Willy Wonka (Charlie) and the Chocolate Factory

For today’s entry on “Halloween Month,” I think I will review another one of my all time favorite movies, the 1971 classic, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Everyone might be wondering the same thing like they must have with “The Wizard of Oz.” There is some stuff in here that does have a scare value in it.

I agree with the late Roger Ebert when he said in his review:

Kids are not stupid. They are among the sharpest, cleverest, most eagle-eyed creatures on God's Earth, and very little escapes their notice. You may not have observed that your neighbor is still using his snow tires in mid-July, but every four-year-old on the block has, and kids pay the same attention to detail when they go to the movies. They don't miss a thing, and they have an instinctive contempt for shoddy and shabby work. I make this observation because nine out of ten children's movies are stupid, witless, and display contempt for their audiences, and that's why kids hate them. Is that all parents want from kids' movies? That they not have anything bad in them? Shouldn't they have something good in them -- some life, imagination, fantasy, inventiveness, something to tickle the imagination? If a movie isn't going to do your kids any good, why let them watch it? Just to kill a Saturday afternoon? That shows a subtle kind of contempt for a child's mind, I think.

This is just an introduction to an undeniably fact: “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” is quite possibly the best film of its kind since “The Wizard of Oz.” It claims to be a family movie, but it’s not entirely: Delightful, funny, scary, exciting, and most importantly, an authentic work of imagination. “Willy Wonka” is without a doubt an indisputably and wonderfully spun fantasy that works on every level, and it is fascinating because, like any classic fantasy, it is fascinated with itself.

It’s based on the famous Roald Dahl children’s book, and it was published by the Quaker Oats Company as a test in providing high-quality family entertainment, which it accomplished. It doesn’t cut corners and go for poor shortcuts like Disney. The cast is top-notch (Comedian Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, the CEO of the chocolate factory, Peter Ostrum as Charlie, the protagonist we all root for, and Jack Albertson as his Grandpa Joe who is his chaperone when he goes to Wonka’s factory), a wonderful production, and legitimate imagination.

The story, like all good fantasies, is about an incidental journey. Willy Wonka is a world-renowned chocolate manufacturer, and he hides five golden tickets in his chocolate bars that will win those five winners a trip to his chocolate factory and a lifetime supply of chocolates. Each ticket goes to a kid, who is required to have an adult chaperone with them, and Charlie (the poor newspaper boy who supports four grandparents (Franziska Liebing, Ernst Ziegler, Dora Altmann, and Albertson) and his mother, played by Diana Sowle) wins the last one.

The other four kids you will instantly hate once you see them, and they call come to a sad, but you know what would happen to them, end. One (Michael Bollner) falls into a chocolate lake and is sucked into one of the pipes and shot into the bowels of the factory. Another (Denise Nickerson) eats a gum that plumps her up and has to be taken to get squeezed, a spoiled girl (Julie Dawn Cole) falls down a shaft, and the last one (Paris Themmen) is clumsy enough to try Wonka’s new teleportation invention, and is shrunk down to six inches. Will the taffy machine bring him back to his actual height? If these fates seem scary enough to you, think about how all the great children’s books are a little scary, from the Grimm Brothers to Alice in Wonderland to Snow White, even the Mother Goose ones. Ebert says to everyone, “Kids are not sugar and spice, not very often, and they appreciate the poetic justice when a bad kid gets what's coming to him.”

Also, look at the man, played by Günter Meisner, who talks to each winner after they get the golden ticket and the famous boat sequence in the tunnel where Wonka starts singing, then talking, then finally shouting with scary images in the back.

All of this aside, it’s a great movie for you to watch if you haven’t seen it yet. I have to give this film a solid 10 since it’s one of my favorites.

However, much like with “Planet of the Apes,” Tim Burton was the victim of making another horrendous remake, which I had the misfortune of seeing in the theaters back in 2005. The story of Willy Wonka was already done, and done right. The original, like I pointed out, was a classic but aside from Gene Wilder’s memorable performance, I could see room for improvement. However, Burton’s remake misses the mark and isn’t an upgrade, especially since he dragged one of the most beloved actors, Johnny Depp, with him.

This remake, titled “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” is the story of Willy Wonka, the weird candy man, whose teeth look like the ones from the Crest Whitestrips commercials. His skin is even whiter than his teeth. I wonder if Michael Jackson was Depp’s makeup artist in this, because he looked creepy. After this movie came out, everyone was comparing how Johnny Depp looked like Michael Jackson in this movie, especially since Depp looked like he was enjoying watching the Oompa Loompas dance around. I think I gave away that Depp is playing Wonka in this remake, the owner of the best chocolate factory in London. No one goes in, but chocolate goes out. Until one day when Wonka decides to run a contest where five children have to find golden tickets in chocolate bars to win the chance in getting into the factory. One of them is Charlie Bucket, played by Freddie Highmore, a poor child of high proper nature.

So the five winners enter in the factory, which Joshua Tyler describes it as “not so much a factory as it is an eternally edible Neverland.” Willy Wonka is a hideous looking guy and the boss of the Oompa Loompas, all played by Deep Roy. Things start getting freaky when all the kids (Philip Wiegratz, Jordan Fry, Julia Winter, and AnnaSophia Robb) start to disappear, and Wonka looks like he is enjoying it.

The problem is that screenwriter John August translated a huge chunk of the Roald Dahl’s novel but didn’t get any of the magic. Tyler says, “Instead, the script inexplicably becomes lost in a Freudian exploration of the irrelevant history of Willy Wonka through disjointed flashbacks.” Those flashbacks tell the audience that Wonka hates his father, played by the great Christopher Lee, but isn’t this movie supposed to be about Charlie? It would have been acceptable if Wonka was an interesting character, but Depp’s version of the character makes him look like a statue that stands around looking creepy. Tyler even described him as, “When he speaks, it's as if he's a robot being run by remote at the hands of an Oompa Loompa with Down's syndrome.” He’s not only creepy, he’s stupid, and none of the intelligence of Wonka we got from the book and on film that we loved is found here. Depp is wooden and lethargic, hiding beneath his hat as if the costume itself is enough to give someone who should be a lively and magical ringmaster.

By the end of the movie, Burton completely forgets about Charlie and the chocolate, and instead leaves it to Wonka to complain about his father. It’s a good thing the Oompa Loompas are hilarious with good song numbers and great dance moves. Tyler said in his review, “The film is split up and stilted; it's only the promise of more Oompa Loompa that makes it bearable.”

Maybe I’m being too hard on the movie, because it does have its moments. You’ll find a funny line or two in Wonka’s imagination. The line “Don’t touch that squirrel’s nuts!” is that kind of throwaway line you’ll probably say the next day out of pure random. Also, when he’s not overusing the CGI, Burton still has that unique visual style. Even though some of the production design looks interesting, it’s also motionless, as the characters barely get to interact with it. Come to think of it, the fat kid does eat the grass. Mostly this remake is based on underdeveloped characters standing around not even reacting to while the reactions of other things happen around them. Despite occasional moments of fun, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is lost and that can’t be excusable.

Well, it’s a good thing I got that remake out of the way. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what I will review next for “Halloween Month.”