Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)
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| Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 "Good morning, starshine. The Earth says hello." -
Willy Wonka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 British-American-Australian musical fantasy comedy film directed by Tim Burton and written by John August, based on the 1964 British novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by The Zanuck Company, Plan B Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures and Theobald Film Productions. The film stars Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had its premiere at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on July 10, 2005, where money for the Make-a-Wish Foundation was raised. The film was released in the United States on July 15, 2005, in 3,770 theaters (including IMAX theaters).
Plot
Based on the beloved Roald Dahl tale, this comedic and fantastical film follows young Charlie Bucket and his Grandpa Joe as they join a small group of contest winners who get to tour the magical and mysterious factory of eccentric candy maker Willy Wonka. Aided by his diminutive Oompa Loompa workers, Wonka has a hidden motivation for the tour, one that he will reveal only after the children in the group show their true colors.
Good Qualities
- It's more faithful to the Roald Dahl book than the original film, but with a few changes from both the book and the 1971 film with the only things removed from the book are minor elements.
- This version fills in a major plot hole that both the original novel and 70s film had. In the previous works it was simply stated that whoever found Wonka's golden tickets would get to go to his factory, and the five winners just happened to be kids. Here, Wonka specifically stated he wanted kids to find those tickets, which clears up a major confusion for newcomers.
- The acting is amazing. Johnny Depp does a decent performance as Willy Wonka, despite his performance received more polarized response.
- Incredible musical score by Danny Elfman that captures the tone of the film.
- Augustus, Violet, Veruca, and Mike are all good foils to Charlie, despite Violet being rude, compared to 1971 film and original book. Due to their selfish and greedy personalities as opposed to Charlie's kind-hearted and selfless nature.
- The film also changes the quirks behind Violet and Mike's bratty behavior to be more with the times instead of treating gum chewing as a bad habit and reflecting Roald Dahl's anti-television stance, with Violet's gum chewing being part of her competitive nature (and the blueberry transformation reflecting her bloated ego), while Mike becomes destructive and better reflects the "lack of imagination" ideals that is the basis of Dahl's criticism of television by having him come off as a tech genius who criticizes the lack of practicality of candy and the way he feels that Wonka is wasting some innovative ideas on it.
- Roald Dahl's widow, Felicity Dahl, and daughter, Lucy Dahl, had a say during production.
- Roald Dahl's widow, Felicity Dahl, also served as an executive producer.
- Excellent performance from the child actors as it is apparent that they are giving their best effort.
- Excellent supporting cast.
- Every character has a unique personality and are fully-fleshed out.
- Each scene and location has it's own unique tone.
- Excellent costumes that express the character's personality (e.g. Mike wears a skull shirt which shows he's into creepy things).
- Catchy and rocking songs from the Oompa-Loompas as the four kids get into a predicament. And unlike the original version, all of them are a different genre of music (e.g., 50s mambo for Augustus, 60s disco for Violet, 70s hippie for Veruca, 80s rock for Mike).
- Outstanding production designing. The sets of the chocolate factory are amazing. From the chocolate room to the television room, they all look incredible.
- The film fixes up an error from the original film by showing the children leaving the factory, thus confirming contrary to popular belief that they weren't killed. It also shows how they were affected by the accidents they went through int he factory (Violet had turned blue and was now flexible to the point where she began walking on all fours and doing gymnastic-like stunts rather than walking, Mike had been stretched out to a ridiculous height, etc.)
- The film has some great narration.
- Some of the film posters feature the characters and objects symbolizing their personality (e.g. The poster featuring Augustus Gloop has two pigs on the top of the poster) which is cool and unique.
- Wilbur (Willy Wonka's father who served as a famous dentist) is a decent new addition for this version. He also serves as the reason why Willy got into the candy-making service in the first place (after being prohibited from eating candy by his father, Willy decided to run away and started his business).
- The scene where Wonka reunites with his father is one of the film's most heartwarming moments.
- It was interesting to find out that Deep Roy played many Oompa-Loompas in one film.
- The CGI effects are brilliant for 2005 standards and have aged well.
- The film has a realistic and very important moral about how family is important and comes first before all.
- Amazing Ending: As Charlie and his family live contently, Wonka becomes despondent, causing his company and sales to decline. He eventually turns to Charlie for advice, and he decides to help Wonka reconcile with his estranged father. During the reunion, Charlie notices newspaper clippings of Wonka's success which Wilbur collected while Wonka realizes the value of family as he and Wilbur finally reconcile. Afterwards, Wonka allows Charlie and his family to move into the factory together.
Bad Qualities
- Despite Charlie being the main titular protagonist, he doesn't get a lot of character development as the movie focuses more on Willy Wonka than Charlie, resulting in Charlie coming off as underdeveloped, uninteresting and difficult to relate to, compared to the 1971 film as well as the original book. It doesn't even help that Freddie Highmore's performance is bland either.
