and digitally reproduced. I began to worry. My worries were well justified when I saw the film and the Oompas had become a cloned and shrunken version of Roy, with only latex jumpsuits to lend any suggestion of the bizarre. The musical numbers were equally disappointing. Glitzy, fast-paced and well choreographed, they nevertheless pale in comparison to the catchy and unforgettable originals with their "doompa-dee-doos" -- on a par with the "Ohh-ee-ohhs" of the Wizard of Oz for great movie choruses sung by guys with brightly-colored faces. In fact, I don't think there was one line in any of the new movie's songs that I actually could understand. And since the musical numbers added so much to the story in the original, I definitely felt something was missing this time.
Burton has always been a master at creating otherworldly environments that incorporate just enough anachronisms and bizarre elements to keep you guessing whether the story is supposed to be set in our universe or not. He does another admirable job of it here. From the opening credits, with their depiction of a Rube Goldbergesque chocolate machine, to the imaginative nut sorting room, Burton uses his talents well to create a rich landscape. However, I think he fell short in a few spots. His take on the Augustus Gloop and Violet Beauregarde incidents is identical to the original, but with less dialogue. And the only new element in the Mike Teevee scene is the cute homage to 2001: A Space Odyssey and other cinema classics. I think a director like Burton could have gone to town, so to speak, with this material and still stayed faithful to the book.
Another element of the film that I found irritating were the flashbacks to Wonka's youth and other departures from the main story, such as the origin of the Oompa Loompa's. The biographical material on Wonka not only eliminated some of the mystery surrounding the character, but it was tired and predictable to suggest that his eccentricities were the result of his troubled relationship with his father. (Gee - Their subsequent reconciliation at the end of the movie was a real shocker once this was revealed.)
And how, how, how, Mr. Burton, could you tackle the subject of the vicious indigenous creatures of Loompaland without talking about those rotten Vernicious Knits!
Bad remakes and needless sequels are not only poor cinema, they detract from their predecessors. Unfortunately, I think Burton's film will have just that impact on Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Perhaps I need to read the book again, something I haven't done since my childhood, to appreciate this movie for its faithfulness to Dahl's vision. Somehow, I don't think that will make me like it any better, though. After all, when we now see Homer in Simpsons episode DABF03 ask to see the Oompa Loompa because he's "freaky", will it strike the same chord? I think not.