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quiet_tiger) wrote2005-07-17 07:15 pm
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
With all the Harry Potter stuff, I wonder if Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lost some steam in its promotion.
When I first heard that Tim Burton was remaking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I wasn't too interested. The Gene Wilder version is damn creepy, and I don't care for it. Johnny Depp also really doesn't do anything for me. But then as the months past and I thought about it some more, I decided that I wanted to see it afterall. I like Tim Burton. And I wanted to see how faithful it was to the book.
In preparation, I reread the book this past week. And, afterwards, I couldn't help but think, "What the hell about this book appealed to me so much when I was little?" It's a weird, freaky little book with weird little characters, with weird stuff happening, about a guy who isn't particularly likable. I've read it dozens of times, and yet this time it just struck me differently. I suppose that's what happens when you read a kids' book after college.
Overall, I thought the movie was very faithful to the book. The Buckets were great, the other children were great, and Veruca in particular was very well done. The sets were very nice, though it was clear that a lot of them were green screen stuff. Are the days of elaborate Hook-style sets gone? The opening credit sequence was very good.
Willy Wonka's... well, he's very Tim Burton. Maybe it's just because I'm older, or maybe it's the oddles of slash I read this morning, but Wonka just seemed very queer. And not in a "peculiar" way. I liked his costume, though I think in the book his pants are described as being green and his coat purple. And I could have sworn he was wearing some sort of dog collar, but it was a fancy clasp in the shape of a W.
The Oompa Loompas were something else altogether. Who came up with the idea in both films that they all had to look alike? Pretty creepy. Then again, knee-high men running around singing are creepy anyway. Part of why I wanted to see the movie was because I wanted to hear what they did with the songs. The songs in the Gene Wilder version were damn disturbing, and they get stuck in your head. The ones in this version actually contained poetry from Roald Dahl, which is what I was hoping for. The music put to them sounded very '80s to me. At least their costumes were less creepy. (Can you tell I don't like Oompa Loompas?)
What I found interesting was the attention to detail in some areas, and yet the lack of it in others. The scenes inside the factory were mostly dead-on with respect to the book. Throughout the film a lot of the dialogue was even from the book. There was something that wasn't right, but I forget what it was. As far as details I wish had been kept in, the first is that in the book it is made clear that Charlie opens his candy bar from the farthest corner, which was ignored in the film. Also, Charlie offers his candy to his family, and everyone refuses to share it with him, but in the movie they accept the offer.
Then, what makes it so great that little Charlie wins is that the book makes such a point of explaining just how cold and hungry the family, particularly Charlie, got once his father lost the job at the toothpaste factory. The kid is starving on his feet, and he finds the money in the snow, and he buys one candy bar and wolfs it down. Then, he's supposed to think about how his family can use the money from the change, but then decides to buy just one more bar. This second bar is the one that contains the Golden Ticket. What makes this scene so great is that Charlie treating himself to something small, while considering how the rest of the money will help his family, wins him the greatest gift in the world. I just wish that this one bit had been more like the book. It would have been more dramatic.
Wonka and the Oompa Loompas overall also seemed more ominous, somehow. Wonka really came off a bit of an asshole. In the book he's a dotty old coot, and other than ignoring people, he doesn't seem so bad. A little indifferent to the fates of the bad children. But in this, he's portrayed as almost hoping that the children all have some horrible thing happen to them. And one of the children even brought up how the Oompa Loopmas know the names of all the children, which Wonka just shrugs off. It's like he set the factory with booby traps for them all. I just didn't get that impression from the book, but I also wasn't looking into it in such a way.
And... what in the world was with all the Daddy Issues they gave Wonka? In the book, Wonka is just a weird guy whose origin is not explained. Nothing personal is explained at all, other than he doesn't live in cacao beans. But, in the movie, it was conflict with his father that drove Wonka to become the candy master. It just seemed unnecessary; maybe there was a message I was supposed to get and just didn't, other than the theme of the importance of family.
Speaking of such, the book ends with the Buckets all moving into the factory with Charlie and Wonka, and Wonka has no problem at all with that. This is pretty much explicitly stated. So... why add the depressing scene where Charlie gives up the factory for his family? It just added more depressing scenes to the movie, and made it longer. I just really can't comprehend why it was deemed necessary to fabricate Wonka's past and have that affect how he interacts with everyone. If anyone has some theories on this, please share.
Hmm... I think there was more I wanted to talk about, but I can't remember anything right now.
Overall it was very enjoyable, and other than a few things, very faithful to the book, and somewhat less creepy than Gene Wilder.
And Veruca is hilarious.
During the Chocolate Room scene I just had the hugest craving for a Hershey bar, so at the store later I scored one of those big ones. It doesn't have a Golden Ticket, but it does have almonds, which taste better.
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If that makes any sense, lol!!
:D
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Haven't read the book, though.
:D