“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (Warner Brothers)
Director Tim Burton and actor Johnny Depp team up for a remake of Roald Dahl’s children’s classic “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” It is typical Burton in its look and feel, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Add to the mix Depp’s fey interpretation of the chocolate mogul and you have a movie that is overdone to the extreme and like too many sweets gives you a bellyache of entertainment.
The first few minutes of the movie are marvelous starting with the background of chocolate making and going through to the delivery of the products in trucks that leave tire marks in the snow. It is wonderful, visual moviemaking at its best. Burton’s imagination plus Danny Elfman’s musical score are hard to beat.
But then comes the story and the introduction of Willy Wonka (Depp). He owns the chocolate making factory in an English town and offers a tour of the facilities to five winners of a “golden ticket” giveaway. Four obnoxious children plus the good-hearted Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) are the winners.
A parent or grandparent accompanies each child and they are all taken on a tour of the factory. As they move from room to room a child is eliminated in some way. One falls into a chocolate river, another swells up like a blueberry, a third is trapped inside a television program, and a fourth goes down a disposal spout. Seeing the children get into these predicaments could be scary to young kids.
For adults it just seems like a too long marathon of Depp plying his quirks and Burton aiding and abetting him. The longer the movie runs, the more excruciating it becomes. Finally even the sweet-faced Highmore becomes annoying.
Overall the movie just comes off as creepy and boring, not funny or charming. I would no more let my child tour a factory with Willy Wonka than I would let him go off to Neverland with Michael Jackson.
The movie is rated PG for mild profanity and some scary scenes of children in peril.
Burton and Depp definitely had a vision of what this movie should be. Unfortunately being different does not mean it is better. Quirkiness for quirkiness sake becomes annoying after a while, and Depp’s high-pitched voice and vacant stares take on a malevolent tone. This may be good acting on Depp’s part but it doesn’t make for a comfortable movie experience.
I wasn’t a big fan of Gene Wilder’s take on “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” but it is much more digestible than this quirky confectionery from Burton/Depp.
I scored “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” a double-dipped 3 out of 10.
