Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
by Tim Burton

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DVD details

Actor: David Kelly, Freddie Highmore, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Noah Taylor
Director: Tim Burton
Cinematographer: Philippe Rousselot
Editor: Chris Lebenzon
Producer: Bruce Berman
Producer: Graham Burke
Producer: Liccy Dahl
Producer: Patrick McCormick
Producer: Michael Siegel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: NTSC
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures

DVD Reviews of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

DVD Review: Fanciful and fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars

This one captures the magic of Dahl's book perfectly. Any kid would love the imagery. The original "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" has plenty of imagination, but there are moments where it gets overly tedious. For instance, it took way too long to get into the factory itself. Then there were the unnecessary musical interludes ("Cheer Up Charly"? Puh-lease.)

In this new iteration, however, you will notice that they get to the factory as soon as possible. There are not even any songs until they finally arrive at the door of the factory. This helps further differentiate the imaginative, fantastical air of the factory from the monotonous drudgery of the "real world". When we first watched it in the theater (I went with my brother, his wife and their [then] two daughters) my brother admitted that he was so surprised that they didn't have a long unnecessary song in the scene where Grandpa Joe gets out of bed for the first time in years. The scene played out better for that simple omission.

Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the Gene Wilder version, but this one has a charm and energy that is simply frenetic, while the other one got a bit too caught up in justifying certain aspects of the story-telling.

Wonderful movie. Imaginative and colorful. Even the elements that were added to the story (i.e. Willy Wonka's relationship with his father) have a very Roald Dahl feel to them.

DVD Review: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Widescreen Edition)
Summary: 5 Stars

This was a birthday gift for my 5-yr old granddaughter. She loves it! I would recommmend it to anyone!

DVD Review: Dark Chocolate
Summary: 2 Stars

This a borderline disgrace of the original Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. It's as if someone zapped the soul out of every character in this film. Johnny Depp seemed like he was on vicodin or something. One minute he was up, the next down. His character went in and out of personalities. Most of his jokes fell flat after their delivery, leaving the viewer with an uncomfortable CREEPY feeling. His character of Willy Wonka was a cross between the church lady from Saturday Night Live and Jack from Will and Grace. Does that tell you anything? Some of the dialogue was almost identical to the original, the only difference is they edited out all the wittiness that made the original so special. All of the soul, intellect and attitude were missing from all of the characters portrayal's in this film. There was an all across the board lack of emotion that resonated like a plague throughout the entire film. Some of the special affects were cute but even the sets seemed to lack the magical quality of the original Willy Wonka. The musical numbers with the oompa loompas were surreal and did give a campy feel to the movie but overall this is a totally different movie than the original. It's very difficult to compare the 2 of them but I will say the first one is heartfelt and magical. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a sour imitation, a souless, dour, unfunny tragedy. A sign of the times of what kind of world we're living in now.

DVD Review: Sick and disgusting
Summary: 1 Stars

This is a piece of excrement. Dark and dismal is the best to describe it. It is stupid, vulgar, and believe me, as a person who grew up on Caligula and other porn, this piece of filth is not worth buying.

Anyone who favors this over the earlier version is morally inept. I am ASTONISHED Disney Channel shows this.

No redeeming social value. None at all.

DVD Review: CHOCOLATELY DELICIOUS & DELIGHTFUL!
Summary: 5 Stars

I really tried hard not to like this movie, believing it to be for the kiddies, but it turned out to be a really pleasant surprise. Gene Wilder's "Willie Wonka & The Chocolate Factory" was tongue-in-cheek delightful in 1971 and, here, Tim Burton creates another masterful rendition - without LSD!!

Young Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket is a refreshingly unpretentious child, with a wide-eyed innocence, a rarity among today's movie youth. I'm so sick of Haley Joel Osment (whose transformation from a child to a teen actor is as squeeky as his voice change) and Dakota Fanning (she's already developed the Hollywood Red Carpet fake-me-out "Opened Mouth Molar Exposing Smile" and "The Left Leg Crossed Over The Right From The Crotch" pose of her older contemporaries). The fabulous Helena Bonham Carter portrays a down-and-out mother with the same English grace and delicance as she does a noblewoman. But, it's under-rated actor Gordeep "Deep" Roy, cloned into a kazillion cavity-creating Oompa-Loompas, who really steals the show. He rocks more latex here than a Trojan factory!

It's obvious that Johnny Depp puts a lot of thought into the roles that he chooses and he's not ashamed to just act a fool as evidenced by "Ed Wood" and "Pirates of the Caribbean". But, in the wake of the Michael Jackson scandals, Johnny Depp's domino-toothed Willie Wonka is a tad disturbing. I mean, holding a contest to lure young children "to tour your playland" doesn't really work for me right now.

However, in the spirit of the 1964 book by British writer Roald Dahl, I decided not to be too literal in watching this. I just got out a pint of Haagen-Dazs ice cream, added a double-dose of hot fudge and a whole can of whipped cream, put on my bunny slippers, and enjoyed the ride.

Description of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Mixed reviews and creepy comparisons to Michael Jackson notwithstanding, Tim Burton's splendidly imaginative adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would almost surely meet with Roald Dahl's approval. The celebrated author of darkly offbeat children's books vehemently disapproved of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (hence the change in title), so it's only fitting that Burton and his frequent star/collaborator, Johnny Depp, should have another go, infusing the enigmatic candyman's tale with their own unique brand of imaginative oddity. Depp's pale, androgynous Wonka led some to suspect a partial riff on that most controversial of eternal children, Michael Jackson, but Burton's film is too expansively magnificent to be so narrowly defined. While preserving Dahl's morality tale on the hazards of indulgent excess, Burton's riotous explosion of color provides a wondrous setting for the lessons learned by Charlie Bucket (played by Freddie Highmore, Depp's delightful costar in Finding Neverland), as he and other, less admirable children enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Wonka's confectionary wonderland. Elaborate visual effects make this an eye-candy overdose (including digitally multiplied Oompa-Loompas, all played by diminutive actor Deep Roy), and the film's underlying weirdness is exaggerated by Depp's admirably risky but ultimately off-putting performance. Of course, none of this stops Burton's Charlie from being the must-own family DVD of 2005's holiday season, perhaps even for those who staunchly defend Gene Wilder's portrayal of Wonka from 34 years earlier. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
The second disc is filled with a number of distinctive featurettes. The likely crowd-pleaser in most households is "Attack of the Squirrels," which recounts how those fuzzy little creatures (a combination of hard-to-train live animals, animatronics, and computer graphics) can be ornery in their own right. "The Fantastic Mr. Dahl" is a 17-minute look at author Roald Dahl through vintage footage and new interviews with family, friends, and colleagues. "Becoming Oompa-Loompa" follows Deep Roy as he is filmed over and over again through his dance steps and music performances.

Roy is a constant throughout the kids' activities as well. You can follow him to learn two different dance steps "Augustus Gloop" and "Violet Beauregarde," and make him taste weird candy inventions in a simple game. "Search for the Golden Ticket" is a five-part challenge that tests your remote-control fingers, your deductive abilities, or your luck. Finally, if you just want basic behind-the-scenes information, "Making the Mix" is a collection of featurettes (around 40 minutes total) covering the film's casting, music, production design, and special effects. --David Horiuchi

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