- As Doug Walker points in his "Old vs. New" comparison between this and Willy Wonka, the Charlie in this film acts too much like some holy figure, whereas the Charlie in the 1971 adaptation acts more like a regular kid (getting frustrated when the third Golden Ticket is found, giving into childlike temptation to try out the Fizzy Lifting Drinks).
- Highmore's performance as Charlie could actually be comparable to that of Mara Wilson as Lily in Thomas and the Magic Railroad.
- Johnny Depp's portrayal as Wonka received more polarized response. While he does a decent performance as himself, it gets very awkward and lost at times, as he's depicted as a lost child in a grown man's body due to his past.
- In the book, Willy Wonka calls the children by name but here he calls them "Little Boy" and "Little Girl" as if Johnny Depp couldn't be bothered to learn the children's names.
- Some fans find giving Willy Wonka a backstory takes out his description as a mysterious character, and his backstory of having issues with his father very cliché.
- Furthermore, said backstory is basically the film's equivalent of the Slugworth test in the original film (with it serving as the "movie only" final obstacle before Charlie gains the chocolate factory) which results in an ending that not only lacks the charm of the original film, but also drags the film out longer than it should be.
- Compared to the original book and the 1971 adaption, the movie is very dark in tone.
- It is critically panned by fans to the 1971 movie and usually attack fans to the 2005 movie.
Reception
Critical response
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released to positive critical reviews, with praise directed towards the visuals, set design, musical numbers, child stars, and Burton's direction. Depp's performance as Willy Wonka received a more polarized response. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 83% based on 231 reviews, with an average rating of 7.18/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Closer to the source material than 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is for people who like their Chocolate visually appealing and dark.". On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Box office
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory earned $56,178,450 in its opening weekend, the fifth-highest opening-weekend gross for 2005, and stayed at No. 1 for two weeks. The film eventually grossed $206,459,076 in US totals and $268,509,687 in foreign countries, coming to a worldwide total of $474,968,763. It was the 58th-highest-grossing film of all time when released, as well as seventh-highest for the US and eighth-highest worldwide for the year of 2005.
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Trailers
Reviews
Trivia
- It remains the only financially successful Roald Dahl adaptation, following the underperformances of Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox and Steven Spielberg's The BFG. Forbes hypothesized that the film's success could be attributed to Depp and Burton being at the height of their popularity in 2005.
- Marilyn Manson campaigned for the role of Willy Wonka. Other candidates were Rowan Atkinson, Dan Aykroyd, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, Chevy Chase, John Cleese, Warwick Davis, Robert De Niro, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Dwayne Johnson, Terry Jones, Michael Keaton, Ian McKellen, Steve Martin, Rik Mayall, Bill Murray, Mike Myers, Leslie Nielsen, Michael Palin, Brad Pitt, Adam Sandler, Jerry Seinfeld, Will Smith, Patrick Stewart, Ben Stiller and Robin Williams. Michael Jackson also campaigned for the role before his trial in 2003.
- Frank Oz was attached to the director's chair before Tim Burton took over. Martin Scorsese, Rob Minkoff, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson and Gary Ross were all at one point either seriously considered or attached to direct.
- Gregory Peck was first offered the role of Grandpa Joe, and he told Warner Brothers that he'd consider it. Sadly, he died before he could give his answer, but his family has revealed he was very eager to play the part. The only reason he didn't say yes right away was because he was afraid it would make him seem desperate and cause the studio to give him a lower paycheck. Peter Ustinov was also offered the role, but he passed away before he could give the producers his answer. Also considered were Richard Attenborough, Michael Caine, George Carlin, Kirk Douglas, Albert Finney, Richard Griffiths, Anthony Hopkins, Ron Moody, Paul Newman, Max von Sydow, Eli Wallach and David Warner. Liccy Dahl actually wanted Christopher Lloyd for the part with Dustin Hoffman as Willy Wonka, or possibly an English comedian like Eddie Izzard.
- Taylor Momsen auditioned for the role of Violet Beauregarde, but was deemed to be too beautiful for the role.
- Tim Burton, the director, is a childhood fan of Roald Dahl's work, which also greatly influenced Burton's art style.
- AnnaSophia Robb (Violet Beauregarde's actor) says she received a lot of jaw cramps while chewing her gum. Her dad also told her to not smack her gum, but the filmmakers told her otherwise.
- The line "Good morning starshine. The Earth says hello" originated from the musical Hair.
- Gene Wilder (the actor for Willy Wonka in the 1971 adaptation) didn't like the movie, when he was asked about the movie in 2013, he said "I think it's an insult. It's probably Warner Bros.' insult". He also criticized the choices that Burton made as a director, saying, "I don't care for that director. He's a talented man, but I don't care for him doing stuff like he did".
External Links
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Internet Movie Database
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on Rotten Tomatoes
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