Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

If I'm honest I can't remember that much about my childhood. This is strange because it wasn't really that long ago. Maybe I blocked a lot of it out, although I can't imagine why. It was hardly an unusually traumatic experience (quote the contrary in fact). Maybe I just grew up too quickly. Either way my memories are vague and hazy. One of the things I do remember though is that I did appreciate the works of Roald Dahl and particulalry liked Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember reading it, I even vaguely remember some of Quentin Blake's illustrations.

The 1971 film adaptation (which I missed the first time around what with not being born and all) left a less satisfying taste in the mouth. Something about it just doesn't click. Perhaps it's just that it's far too prim and proper, missing the dark edge which suffused all of Dahl's work. Maybe it's that it takes itself to seriously. Maybe it's just not very good.

Given this background concerns as to the likely quality of a further adaptation would have been entirely justified. That Tim Burton had been brought in to direct, however, was a good sign. Burton's own Nightmare Before Christmas demonstrated that he could present his own dark, surreal slant on the world in the context of an intelligent, enjoyable work for children. Fortunately, he doesn't disappoint.

The film is delightfully surreal. Gaudy, Seus-esque backdrops play host to an army of identical one foot-high Oompa-Loompas who engage in dance routines combining cod-rock, rap and music-hall with synchronised swimming. The highlight is Johnny Depp's portrayal of chocolate factory owner Willy Wonka. Depp insists that his performance was not inspired by Michael Jackson, but it is difficult to view the pale, naive, eccentric, petulant, child-like character without recalling the troubled pop-star. This is particularly true when he greets the visitors to his factory.

For the most part, the film is faifthful to the original book, but it does add a back-story for Wonka who, we discover, was the son of a prominent dentist (played by Christopher Lee) who denied his son chocolate and candy. This is one of the darkest elements of the film and the most charectaristically Burton-esque, with the father moving his entire house to the middle of nowhere. It helps to flesh out Wonka's character and explains his motivations. The knowingly silly presentation of the flashbacks also doesn't do any harm. Perhaps my only complaint is that the new ending this entails lacks the pace and oomph of what has preceeded it.

The film is an enjoyable romp, but not flawless. The idea of the Oompa-Loompa's, presented as a primitive, tribal people employed by Wonka in his factory and paid in cocoa beans left a sour taste in the mouth; the film apparently being content to assume that they would be well treated on account of the chocolatier's benevolence. Additionally there isn't a great deal of time to develop the other children who win tickets to vist the factory, leaving them and their parents disitinctly two-dimensional, although it might be contended in a story such as this, that is what was intended.

This is the classic example of a film for kids of all ages. Although, if I were you, I'd be tempted to wait until most of the younger kids have gone and seen it.

Wilkommen

I've maintained a blog on social and political matters for a few years, but recently I've been toying with the idea of a blog of cultural reviews. This is the surprisingly tangible upshot of that toying. All being well this will play host to reviews of films, TV programmes, books, gigs and anything else which enters the range of my cultural radar. All not being well I'll call it quits and consign the whole thing to the dustbin of history and cyber-oblivion. Either way it'll give me something to do for a day or two.