|
charlie
and the chocolate factory |
director
Tim Burton
screenwriter
John August
based on
the book by
Roald Dahl
producers
Brad Grey
Richard D. Zanuck
cinematographer
Philippe Rousselot
music
Danny Elfman
editor
Chris Lebenzon
cast
Johnny Depp (Willy Wonka)
Freddie Highmore (Charlie Bucket)
David Kelly (Grandpa Joe)
Helena Bonham Carter (Mrs. Bucket)
Noah Taylor (Mr. Bucket)
Missi Pyle (Mrs. Beauregarde)
James Fox (Mr. Salt)
Deep Roy (Oompa Loompa)
Christopher Lee (Dr. Wonka)
Annasophia Robb (Violet Beauregarde)
Julia Winter (Veruca Salt)
Jordan Fry (Mike Teavee)
Philip Wiegratz (Augustus Gloop)
Geoffrey Holder (Narrator)
mpaa rating: PG
running
time: 115m
u.s.
release: 7/15/05
video
availability: TBA
official
website
other tim
burton films
reviewed on this website:
- big
fish
- corpse
bride
- ed
wood
- mars
attacks!
- planet
of the apes (2001)
- sleepy
hollow
|
I'll bet there are many adults
today who have queasy memories of 1971's Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory. Psychedelic yet moralistic, the movie
offered Gene Wilder in his full passive-aggressive efflorescence
as the mysterious chocolatier Willy Wonka, whose gentle demeanor
cloaked what appeared to be a deep contempt for children, his
most loyal clientele. It also had ghastly songs (without this
movie, Sammy Davis Jr. wouldn't have inflicted "The Candy
Man" on telethon viewers year after year), those obnoxious
Oompa Loompas, and colorful but indifferent direction by Mel
Stuart. If anyone feels any sort of residual fondness for it,
it's because that malicious fantasist Roald Dahl, in his original
book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, devised
such a ready-made fantasy concept: five children invited to spend
a day in the world's largest choccy emporium.
Remakes generally depress me
as much as they do anyone else, but Tim Burton's Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory is poised to become a new cult classic
to replace the old one. Burton understands this story in a way
few other directors could (although Danny DeVito, who did a rascally
job with Dahl's Matilda, might also have had fun with
the project). This director constantly veers from mopiness to
flamboyant glee, though Charlie is closer in tone to his
Beetlejuice than to his Edward Scissorhands. Once
again, Burton has Johnny Depp along for the ride, and though
many have said that Depp has based his Willy Wonka on Michael
Jackson, I suspect he's really playing the only person he ever
plays in Tim Burton films -- Tim Burton. This Wonka is a misfit
who enjoys showing off his elaborately designed playpen but isn't
much fazed by those who don't appreciate it.
As in all other versions, the
hero is Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), who lives in a broken-down
house with his poverty-level family. Burton, however, takes the
pathos out of Charlie's situation by giving him a house right
out of German expressionism -- the entire doorway leans
inward, for instance. Charlie is one of the five kids who discover
a Golden Ticket inside a Wonka candy bar -- a ticket to a day
inside the elusive Wonka's factory. The other kids are brats
who each illustrate a childish trait that Dahl hated: gluttonous
Augustus Gloop, gum-chewing Violet Beauregarde, cathode-mesmerized
Mike Teavee (whose fixation has been updated to videogames),
and, worst of all, spoiled rich girl Veruca Salt, whose attitude
is so rotten that a rock band named themselves after her. Their
punishments, as before, fit their crimes, though one wonders
what exactly Roald Dahl had against gum-chewing.
Instead of sappy Anthony Newley
songs, this movie has Danny Elfman scoring the original lyrics
from Dahl's book; there's no brain-searing "Oompa Loompa
doompadee doo" song here. The Oompa Loompas are all played
(via digital replication) by the diminutive Indian actor Deep
Roy, whose unsmiling and uncute persona here is both refreshing
and consistently funny. The sets are, of course, obvious sets,
but they always are in Tim Burton's films; the nasty bits (claustrophobes
will, as ever, have a hard time with Augustus Gloop's fate) are
softened by Burton's jaunty sense of artifice. Gene Wilder can
criticize this remake all he wants -- Burton and Depp have simply
done it better.
I have mixed feelings about
a backstory added by scripter John August, in which the young
Wonka's fascination with sweets is neatly tied to his forbidding
dentist dad. It adds little to the story except for a lame coda
in which Wonka, having learned the power of family, reunites
with his dad; however, since the father is played by Christopher
Lee -- still going strong at 83, Hammer bless him -- I'll forgive
it. This Factory, genuinely beautiful and imaginative,
is the movie that admirers of the original Factory (who
haven't seen it since they were kids) carry around in their heads.
And it adds another lovable freak to the Burton/Depp gallery,
perhaps the freakiest of all. Even without the Jacko undertones
some viewers see in it, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
is the most truly subversive entertainment for kids since ...
well, since Roald Dahl stopped writing.
|
