CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (2005)
Tagline: The Factory Opens July 2005.
(Adventure, Burton, Family) [PG]
I'm the World Record holder in chewing gum. I'm not afraid of anything!
In case you aren’t familiar with the storyline, Willy Wonka owns a giant but secretive Chocolate Factory and has decided he needs to invite 5 random kids to it. The way he decides to do this is to put 5 golden tickets into candy bars and distribute them around the world. Every kid that finds one is morally challenged while the humble Charlie understands he’s freakishly lucky to even be there since his whole family is poor, lives in a jacked out Tim Burton-esque house, and could barely afford the candy bar, to begin with. What kind of hijinks and horror is Willy going to lead these kids into?
Okay, let me say, that this is NOT a horror flick, but man if it wanted to be one it definitely could. In fact, at some point, I wouldn’t be shocked if someone takes this story and makes it a full blown horror flick. After seeing the first one when I was a kid I was super excited for an update and this thing does not disappoint visually. The sets and ideas in this movie are wildly over the top and definitely hold their own against the original.
The good: I actually liked the Oompa-Loompa update and the songs they sang. Unfortunately, I had to look up some of the lyrics because they were pretty monotone and hard to understand at times. This is probably because they were all played by Deep Roy who is most famous for being in STAR TREK BEYOND, but he’s been in a ton of movies. I also liked all the younger actors they picked for this movie. The kids were up to the task and did a great job. I also loved the set designs and some of the new ideas they threw in to give this story a new spin, while still sticking close to the source material.
The bad: I wasn’t crazy about Johnny Depp’s role as Willy Wonka. Depp is a great actor, but I would almost rather than had Christopher Lee as Willy because he would have added some levity and commanded the role a bit better. Lee was in the movie but played Willy Wonka’s father instead of Willy Wonka. I also think if you are going to cast Helena Bonham Carter at all, you give her a lot more screen time. It would have been cool to see her as one of the parents. I really disliked that it lacked charm. At one point Willy even mentions cannibalism which just felt incredibly irresponsible writing-wise. It would have also been nice if the Oompa-Loompas sang at least one song from the original movie.
If I am given the choice of the two versions I am going with the 1971 version. Tim Burton’s production sets and the movie's overall feel are just really hard not to be mesmerized by, but sadly it lacks endearing charisma and the adult casting regarding the parents seem haphazard.
I give this thing a 4 out of 7. A few changes could have helped, but the script had too many issues to give this a 5.
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