Burton and Depp Create a Modern Fairy Tale with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

Even though I'm in my thirties, I'm not one of the millions of my age cohorts who grew up with "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory." In fact, I had read the book and was in my twenties before I ever even saw the movie--which I saw in a "meeting" at my job a few years back. So my childhood memories aren't in danger of being "destroyed" or "immolated" or "drawn and quartered" by a new version of Roald Dahl's most famous tale.

I'm also a fan of Tim Burton's ability to create worlds. From "Pee-Wee Herman's Big Adventure" to "Beetlejuice," "Edward Scissorhands," "Batman," and even "Planet of the Apes"...the man has an uncanny way of designing worlds and bringing me into them--sometimes they're just a beat or two off of the real world, and other times they're completely different visions, which can either help or hinder a good story. In this case, Tim Burton's vision goes hand in hand with Dahl's book, and is an explosion of both color and emotion that I found extraordinary.

The story is well-known: an eccentric owner of a chocolate factory sends out five Golden Tickets in candy bars, each ticket an invitation to tour his factory, which has been closed off from the public for decades. Five lucky children and their parents tour the factory, and four of the five are eliminated by their own greed, gluttony, and other character failings. Ultimately, heroic but poor Charlie Bucket is the only child remaining, and Wonka rewards him handsomely.

So that's the story, told on film once in 1971 in a musical version starring Gene Wilder, and now retold under direction of Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, and Helena Bonham Carter.

Some high points of this movie for me:

Johnny Depp's characterization of Wonka. It shared some key elements with Gene Wilder's, because it seems to be a part of the character from the original source material. Things like Wonka's disdain for the children and their parents as they proceed through the factory tour, his various eccentricities that are frowned upon by everyone but Charlie Bucket and his Grandpa Joe. Depp played Wonka as a combination of child and adult, and the flashbacks we get to his earlier life both as child and as budding chocolatier give entertaining enlightenment to the adult weirdo.

The world of Charlie Bucket is more well-rounded than in the 1971 version. Although pitifully poor (which would be played for laughs if this were any more broad), Charlie has a good and complete family, including both parents and both sets of grandparents. Actor Freddie Highmore, seen recently in "Finding Neverland" and "5 Children and It" is fantastic in the role. He seems less prominent than Charlie does in the older version, perhaps because Charlie doesn't pull himself to the forefront in the frenzied scenes where the kids go nuts in the candy factory. He's soulful, but not depressing, and is the only one of the children who doesn't break any of Wonka's rules in the factory. He remains pure, and Highmore's the perfect choice for the role.

The other children are wonderful as well--they're the high point of both films, and I was pleased to see that the other four "contenders" were recognizable, but updated with a few tweaks. My favorite was Mike Teavee, who's not only obsessed with television, but even more obsessed with video games. His "corrections" of Mr. Wonka, and Wonka's comebacks, reminded me all too well of my 7th Grade classroom. And I WILL be accusing annoying know-it-alls of "mumbling." Trust me.

I have mixed feelings about the added backstory for Wonka, showing us his childhood in the home of his father, played by Christopher Lee. It's always a pleasure to see Christopher Lee of course, but the backstory manufactured to bring more depth to Wonka may have removed some of his mystery. Other glimpses of Wonka's past, as when he built a palace of chocolate for an Indian Prince, were hilariously well-done, and bring a sense of history to the character and the film.

This version of the book has been accused of being darker than the 1971 version, but I really didn't feel like it was. The earlier version seems more psychedelic, darker, and more menacing than this version did--in this version you at least see the four "contenders" and their parents walking out of the factory alive, something it would have been comforting to see in the older version. The scope and vision that Burton brings to all of his films is beautiful here, and should be seen on the big screen to fully appreciate it.

I really feel that Burton has created a modern day fairy tale, which is what Roald Dahl did so well with most of his books, and Burton has attempted with so many of his movies. From the narration to the settings and characters, this really is a fairy tale for our time. And, like other retellings of fairy tales, it has heroes, villains, morals, and adventure. I loved it. My wife, who grew up with the 1971 version, also loved it. And although the songs of the Oompa-Loompahs have changed, they're still there, warning us about the foibles of children and parents and letting us know how we can find that big ol' chocolate factory ourselves.

It's weird, but I loved it.

RELATED REVIEWS:

BIG FISH http://www.epinions.com/content_128118263428

FINDING NEVERLAND http://www.epinions.com/content_179870207620

CHOCOLAT http://www.epinions.com/content_8752959108