With Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, director Tim Burton has crafted one of his most amazing movies. Burton has stayed quite faithful to the source material - about the reclusive owner of the greatest chocolate factory in the world, who invites five kids from all over the world to come look how he makes his chocolate - but at the same has also given the movie his own, undeniable touch. Not all of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is equally enchanting, but those many moments when Burton hits the right notes, you feel like you are still a kid, having your own personal trip through Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.
I can remember watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when I was a kid. I had loved the books, read it many times, and I could not wait until the moment when the movie was being shown on TV and I could see the movie version of Roald Dahl's classic story. What a dissapointment it was. The people behind the movie had changed the original story in many places, Gene Wilder did not look at all like I had had in mind, and when the movie was finished I was more outraged than I had ever been after watching a movie. Even now, when I understand how things work in movieland, where faithfulness to source material is not seen as a great good, it is still difficult for me to watch the old movie.
So I was looking forward very much to this new version, hoping that Tim Burton would turn it into a magical adventure like only he can make. And surely, he did. For the first half hour of the movie, I was transfixed, eyes glued to the screen, wondering how on earth it was possible that what was happening on the screen so well matched the images I had had in my head when I was a kid, reading Dahl's book for the first time. I almost got emtional, and was shuffling around in my seat with anticipation at what was surely to come next. But even though the movie is filled with wonderful moments, great performances and evertyhing looks superb, it does lose some of it's magic after that first half hour. Burton and screenwriter John August made some adjustments to the original story, and even though they are nowhere near as unbearable as the ones in the first movie, and even though some of the additions the original tale are really ingenious, the movie did lose it's sparkle a bit for me. I guess it is hard to see a movie, based on a book you love, because even the slightest change will feel off, and that is a problem that Burton knew he was going to face from the beginning.
To silence the critics that he knew would start to complain, he has made the movie a feast for your eyes. Every new scene is more eye-popping than the previous one, and I was so astounded by what was happening on the screen that it silenced some of the problems I had with the movie. And I can assure you, that if you have never read the book, this movie is perfect in almost every way. Okay, some of the songs aren't as catchy as some others, and the Oompa Loompas are pretty creepy (then again, that's the idea!), but the movie is so full of witty scenes and everything looks so scrumptious(hmm, chocolate!) that it is hard to leave the theater without a smile on your face.
Luckily, the movie is not just about looks, since Burton and August have infused the story with a big heart and, thanks to some great acting (especially from Johnny Depp and the kids playing Charlie and Augustus Gloop - I love zee chocolate!) this new version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a very memorable one.
****
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