Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Plot synopsis:
Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) has built the greatest and largest chocolate factory in the world. After some of his workers steal his secret recipes, Willy Wonka kicks his workers out and closes the doors. For 15 years, no one has seen any workers entering or leaving the factory, yet his chocolate candy is still being produced and shipped around the world. One day when Willy Wonka is getting his hair cut, he realizes that he is getting old, and he needs a successor. He comes up with a plan to open his factory and reveal his secrets to five lucky children, who find golden tickets inside Wonka chocolate bars.The golden tickets are sent around the world and soon 4 winners are announced. The first to find a ticket is the greedy Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz). Second is the spoiled Veruca Salt (Julia Winter). Next is the competitive gum-chomping Violet Beauregard (AnnaSophia Robb). Fourth is the chocolate-hating techie Mike Teevee (Jordan Fry). There is one golden ticket left, and the achingly poor Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) finds it. Charlie chooses his Grandpa Joe (David Kelly) to accompany him inside the factory, a place his Grandpa Joe once worked before it was closed. The other four children with their parents, and Charlie with Grandpa Joe, enter the factory and begin the tour of a lifetime.The factory is not like your standard factory, but a living factory which mixes chocolate by waterfall, and boasts a river of chocolate that enables the group to tour the factory by boat. They experience the great glass Wonkavator, which can go anywhere in the factory, in any direction, at the touch of a button. During the tour, the group learns that all the work is now being done by the Oompa-Loompa tribe, who are paid in cocoa beans. The factory is indeed fantastic: trees and grass are edible, trained squirrels shell nuts for the chocolate bars, entire meals are contained in a stick of gum, and incredible technology allows chocolate to be sent by television. The four rotten children get to interact with some of Willy Wonka's fantastic inventions with unfortunate consequences which force them off the tour before it is completed. Charlie is the last child left, and Willy Wonka awards Charlie the greatest prize of all, the keys to the factory, which Charlie refuses. Accepting the prize means living Willy Wonka's life: cut off from family and the world to devote oneself to the pursuit of chocolate perfection. After some time, Willy Wonka sees that while Charlie may be the right person for the factory, the life that Willy Wonka chose for himself isn't right for Charlie. He relents and allows Charlie to bring his entire family into the factory with him, and they all live happily ever after.

Tags: dark, fantasy, whimsical, violence, flashback, psychedelic

Review:
Though I never had a problem with the original "Willy Wonka" move with Gene Wilder (despite how unfaithful it was, it was still a cute and heart-warming movie), I was doing back-flips when I heard Tim Burton, quite possibly my all-time favorite director, would helm a new version of the movie.First and foremost, Johnny Depp is perfect as Willy Wonka.
Depp pulls out all of the stops as a new Willy Wonka, though there are times that any audience member will get just a bit freaked out.What I loved most about the movie was how faithful it was to the book.
It is in every way a genuine Tim Burton-movie, stacked with beautiful imagery, wacky humor and bizarre characters, but at the same time faithful enough to the spirit of the novel.
Johnny Depp gives us a strange, almost creepy Willy Wonka, Freddie Highmore is a perfect Charlie, the Grandparents are lovable and wacky, and the five other children and their parents are amusingly irritating.
All kinds of them: laughs (many  the audience laughed almost every thirty seconds), tears of joy (we all know Charlie's gonna find that ticket but when he does, you just can't refrain your heart to beat faster), mercy (the way Burton depicts the social misery of the Bucket's family is really touching), amazement (the Wonka Factory and its many rooms is true wonder, one the most achieved design Burton ever offered us) and many mores.
Nobody else, therefore, was surely more suitable to adapt Dahl's much-loved novel, and nobody else was surely daring enough to attempt a re-make of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971, directed by Mel Stuart), that enduring classic starring Gene Wilder as Wonka.Burton's repeated use of Depp in previous films (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, and Sleepy Hollow to name just three) indicated him to be an obvious and, it could be argued, perfect choice to cast as Wonka.
