Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Review by Zachary Keith Parker

    It's hard to beat the original 1971 classic, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, especially with Gene Wilder and his mysterious, unpredictable, but loving Father figure character. However, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Danny Elfman were behind the project with the intention of making a completely different film.

    John August, screenwriter of Tim Burton’s Big Fish, penned the script for this movie, using only the original source, Roald Dahl’s book, and not ever watching the original movie. Thus for Dahl fans, this movie does follow the book closer than the first film.

    In this remake, Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Willy Wonka is wonderful in its own right. His performance embodies the psychedelic, colorful, and uncanny style of director Tim Burton. Freddie Highmore (from Depp’s last film, Finding Neverland) plays Charlie, who finds the Golden ticket and goes away to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory with four other spoiled children for a tour. 

    However, both Wonka’s and Charlie’s characters take the back seat and remain obscure and unconvincing due to the focus on the stylistic interpretation of Dahl’s classic. Because of the aforementioned elements in Depp’s performance, Willy Wonka also lacks the genuine compassion of Gene Wilder’s 1971 performance.

    Sure, Depp nails the style, but it lacks substance. With this film, Burton has joined the ranks of Joel Schumacher and created a brainless summer flick obsessed with style over substance, form over content.

    The most “substance” in this movie lies in its insistence on a world driven by randomness and chance. Burton subtly weaves a theme of existentialism throughout the film. In fact, at one point in the film, we hear “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” the title of the book by the famed existentialist, Friedrich Nietzche. 

    Following this modern dribble, Wonka points out how “lucky” Charlie is to be at the factory; at home, Charlie’s parents and grandparents suggest different ways “Chance” affects Charlie and themselves. 

    When Augustus Gloop falls into the chocolate lake, some of the parents complain that the Oompa Loompa’s immediate song “seemed rather rehearsed.” However, Wonka contends that there is no such thing, and it was “improvisation.” In this vision, God does not exist, for He is dead, replaced by chaos. 

    However, in the movie, Grandpa George is the absolute nihilist, while everyone else recognizes the need to take joy in the pleasant things in life and in a family’s love (if you find either) since the rest of the world is pointless after all.

        “Why is everything here so completely pointless?”

        “Candy doesn’t have to have a point. That’s why it’s candy.”

    Overlooking any Nietzchean overtones, perhaps the filmmakers desired audiences to see this movie as being purely “eye candy,” pointless but fun. Even though a movie can be immensely entertaining and still poignant, this particular movie still melts because it compromises the highly entertaining style of the film with a contrived, slapped-on ending meant to display, but not impart, substance.

    August and Burton perhaps meant the ending to resolve issues surrounding Wonka’s family, however, it is far from profound, and its desire to be so is muted because Burton’s style alone cannot sustain it.

    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is as entertaining, and then forgettable, as any commonplace chocolate bar. On the other hand, its “Burtonesque” style, Depp’s acting, and Elfman’s score do offer some redeeming value to the film. Johnny Depp portrays an incredibly different Wonka. In fact, it's a totally different, but fun,Johnny Depp (Think Marilyn Manson with a top hat). But this remake has nearly more problems than it does redeeming qualities--"Eeww"

    Overall, it is an endlessly imaginative remake of a timeless classic, which overemphasizes “childishness,” a part of life that should “be put away,” and when compared to other great films, so should this movie.