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Tuesday, November 8, 2005
This Week's Hot Pick: 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'
Tim Burton's version of Roald Dahl's story about a mysterious chocolate factory and its strange owner has its heart in the right place but little unique wit or panache.
And Johnny Depp, as chocolatier Willy Wonka, seems disinterested and lost, and shows none of the crazed intensity of Gene Wilder's portrayal in 1971's "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
But the film was a summer success, grossing more than $200 million domestically and $400 million worldwide, and comes to DVD in one- and two-disc versions. Both have a feature on the computerized conversion of one actor into an army of Oompa-Loompas, while the extra disc includes features on Dahl and his work, the training of live squirrels and five making-of featurettes.
Based on Dahl's 1964 book, it's the story of Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), a good boy who lives in a shack with his poor but nurturing family in the shadow of the candy factory. When Wonka has an international lottery that brings five kids to the factory for a tour and an elimination contest for an unspecified grand prize, Charlie is one of them, and the other four finalists are as greedy and spoiled as he is generous and kind.
So the movie has Wonka leading the five kids and their adult supervisors -- Charlie with his grandfather (David Kelly) -- through the lollipop-land of the factory, in the process of which each of Charlie's competitors is undone by individual character flaws.
Burton, of course, is a genius with strange characters and bizarre fantasy. But his imagination seems stunted by this material: You get the sense he couldn't care less about Dahl's confectionary wonderland.
Like other recent big-budget kids movies, this one's crammed with computer-generated visual effects, blaring music and a half-dozen extravagant production numbers featuring forgettable songs performed by CGI-munchkins. 117 minutes. Rated PG for quirky situations, action and mild language. (William Arnold)
GRADE: C
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