Trying to ignore my obvious bias, I believe Depp does put up a good fight, and perhaps if the parents of the four terrible children had shown more spark, or been actors of a higher calibre, his comic moments would have had much more impact.Burton's other muse, Helena Bonham Carter, is mis-cast as Charlie's mother.
However, certain artistic license is always taken when adapting books and plays to the big screen, and this creativity is needed to keep images and story lines fresh and to prevent any static grounding.As regards the imagery of the film, well, it's a Burton film and true to form we aren't disappointed.
Tim Burton did a great job with musical numbers in Nightmare Before Christmas, but the same isn't true in the live action Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
I think the story was better as it was, but the scenes do support the additional depth Burton injected into Wonka, so I do appreciate the scenes for what they do.Depp was fabulous (look for at least one Edward Scissorhands reference) though at times reminded me of a modern Michael Jackson (shudder).
The film is hilarious, speaking as an adult, I wonder how the youth responds to this, but I rate this movie 8 out of 10 stars!For those of you expecting a copy of the original with new actors, you'll be surprised how original this version is, go and bring your entire family with you!
I expected a wild, colorful ride with brilliant hues and good special effects...and I was not disappointed.It was inventively fun with those great visuals and another wonderful kid playing "Charlie." I doubted they could ever come up with another child as appealing and nice/wholesome as one in "Willy Wonka" but they found one in Freddie Highmore.
He filled the bill magnificently, as did the "brat" kids.A different feature of this version, as opposed to the 1970 original, was that here the Oompa-Loompas were all played by just one person, a very small Indian man named Deep Roy. One of the interesting "features" on the DVD details how difficult that was to do and how much time Roy had to put in to do all the things he did.Johnny Depp, meanwhile, "did" what he always does - do a good job of playing a weird person.
While some may say this terrible film is more like the original book that the 1971 movie, but overall, it really isn't.
My kids actually have the book and I read through it right after watching the DVD.This film may be more true to the book with some of the finer details (the original lyrics to the Oompah Loopah songs, Charlie having a living father who worked at a toothpaste factory), none of these details add anything to the story.On the other hand, the creepy, gray-skinned, androgynous Wonka is nothing like the original character in the book.
If you read a little about the history of the making of the movie (look online), you'll find that the script at one point was originally developed more for adults than children.
While no one will ever be able to replace the truly amazing Gene Wilder as quirky chocolatier Willy Wonka, Johnny Depp adds new life and oddity to the character.
The necessary chemistry required to make a movie actually work was extremely noticeable between Depp and Highmore because of their work together in the drama "Finding Neverland".All in all I thought "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was a wonderful movie but definitely not for the children..
Burton's direction removes a lot of doubt about Wonka's motivations, and makes it OK for us to love Charlie, both pity and admire Willy, and laugh guiltily at the four despicable brats who get what they richly deserve.The Oompa-Loompas are not orange, a little wackier, and don't have scary theme music.
I also thought it had some touches that actually improved on the original; the set pieces were amazing, and there was more with the great glass elevator (like the book) than in the original movie, which I was pleased to see.I thought I'd go into this being bored until they got to the factory because that was how I felt about the original, but even the opening scenes with the Bucket family, and Grandpa Bucket's flashbacks to his time working at the factory, are wonderfully entertaining.
I was most impressed with David Kelly as Grandpa Bucket, whose performance was all child-like wonder, and Helena Bonham-Carter and Noah Taylor were also good as Charlie's parents; and Freddie Highmore, who played Charlie, ought to have a decent career in front of him.Once they do get to the factory, though, things really take off.
Johnny Depp puts in an excellent performance as Willy Wonka, not an impression of Gene Wilder AT ALL, but as usual, making the character his own.
The result is amazing.The only slow parts, I think, are those dealing with Wonka's childhood (although Christopher Lee is good as his father, I just thought they were a little boring and wanted to get back to the factory when they were on) and the Oompa Loompas' musical numbers, which I didn't think had the charm of those in the original (actually, I thought the musical number with the puppets at the beginning of the tour was the best one in the movie).
