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Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) is an ordinary boy in a very poor, but happy, family who survive on cabbage soup. Charlie receives one “Wonka” chocolate bar every year for his birthday. He lives near Wonka’s chocolate factory and is fascinated to hear from his grandfather, “Grandpa Joe” who used to work there, tales about the factory and the reasons for all the staff being made redundant. They wonder how Wonka’s can continue to manufacture candy when it appears that Mr Wonka has no people working for him.

Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) is the eccentric owner of Wonkas. He decides to put up posters all around the world announcing that five golden tickets are going to be placed, at random, in five candy bars and the children who find these tickets will get a tour around the chocolate factory, a lifetime supply of chocolate and there will be one special prize for one of the children…

As a child I was a Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory fanatic and used to watch it every day to the point where I can watch it even now and recite the script along with the film. I was bemused to see this new version but was sceptical as to how it would live up to the original.

Director Tim Burton gives the film a fairytale feeling with quite dark undertones. Johnny Depp plays an excellent Willy Wonka, he is extremely eccentric and a bit menacing in a way. He is as far removed from Gene Wilder (the original Willy Wonka) as you can get! The child actors are well cast. In particular the characters of overweight Augustus Glube and gum-addicted Violet Beauregarde are great. Look out for Charlie Bucket’s teacher from the original film who makes a cameo appearance near the beginning of the film. There is some good humour throughout the film, particularly from Charlie’s grandmother, “Grandma Josephine” and of course from Willy Wonka.

Standing on its own this film is entertaining. The colourful sets look fantastic and there are computer generated graphics used to add to the magic but somehow I felt the film lacked some of the sense of wonder present in the original. A lot of the film feels rushed – the children find the tickets in about 10 minutes and there just isn’t the same build up of excitement about who is going to find them. There is no real look of awe when the children see the inside the factory for the first time. They go around the edible garden and eat but they don’t seem overly impressed by it. There are five songs in the film sung by the computer generated Oompa Loompas and they are sung so quickly that it is easy to miss the lyrics.

Bottom Line: Good overall, true to the children's book by Roald Dahl which makes it different from the original but lacking a real sense of wonder. The film is probably not suitable for children under six as some scenes might be a bit frightening.

Reviewed by Sharon Swift, Premier Movie Reviews 2005.

RELATED MOVIE REVIEWS:

JOHNNY DEPP: Blow,  Once Upon A Time In Mexico,  Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,  Secret Window,  Finding Neverland.

HELENA BONHAM CARTER: Planet Of The Apes.

FREDDIE HIGHMORE: Finding Neverland.

Genre: Comedy

Director: Tim Burton

Certificate: Charlie And The Chocolate Factory was rated PG by the Irish Film Censor's Office (www.ifco.ie) i.e. may be watched by unaccompanied children of any age but some scenes might be unsuitable for young children. Violence = mild. Drugs = none. Sex/Nudity = none. Language = none.

Official Movie Website: Charlie And The Chocolate Factory

~ Main Cast ~

Johnny Depp

Helena Bonham Carter

Freddie Highmore

James Fox

David Kelly