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Charlie
and the chocolate factory
Production: USA / Great Britain2005.
Director: Tim Burton
Duration: 115'
Genre: Fantasy
Characters :
Willy Wonka-Johnny Depp
Charlie Bucket-Freddie Highmore
Grandpa Joe-David Kelly
Mrs. Bucket-Helena Bonham Carter
Mr. Bucket-Noah Taylor
Mrs. Beauregarde-Missi Pyle
Mr. Salt-James Fox
Oompa-Loompa-Deep Roy
Dr. Wonka-Christopher Lee
Mr. Teavee-Adam Godley
Mrs. Gloop-Franziska Troegner
Violet Beauregarde-AnnaSophia Robb
Veruca Salt-Julia Winter
Mike Teavee-Jordan Fry
Augustus Gloop-Philip Wiegratz Plot: Charlie is a poor boy living in a small house with his grandparents and his parents. He has a lust for chocolate but unfortunately he can’t buy it. He lives near the most famous chocolate factory in the world, Wonka’s factory. He is very curious about it, especially because, after it has opened again “nobody ever comes in and nobody ever comes out “. He asks grandpa Joe for explanation and he tells him that there was a time when lots of people worked in that factory, but when some spies revealed all the secret recipes, Willy Wonka, its owner, closed it. The factory started to work again three years after but nobody knows who are the workers now.
Suddenly, Willy Wonka decides to open his factory to 5 people. But, to enter the factory, they must find a golden ticket, a special card who allows them in the factory and that Willy Wonka himself puts into the bars of chocolate.
Charlie desires a golden ticket, but, because of his poverty, he has a few opportunities to find one. Every golden ticket is found by spoilt children and only after three attempts he finds his one.
The special day arrives and Charlie and the other one enter the factory and meet the eccentric owner of this wonderful place. In every room they visit, one of the spoilt children goes away, after a stupid action, and at the end, only Charlie remains. Willy Wonka nominates Charlie, after some particular facts, his heir and builds a house for Charlie’s family that start to live with him in his factory.
Comments: a beautiful film, different from the first, scary sometimes, in the perfect Tim Burton’s style. Johnny Depp is the terrifying Willy Wonka, the strange owner of the factory that guides the children into his world and the viewer in his past. He is very good at interpreting this strange character, but, in my opinion, not as good as Gene Wilder, the first Willy Wonka. I have to say that the visual effects are amazing: in this film the chocolate river seems real chocolate and all the inventing rooms show what special effects mean in 2006. The whole film follows the book more than the first one, but sometimes it is a bit boring.
Now, I want to express my analysis of this film: first of all, the young actors, excluding Charlie, are not really good. In my opinion, they sometimes seem a bit fake. I miss the old oompa-lompas, they were wonderful, amazing, and in this film they are bad, odious, I’ve hated them and their songs. I miss also the songs, this not a musical and it lost his wonderful atmosphere in this way.
Even if I don’t like lots of things, Tim Burton remains one of my favourite directors and I just can say that the atmosphere he creates in this film is beautiful, not as good as in the first, but near it.
I complete my analysis with one thing: “Tim Burton, if you ever read this review, I want to tell you one thing: maybe the first film was more beautiful than yours, but don’t worry, go on this way, doing films like that, making me afraid, this is what we love!”
Director biography: born in Burbank, California, the first of two sons to Bill and Jean
Burton. He found home life and school difficult and he escaped the reality of everyday life by watching horror and low budget
films,
Following high school, he won a Disney scholarship to attend the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. He studied animation for three years and was then hired by the Walt Disney Studios as an animator
apprentice. The first film he worked on was Ralph Bakshi's adaptation of The Lord of the
Rings, for which he is uncredited. Later, Burton's job was to draw for "The Fox and the
Hound", which wasn't exactly the direction he had wanted to go at the time. He later commented on the refusal of Disney to use his design for
"Fox and the Hound" on the fact that contrary to the general cute look of the movie
characters, his designs made them "look like roadkills". Burton was not happy during his Disney
period, yet it was during this period that he wrote and drew the poem and illustrations that would be the basis for his celebrated Nightmare Before
Christmas.
In 1982, Burton made his first short film, Vincent, a six-minute film about a young boy who flashes from reality into a fantasy where he is Vincent Price, with Price himself providing
narration. This was followed by the live-action short
Frankenweenie, starring a young Barret Oliver . The movie,
Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985), was made on a budget of $7 million and grossed more than $40 million at the box office. Burton
asked Danny Elfman to provide the music for the film. Since then Elfman has provided the score for all but one Burton film, Ed
Wood, which was scored by Howard Shore. After "Pee-Wee", Burton participated in the TV series
"Alfred Hitchcock Presents", directing the episode "The
Jar". He then went on to direct his second movie, Beetlejuice (1988) starring Michael Keaton in the title
role. Burton's ability to produce hits with low budgets impressed studio executives and he received his first big budget film Batman (1989).
In 1990, Burton co-wrote (with Caroline Thompson) and directed Edward
Scissorhands, which started his collaboration with Johnny Depp.
By the end of Edward, Burton finally agreed to direct a sequel to Batman on the condition that he would be granted total control. The result was Batman
Returns, which featured Keaton returning as the Dark Knight, Danny De Vito
(as the Penguin), Michelle Pfeiffer (as Catwoman), and Christopher
Walken. He wrote the original story for and produced, but did not actually direct, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), originally meant to be a
children's book in rhyme. The film was directed by Henry Selick and written by Michael McDowell and Caroline
Thompson, based on Burton's original story. Burton collaborated with Selick again for James and the Giant Peach (1996), which Burton
co-produced. His next film, Ed Wood (1994), was of a much smaller scale, depicting the life of Ed Wood
Jr., a filmmaker sometimes called "the worst director of all
time". Ed Wood is the only Burton film so far to feature a
score not by Danny Elfman. The music for Ed Wood was written by
Howard Shore.The creative duo reunited for Mars Attacks (1996).
Sleepy Hollow was released in 1999, again starring Depp , a host of Burton regulars in supporting roles
. Along with change in his personal life (separation from Lisa
Marie), Burton changed radically in style for his next project, leaving the haunted forests and colorful outcasts behind to go on to directing a remake of Planet of the
Apes.
"Planet of the Apes" was a commercial success, grossing $68 million in its opening weekend.
Burton went on to direct Big Fish (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) and Corpse Bride
(2005).
In 1989, he married Lena Gieseke, a German artist. They divorced shortly after the filming of Batman
Returns. He is currently engaged to Helena Bonham Carter (since 2001) and lives in
London. They have a son, Billy-Ray Burton, born in October 2003.
by Cecilia |