You'll enjoy this movie, especially if you're already a fan of Tim Burton's work, but also, I think, if you're a fan of the original movie or the book; however, even kids who have never been exposed to any of this will be entertained.
I've been waiting for this movie to come out for ever, Tim Burton and Jonny Depp, what can possibly go wrong, I thought to myself.
I've been holding myself back not to watch the original Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory not to compare the movie to a classic.
We follow the group from room to room and are forced to endure cataclysmically puerile songs from cloned Oompa-Loompahs, all played by the same irritating midget.The film does not have the darker subplot of the original film and the wheelchair-like pacing drove me close to igniting the screen with the nearest blowtorch.Johnny Depp is just wrong as Wonka.
The original Willy Wonka left things unsaid for us, the Burton remake beats us over the head with elements because we must be too stupid to understand anything.
This is not the only awful film to be made from a children's book in the last few years: Lemony Snicket and Cat in the Hat spring to mind, and certainly, the Harry Potter movies are never much better than mediocre.But Charlie and the Chocolate Factory suffers from the fact that it must be compared to the Gene Wilder version, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, which is not only superior to it in every way, but is truly a classic film.One might well ask why anyone would dare to remake a film that was written by Roald Dahl himself.
There is no narrative or melodic progression to the songs -- they are as two dimensional as cardboard cutouts.Add to this bland, unimaginative mix a few ghastly changes from the earlier movie: Charlie has a father now, his family magically gets "unpoor" at the end by the dint of their own optimism, and Willy Wonka learns -- get ready for this one -- that families are not a bad thing.It's beyond awful.
With Gene Wilder playing Willy Wonka, for that time period you knew that it would be a enjoyable movie at that.
With stupid sub plots and scenes that look like hallucinations, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is a terrible and embarrassing mistake of a classic musical.
The Original was timeless, this version is extremely dated (note the hip-hopped up versions of the oompa loompa songs) the Wolper film might have strayed from the novel by adding in new songs and removing Charlie's father (Dahl himself suggested this), but it didn't invent and entire subplot such as Wonka's estranged father.
If Burton wanted a wonka that sounded and acted like Dave Foley from the Kids in the Hall, he should have cast he became totally obnoxious after only a few minutes on screen, and from then on it was almost painful to watch.
Tim Burton directing it made the movie good, but Johnny Depp made it even better.
The movie was also great because it followed the book more than the Willi Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Such a waste of good talent -- Tim Burton directing, Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka -- how could it be better?
Fortunately, there's always the book -- and the first film version -- if anyone could've matched Gene Wilder's performance as Willy Wonka, Johnny Depp could've, but he didn't....
I, like many others loved the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
I avoided watching this movie for a long time for mainly this reason: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory earned a place in my heart through much thought, discussion, and rewatches.
Johnny Depp who is a brilliant actor gave me the creeps in this new version, I did not feel comfortable with my young children watching such a weird character.
Johnny Depp can't hold a candle to Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, but this is still a good second adaptation of the book.
In 2005, I heard about this then-new version of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and how Johnny Depp played Willy Wonka in it.
It had been years since I had last read to book and seen the original 1971 adaptation, "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory", but I still remembered the story very well and went to see this second big screen adaptation in the theatre.
Over a week later, I watched this Tim Burton version again for the first time in several years, and thought it slightly inferior but still very good.Charlie Bucket is a young boy in a poor family, which consists of him, his two parents, and his four bedridden grandparents.
One of the major differences between the two movie adaptations is Johnny Depp's portrayal of Willy Wonka here.
They also got talented cast members to play Charlie's family members, including David Kelly as Grandpa Joe and another common Tim Burton recast (like Depp), Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Bucket.
This film has the usual dark and amazing Tim Burton visuals, and like the 1971 version, great sets were made for Willy Wonka's factory!
