Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Wow !

I have to say that despite the reviews, spoilers and interviews I've read, this film took my breath away ! The opening scenes - which I know some viewers have objected to as too menacing or high-tech, seemed to set the right tone for me. I was reminded of the manufacturing scenes from Edward Scissorhands (an earlier Burton/Depp collaboration) which I only saw for the first time a couple of months ago...

The singing puppets scene was funny - I was reminded of the singing puppets in Shrek - although I heard some small children shrieking when they started burning...

I loved the boat on the chocolate river - that was gorgeous - and the children seemed to be as obnoxious as I remembered from the book (and far more obnoxious, I felt, than in the Gene Wilder version), especially Mike Teavee ! I had to laugh at Wonka telling him not mumble just because he couldn't understand Mike's high-tech jargon !

The look of Wonka hacking through the jungle was pure Johnny Depp - he looked like an Indiana Jones-wannabe - and much better without the weird hair style and white face (although even with that look, I wasn't reminded of Michael Jackson, as so many people have been). I'm ambivalent about the Oompa-Loompas - I know it's not politically correct to portray a group of pygmy foreigners who are "imported" to work in a factory, but they provided some very funny moments - particularly when four of them did the Beatles tribute...

I loved Freddie Highmore as Charlie - that lad can really act - and I thought it was interesting that Burton & co. had Charlie suggest selling the ticket to the highest bidder because they needed the money more than he needed the chocolate. I liked the idea that he was thinking of his family's welfare, not just the benefit to himself. This seemed a stark contrast to Verucca Salt and her father instructing his factory workers to open thousands of bars of chocolate so he could get a ticket for her.

Oh and my favourite laugh out loud moments - Wonka walking into the doors of the glass elevator, not once but twice !

I didn't think the backstory of Charlie and his scary dentist father was strictly necessary, but I did enjoy seeing Christopher Lee again (it seems a long time since he played Saruman) - and I loved the fact that he had dozens of cuttings and a scrapbook recording his son's success.

All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this film and I look forward to watching it again when the DVD comes out (although I shall need to watch it on a bigger screen than my tiny portable, to do the FX justice !)

Now I just have to find a copy of the book at the library...