World Famous Comics: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Starring: Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, David Kelly, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor Directed By: Tim Burton Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Bros. Pictures Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: November 08, 2005 Running Time: 115 minutes Theatrical Release Date: July 15, 2005
Amazon.com: 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
Description: Long isolated from his own family, Willy Wonka launches a worldwide contest to select an heir to his candy empire. Five lucky children from around the world, including Charlie Bucket, draw Golden Tickets from Wonka chocolate bars and win a guided tour of the legendary candy making facility that no outsider has seen in 15 years.
DVD Features: Biographies:The Fantastic Mr. Dahl: Learn about Dahl's life story and extraordinary body of work. Challenges:4 SCRUMPTIOUS Challenges for kids to play! 1) Oompa-Loompa Dance Machine 2) The Inventing Machine 3) The Bad Nut 4) Search For the Golden Ticket DVD ROM Features Documentaries:Attack of the Squirrels: See how they trained live squirrels to perform in the film. Featurette:5 Making-Of Featurettes! Other:Becoming Oomp-Loompa: See how one actor, Deep Roy, was turned into a multi-talented army of Oompa's.
Please compare to the book, not the old movie... Since I was about four years old I remember watching the 1971 version of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". I did not actually read the book until I was about sixteen. Realizing that there were some major discepensies between the text and that film adaptation, I began to enjoy it less and less. I understand that book to movie adaptations are going to have many differences, and that does not bother me. I suppose it was more that as I grew older, the 1971 version became kind of hokey. It has its highlights and will remain a favorite of mine, but I was excited to see a new version coming out.
The first thing you need to do before you see this movie is read the book. It is very short, and about 80 pages. If only to appreciate some of the things that are more accurately portrayed in this movie. I actually do understand why many changes in the original film adaptation were made. The squirrels were not at the time a very possible scene to put into film without the capabilities of CGI. So, I understand the change to the geese, however, it is a delight to see it as it was originally envisioned in Dahl's book. It is one of the best scenes in the movie.
This movie, from the beginning starts out quite a bit darker. This is after all a Tim Burton film, a man known for his dark yet colorful and flamboiant visuals. This is Burton in top form because the visuals in this fit the tone of the book much better than did the first movie. The visual style sets the tone for the movie and when we are introduced to Charlie we really understand how broke his family really is. The house is dilapidated and falling apart, there is a hole in the roof above Charlie's head where he sleeps and every days they eat cabbage soup. This is starkly contrasted with Wonka's factory and the other four children's decadent life-styles.
The added details to the story and background of the character of Willy Wonka add a lot more depth to the character and actually makes sense of why he acts the way he does. Although the parts with his father (played by Christopher Lee) were not in the book, they are some of the most enjoyable parts in the movie. Watching Christopher Lee play Wilber Wonka, Willy Wonka's dentist father is absolutely a delight. With such quotable lines as "Lollipops, what dentist call cavities on a stick." The themse of familiy ties and loyaylty are much more clear in this version, and Charlie is a wiser person than the other children, not falling to the same mistakes as the other children by not regarding his family for his own selfish desires.
The perforamance by Johnny Depp is creepy and off-putting on one hand, but touching on the other, as we understand his pain and why he rejects parents because of the own rejection that he faced as a child. Every character including the grand parents are used to greater effect here than in the original as well. Every actor is perfectly cast, especially Freddie Highmore as Charlie, Jordan Fry as Mike Teavee, Anna-Sophia Rob as Violet, and Deep Roy as all of the Oompa Lommpas.
The bottom line is this, the movie is not so much a children's movie this go around, and has a lot of dark humor that children will not understand which makes it more enjoyable for adults. At the same time, it is for this very reason that people who enjoyed the original version, do not enjoy this one. Do not rip on this version just because you like the old one, find things to enjoy enjoy both, just as I have.
God Bless ~Amy
Don't let your kids watch this bizarre adaption of a great book I hate it when hollywood weirdos take a good book or movie and remake them in their own weird image. The book by Roald Dahl and the original movie starring Gene Wilder are wonderful. This movie does not follow the story and is scary to little kids. Basically, Mr. Wonka is a mental case who was abused by his scary dentist father. Avoid this.
Charlie and the chocolate factory This dvd did not play on any of my dvd players. I sent it back for an exchange and the replacement dvd did not play either. I sent it back and am now in the process of waiting for a verified good playable dvd or refund.
Fun movie to watch, but some scenes too gross for kids. After reading a number of negative reviews on the web by 'movie critiques', I stayed away from the film for years. Finally, I was channel surfin and locked into this movie.
Well, I really enjoyed the movie. Johnny Depp played Willy Wonka like Jim Carrey would. Somewhat exaggerated and silly, but very very funny. There were a number of comical scenes which made me giggle and there were enough of them to keep the viewer engaged (notice all the Umpa-loompas are the same guy--even the office lady!). Although, I have to say the scene of eating worms was totally uncalled for, especially for a children movie. One suggestion for improvement is adding closed captions for the lyrics sung by the Umpa-loompas. It was very hard to understand what they were saying.
While the old version by Wilder did not have too much psychology involved, this version had plenty of it. For example, we can better understand what motivated Willy Wonka to be the best Chocolatier in the world when he had flashbacks to his unhappy childhood. Also, the bratty children showed mature acting when they really oozed out vicious attitudes towards each other (competing to be selected by Wonka). Funny, a 10-year-old (?) kid displaying such competitive behavior and playing politics of backstabbing just like adults in the office. The movie seems to suggest the evilness of adults already start at the tender age of youth, unless they are well raised and educated to be a good person.
Incredibly funny movie! Like all of Tim Burton's movies, this is another great one. Johnny Depp and Freddie Highmore are fantastic!
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