For the most part, the story is very entertaining as well, even if the ending could have been a bit better thought out.Some say it's best not to compare the two silver screen adaptations of Roald Dahl's classic children's book, but since I've watched this one again shortly after revisiting the original after so many years, it's kind of hard for me not to.
2005's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is unsurprisingly weaker than 1971's "Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory", and I know many fans of the first adaptation have shown great disdain for this remake, but personally, I think both of them are highly entertaining family movies, though I can understand how Johnny Depp's portrayal of the reclusive factory owner could put many viewers off.
This Tim Burton film does take some liberties with the story, and I would be giving away too much if I mentioned many of them, though it also features aspects of the book not included in the 1971 version, such as Mr. Bucket being alive and working in a toothpaste factory and Grandpa Joe telling his grandson about chocolate palace in India, not that I'm saying any of this is good or bad.
When I was 8 years old, Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory was my favourite movie.
That's nothing against Johnny Depp, because he's a good actor, I just didn't like his version of Willy Wonka.As for the Oompa Loompas, I wanted to shoot them every time they came on screen.
For those, this will be a far better version, more faithful to the novel in some ways (I liked the inclusion of the scene where Charlie, Grandpa Joe and Willy Wonka see the others leave the factory), but for me, this was just not up to scratch..
I'm not sure what book they're following, but there's stuff in this film that would make poor Mr. Dahl gag on an Everlasting Gobstopper.This is easily the weakest work for both Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.
In fact, the only good character in the whole movie is David Kelly as Grandpa Joe. I can even deal with Freddie Highmore as Charlie but the rest of it is full of deplorable performances and like I said, an evil and mean spirited overtone.
Granted I didn't have high hopes from this movie to begin with, but I believed it would be a more mature version of book than what was done in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (I happen to like this adaptation because Gene Wilder is enchanting as the eccentric factory owner).
You wonder why this adaptation wasn't called Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory because Charlie had a much bigger role in the 1971 version.
Tim Burton took too many liberties, significant parts of the story from the book that were included in the original were cut from this movie.
I did not think a remake of this story should have been made, but when I heard that Johnny Depp was to play Wonka and that Tim Burton would direct I figured if any...these were the people who could pull it off.
Only a die hard Tim Burton fan would think this is better than the original and Gene Wilder is infinitely better than Johnny Depp who despite his considerable talent, cannot save this garbage..
Tim Burton's adaptation of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a visually spectacular film but it's not enough to make a good film.
The last twenty minutes of the film feel rushed and we have to think fast as to how Willy Wonka was so quickly welcomed by the Bucket family.Critics can see why Tim Burton chose to film this story.
He lived with all of his family who were poor, then Charlie found a golden ticket that will allow him and 4 of the childrens to go to the chocolate factory of Willy Wonka.
A Tim Burton and Johnny Depp masterclass, the best remake of any great movie to date!
This was filled with lots of bursting laughter when we saw this movie.This remake was a little make different than the one that was a long time ago in the 70's.Tim Burton really made this film according to the book than some different senses like the squirrels.In the old movie she fell from the garbage place,and in the old one they didn't had the huge boat and not so many Ompas.And the alternative end was very different,in here it showed what happened to the losers when they didn't listen.In the old movie it showed when Charlie learned a lesson of trust and ling but didn't showed what happened to the rest of them.And showed something new,parts of mister Wonkas' childhood life,that was something never seen ed.And when grandpa Joe was working in the factory.This was something be on good,it was even better than the original WILLY Wonka and longer,but this was still good..
The new Oompa Loompas look very creepy indeed but that could just be me..!But regardless of any little story and musical gripes, you're simply going to be sucked into the fantasy of this film and it's a great ride.I've never been a huge fan of Johnny Depp but this film did it for me and he does an amazing job with Willy Wonka with a lot of subtle nuances and quirks and some great lines.
When the original movie, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, came out I was 10 years old.
But i must say this time he delivers a good one."Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is a film worth watching for a number of reasons.Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka was a lovable, trustworthy with kids kind of character.
Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka is a creepy, mysterious character.