Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

"Everything in this room is eatable, even I'm eatable! But that is called "cannibalism", my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies."

Charlie Bucket (Highmore) lives in a dilapidated house with his loving parents (Carter and Taylor) and bed-ridden grandparents: Grandpa Joe (Kelly), Grandpa George (David Morris), Grandma Georgina (Liz Smith), and Grandma Josephine (Eileen Essell).  They live on cabbage soup and dream of a better life for Charlie.

Their town is the home of the chocolate factory of Willy Wonka (Depp).  No one has seen Wonka for years, but his factory is still producing chocolate.  Wonka hides 5 golden tickets in chocolate bars, and the winners/recipients of the tickets are invited to tour the factory along with one of their parents.  The tickets are found by gluttonous Augustus Gloop (Wiegratz), competitive gum chewer Violet Beauregard (Robb), spoiled Veruca Salt (Winter), and videogame obsessed Mike Teavee (Fry).  Charlie is accompanied by Grandpa Joe.  The Wonka factory is filled with many delicious wonders and the intriguing Oompa-Loompas (Roy) that work in the factory, but who will survive the tour and claim the prize?


In 1964, Roald Dahl wrote "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".  The book is considered a children's classic and has been popular sine it's debut.  Due to it's popularity, it has a place in popular culture.  It has been adapted to film twice, adapted to theater and adapted/parodied in many avenues in pop culture.

The first film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, was released in 1970 as a musical with Gene Wilder in the title role.  Dahl served as a screenwriter (with David Seltzer) for the film, but ultimately disowned the film.  He didn't like the changes Seltzer made to the story.  After the disappointment of that film, he refused to grant film rights to the sequel "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator."  However, they were able to convince the Dahl estate to greenlight an update.

With Tim Burton in the director chair, the visuals were sure to be incredible.  Burton brought his usual auteur style to the film and his usual list of actors.  He also updated the world of the characters, making the kids more a product of their time. Like the 1970 film, this one features original songs. The songs are performed by the Oompa Loompas and were written by regular Burton composer Danny Elfman. Elfman used some of Dahl's original language in the songs, and each song has a different style (reflecting a different era).

The film is ok, but it is a continual comparison to the 1970 film.  Johnny Depp is weird as Wonka.  I know that is the point, but he is just creepy.  It is interesting, but I prefer the 1970s version.  It is ok, but when compared with the original, it comes up short.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) 115 minutes
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka
Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket
David Kelly as Grandpa Joe
Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Bucket
Noah Taylor as Mr. Bucket
Deep Roy as Oompa-Loompas
Missi Pyle as Mrs. Beauregarde
James Fox as Mr. Salt
Adam Godley as Mr. Teavee
Franziska Troegner as Mrs. Gloop
AnnaSophia Robb as Violet Beauregarde
Julia Winter as Veruca Salt
Jordan Fry as Mike Teavee
Philip Wiegratz as Augustus Gloop