Charlie and Chocolate Factory
August 4th, 2005 -- Posted in >8] | 2 Comments »Yesterday Em and I got a chance to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Pixar (which often has movies). I thought it was pretty good and it was interesting to compare it to the original with Gene Wilder.
Like the original, this one had musical elements. That’s to be expected, I guess, given that the book is written that way. The interesting difference is that the songs have been modernized to today’s music (with, I’m guessing, some of the original lyrics from the text).
Recognizing Tim Burton’s affinity for casting Johnny Depp in his movies, I was curious to see how he would live up to the role of Willy Wonka. I had to admit that my image of Willy Wonka was that of Gene Wilder in the previous version. I’d say that Johnny Depp did a pretty good job. I’m not sure I was totally convinced, but he certainly had a creepiness to him. Em and Mahyar mentioned that he reminded them of Michael Jackson in the way he portrayed Willy Wonka.
I thought the Oompa Loompas were very amusing. I think the one thing that weirded me out was that racially he looked like he belonged in Silicon Valley not in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.