Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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By Todd Karella
July 15, 2005

Original Story Synopsis:

Movie-Pix Best Guess:

A young boy along with five others win a contest to enter the amazing chocolate factory owned by the eccentric Willy Wonka. A remake of the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

With both Johnny Depp and Tim Burton working on the project, expect it to be a dark and strange film with interesting visual effects.

Rated PG

Movie-Pix Hit or Miss

Best Guess Results:

This film brought nothing new to the original tale. It was neither darker or more visually spectacular as you might expect to come from Tim Burton's mind.

Instead it was more childish and silly, something the film did not need to be.

~So sweet it's bitter~

When the news came out that Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was going to me remade by Tim Burton, there was a huge buzz on how his vision would affect the film.
With his history of strange and dark films, most people were expecting an even darker and more twisted remake of the 1971 original. Unexpectedly, the film is cheesier and sillier with no strange dark overtones.
I'm still more creeped out by the original Oompa Loompas with the

orange skin and the strange songs than I am from this new version where one man (Deep Roy) played every one of them and performed enitre musical numbers.
The storyline is basically the same as the recluse Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) after years of silence suddenly decides to open his chocolate factory. The catch is that it's only open to five people who find a golden ticket hidden in his famous Wonka Bars.
The children that find the bars are horrible human beings. Augustus Gloop (Philipe Wiegratz) is a glutton. Veruca Salt (Julia Winter) is a

spoiled rich brat. Mike Teavee is obsessed with televisions and video games. Violet Beauregarde (Annasophia Robb) chews gum constantly and is overly competitive.
None of these children deserve to find a ticket, but there's one ticket left. That last ticket is found by the one good hearted person in the film Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) comes from a dirt poor family where his birthday present is a chocolate bar, the only chocolate he will get all year.

As the children and their one chaperone each traverse the chocolate factory, bad things begin to happen. Augustus falls into the river of chocolate and is whisked away. Violet chews some experimental gum and swells up like a giant blueberry. Veruca is labled a bad nut and is dumped into the garbage. Mike Teevee ends up being shrunk and put into a TV.
Only Charlie makes it through the entire factory. This is an obvious moral lesson as the only good kid makes it through and the others get

their "just desserts".
At least in the original there was a test for Charlie as well, but in this film the whole journey seems to be just to punish and tempt the bad children as they come across the one thing they can't resist.
The ending is also anticlimactic as Charlie turns down the offer to own the factory and stay with his parents. It then leads into a journey for Willy Wonka as he has many flashbacks about his childhood and must go see his father to resolve his issues.