What a Wonka (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (Deluxe Edition, 2 DVDs))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (Deluxe Edition, 2 DVDs)
Date:	25/11/05 (1066 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Depp's lead, Tim Burton's direction

Disadvantages: Occasionally poor fx, unnecessary embellishment of the original story

As a child I was always captivated by tales from the dark mind of Roald Dahl. Perhaps one of his greatest tales was “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. The story of a poor boy who wins against the odds isn’t uncommon but it was always the piece that sandwiched such an ordinary premise that set aside the British/Norwegian genius. Never happy with the Gene Wilder led 1971 movie version, the film-makers were instructed not to use the book’s title for the movie such was Dahl’s angst with the way that film panned out. And so “Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory” was re-made by the inspirational Tim Burton to hopefully do justice to its original creator’s wishes and carry the eponymous title.

Willy Wonka is the mysterious owner of the world’s most famous chocolate factory. Disillusioned with the amount of industrial espionage that his chocolate creations have suffered, Wonka closes the factory gates to the world, seemingly for good although chocolate production continues apparently unaided by ordinary workers.

Charlie is the humble only son of the Bucket family. Grindingly poor, they eat cabbage soup most days and support a gaggle of permanently bed-ridden grandparents. Out of the blue, Charlie wakes up along with the rest of the world to the proclamation that five golden tickets have been hidden within Wonka chocolate bars distributed to all four corners of the globe. Those that purchase the bars with the tickets will get an invite to the chocolate factory and meet the anonymous owner. Finding a stray bank note in the gutter, Charlie buys the chocolate bar with the last golden ticket and takes his place along with 4 other children to enter the realms of the ephemeral Willy Wonker and his mysterious factory.

The biggest challenge facing any movie that uses a book as a reference is the closeness of the screenplay to the actual book. This latest version does enough to be allowed the use of the book’s title although the film’s producers didn’t have the obstacle of the obstinate Dahl to contend with like the 1971 movie did (Dahl’s widow, Felicity, is one of the executive producers). Still, it is generally faithful although in keeping with movies like the Grinch and others, it does delve into the main character’s psyche presenting the audience with a pseudo-psychiatric analysis at times based on the lead’s bizarre childhood and his ongoing hang-ups with his relationship with his father. I certainly can’t recall the book taking a similar route and it’s this kind of artistic license that can annoy the book reader when making comparisons.

Yet again, Johnny Depp gets to play a dysfunctional lead. With a whole gallery of idiosyncratic characters already in his past (see Cap’n Jack Sparrow in Pirates of The Caribbean and Edward ScizzorHands as just two examples), Depp once gain revels in the bizarreness of the situation. I loved Gene Wilder’s version of Willy Wonka and Depp’s pasty faced, almost freak-like creation takes Wonka onto a different level. Those associated with the movie deny any link with Michael Jackson and the on-screen Wonka but with that pasty complexion, effeminate voice and outlandish stares, it’s hard not to think of the weird, monkey-loving popster when gazing at Depp’s efforts.

The supporting cast is top draw. Freddie Highmore as Charlie is a high-quality child actor whist Helena Bonham Carter (Charlie's mum), James Fox (Veruka Salt's father), Christopher Lee (Willy Wonka's father) and David Kelly (Grandpa Joe) reads like a role call from a British Actor’s Guild. So good is Kelly’s contribution as Grandpa Joe that there are mutterings that he may be in line for an Oscar nomination.

Tim Burton is a genius of a director. I loved his work on Batman, Edward Scizzorhands and others. He always manages to conjure up a surreal world of comic-book characters where the story sits on the edge with frequent bouts of quirky humour with a nod and a wink to the audience. On this occasion, Depp gets to ham it up with some stinging one-liners against a back drop of sets straight out of a midnight imagination that could only be Burton’s. Unusually, there are times when the special effects let the final product down. Whilst the fairground ride opening in the Chocolate factory is beautifully delivered as it finally catches fire, the scene with the gondola-like boat is let down by some poor modelling/CGI that looks decidedly unconvincing. Also, replicating the Oompa Lumpa using CGI as opposed to using a large cast of little people simply doesn’t work.

I’m never sure if it’s for effect or simply to extend the film but the underlying issues with Wonka’s father seemed irrelevant at times. Dahl’s stories were usually simple and didn’t have any in-depth analysis to them and so the fixation with Wonka’s deprivation of chocolate as a child resulting in the world’s biggest brace and hence, the whitest teeth ever as an adult seems more like an oddity than anything else. Christopher Lee plays a senior dentist, which causes all kinds of angst and paranoia for his son, Willy Wonka. This also results in an overlong finale with a distinct saccharine feel that, again, is out of keeping with Dahl’s unsentimental story.

Despite the movie’s short-comings (and there are more than I thought), there is so much to like about this version. The audience is drawn into an almost Dickensian fable about how children can be mind-numbingly naughty with the most extreme of consequences during the factory tour. Depp gets to deliver some wickedly funny one-liners and the imagination employed in the re-creation of the factory and the world of Charlie Bucket in general is all Burton again and wonderfully so. My daughter laughed throughout and I enjoyed the experience myself finding that the movie rolled along at a fair old pace with the exception of the pondering at the end which could have been cut.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is hugely entertaining, family fun and Depp’s lead performance is worth the admission money in its own right. Definitely recommended to young and old alike although the PG cert makes it debatable as to suitability for very young children (if you see it at the cinema. The DVD is rated 12A)

As far as DVD extras go: The 2nd disc is split into features and activities. The features are highlighted by a short consisting of stills, interviews with family and friends and archive footage of Roald Dahl when he was alive. Entitled "Fantastic Mr Dahl" (an obvious play on "Fantastic Mr Fox"), the short is presented by Alan Yentob and is a fascinating insight into the legendary writer's life. With a particular emphasis on Dahl's writing shed, this feature will be of interest to anyone that's read any of his books as well as those with a general interest in Dahl as a man.

Also amongst the features is "Attack of the Squirrels" and "Becoming Oompa Lumpa". The former is a short investigating the months of training that went into getting the squirrels ready for one particular scene in the movie whilst the Oompa Lumpa feature looks at the gruelling schedule endured by Deep Roy as he was required to sing, dance, learn how to rock climb and an assortment of other skills needed to play the part.

"Making The Mix" is sub-headed into "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory: Chocolate Dreams", "Different Faces, Different Flavours", "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory: Sweet Sounds", "Designer Chocolate" and "Under the Wrapper". With a mix of interviews and excerpts from the movie, the Director, producers and several of the leads give an insight into the effects, production, musical score and the art that went into the making of the movie. Personally, I found this very interesting and to listen to visionaries like Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and Danny Elfman on the musical front was a real pleasure. I should imagine only die-hard movie buffs would seek this part of the DVD out.

The activities include: "Oompa Lumpa Dance", "The Bad Nut", "The Inventing Machine" and "Search for the Golden Ticket". Generally aimed at children, the activities are hastily assembled games and activities designed at the most basic level and really won't hold anyone's interest for too long.

Finally, there is a PC DVD ROM drive aspect that links with Charlie and the Chocolate factory related parts of the Internet.

I took advantage of the buy any CD at Tesco to get £5 off this particular DVD so it cost only £9.84 in the end for a 2-disc set with nearly 5 hours of material. There is a lot of promotion going on around this DVD just at the moment so feel free to shop around for the best deal.

Thanks for reading

Marandina

Note: Technical aspects of the DVD include: 5.1 Dolby Digital, audio descriptive, 2.0 Dolby stereo and 1.85 wide screen/colour aspect.

Summary: Write up of the DVD