The New 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' Movie

Tim Burton's movie version of Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is now out on video, and I did promise an appraisal of it from my experience with it in the theaters, so why don't I do that now?

This movie isn't necessarily better than the 1971 adaptation of Dahl's book starring Gene Wilder, but it is certainly different. Burton was able to re-create Willy Wonka's chocolate factory faithfully for the screen, but more importantly, it is much closer to the book than the 1971 movie was. The 1971 movie was titled Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory; the title wasn't the only deviation. Burton, who dislikes the older movie, set out to make a movie that would more accurately convey the feel and spirit of the original book, and he did that effortlessly. Several elements of the book that could not be brought to life in the 1971 movie were reproduced faithfully here, making use of advances in cinematic technology. Some minor changes were made with the characters to make them more contemporary - Violet Beauregarde as a competitive, ambitious pixie (Britney, is that you?), Mike Teavee as a video-game freak - but Charlie Bucket's role as the boy with the right values and a perfect sense of right and wrong was more pronounced.

And Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka? To me, Gene Wilder will always be Willy Wonka, but Depp put a decent spin on the character, making him darker and more enigmatic than even Dahl allowed himself to imagine. Depp knows exactly what Burton wants from him, allowing him to play Jean-Pierre Leaud to Burton's Francois Truffaut. It's their ability to read each other that makes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory succeed on many levels. Following this and The Corpse Bride, an animated feature employing Depp's voice, one can only guess what the duo have up their sleeves for next time. :-)