Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)

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For other uses, see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (disambiguation).

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory poster
Directed by	Tim Burton
Produced by	Brad Grey Richard D. Zanuck
Written by	John August Roald Dahl (book)
Starring	Johnny Depp Freddie Highmore David Kelly Helena Bonham Carter Noah Taylor Missi Pyle James Fox with Deep Roy and Christopher Lee
Music by	Danny Elfman
Cinematography	Philippe Rousselot
Editing by	Chris Lebenzon
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	July 15, 2005
Running time	115 min.
Language	English
Budget	$150 million (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) is an Academy Award-nominated family film, based on the 1964 children's novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. The film was directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket.

This movie is the second film adaptation of the book. The first was 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka and Peter Ostrum as Charlie.

Contents 1 Plot overview 2 Production 2.1 Casting and setting 3 Characters 4 Reception 5 Cast 6 Music 7 Criticism 8 Cultural References 9 Continuity errors 10 Miscellanea 11 See also 12 References 13 External links

[edit] Plot overview

The film begins in a chocolate factory, where hundreds of chocolate bars are being made in an unusual process. Five chocolate bars rest on various conveyor belts, and a gloved hand is seen laying Golden Tickets on them. They are sent on their way, wrapped with the other chocolate bars, and shipped across the world.

Charlie Bucket's father enters a small shack in the city. Charlie, his mother, and his four grandparents greet him. Charlie shows his father his small model of Willy Wonka's factory that he completed that day, made out of toothpaste tube caps. His Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that he used to work at the factory, but Mr. Wonka fired all his workers and closed the factory in response to spies sneaking into the factory to steal his secrets. Charlie spends the night dreaming about the chocolate that comes from the factory. Charlie loves chocolate, but his family can only afford to get him one bar a year, on his birthday; their only income comes from his father, who screws on caps at the Smilex toothpaste factory.

Willy Wonka announces worldwide that five golden tickets have been placed in 5 Wonka Bars. The finder of these tickets will be given a full tour the factory, along with one parent, and a lifetime supply of chocolate. In addition to this, one of the five ticketholders will be given a special prize at the end of the tour. Meanwhile, the increased sale of chocolate causes a rise in cavities, which in turn boosts the sale of toothpaste; with the increased profits, the toothpaste factory decides to modernize, and buys a new machine that eliminates Mr Bucket's job.

Charlie's birthday soon arrives, and he opens his chocolate bar, only to be disappointed when he does not find a golden ticket. Later, his Grandpa Joe gives Charlie some money to buy another bar, but it also turns up ticket-less.

The next day, Charlie learns that the fifth golden ticket has been found. He then finds a 10 dollar bill (British Pounds) in the snow and decides to buy a chocolate bar. While making his purchase, he hears that the fifth ticket found in Russia was a fraud and the real one is still out there. After hearing this news, Charlie unwraps his chocolate bars and coincidentally finds the 5th golden ticket. Charlie wants to sell the ticket to make money for his family, but his Grandpa George convinces him to go on the tour by pointing out that there is plenty of money ('They print more every day.'), but there will only ever be five Golden Tickets.

The next morning, Charlie and his Grandpa Joe arrive for the tour, and are greeted by a automated puppet show, that breaks down, and gets destroyed by a shower of sparks. They then meet Willy Wonka,a eccentric candy man. During a tour of the factory, the first four ticket-winning children are one by one tempted by something relating to their personality flaw, causing a strange accident that eliminates the child and their worried accompanying parent from the tour, but in every case, Mr. Wonka seems indifferent, and it is implied that he planned for the "accidents" to occur.

Glutton Augustus Gloop (played by Philip Wiegratz) drinks from the chocolate river in the Chocolate Room (against Mr. Wonka's warnings), falls in, and is sucked away by a pipe that leads to the Fudge Room.

Competitive gum chewer Violet Beauregarde (Annasophia Robb) chews an experimental piece of Three-Course Dinner gum, but the defects of the blueberry pie within it turn her into a giant blueberry; she has to be taken to the Juicing Room to squeeze the juice out of her to avoid fatal bursting.

Spoiled Veruca Salt (Julia Winter) tries to steal a squirrel in the Nut Room, where she is deemed a "bad nut" by the squirrels and thrown down the garbage chute. At the close of the Oompa-Loompa's song about her, her father is kicked down the chute by one of the squirrels as he peers down into it.

Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), who is obsessed with violent television and video games, teleports himself over Mr. Wonka's TV waves, shrinking him down to miniature size, and is taken to the Taffy Room to be stretched back to normal.

Each accident is followed by a song of morality led by Mr. Wonka's little factory workers from Loompaland, the Oompa-Loompas. By the end of the day, each of the children leave the factory, altered in some way by their wrongdoings: Augustus Gloop is covered in melted chocolate, Violet Beauregarde is completely blue all over and extremely flexible, Veruca Salt and her father are covered in garbage, and Mike Teavee is at least 10 feet tall and thin as paper.

During the tour, Willy Wonka has flashbacks to his childhood. These give background on his defunct relationship with his dentist father, Dr. Wilbur Wonka, played by Christopher Lee. As a child, Wonka was denied chocolate and candies by his father because of the potential risk to his teeth. After finally sneaking in a piece of chocolate, he became obsessed, dreaming of being a chocolatier. Despite his father's wishes, Wonka ran away from home to follow his dreams.

After Mike Teavee's departure, Willy Wonka notices that Charlie is the only remaining child. He reveals his desire to hand over the chocolate factory to Charlie, as he is the least rotten of the group. The only catch is that Charlie must abandon his family in order to accept the arrangement, because, in Mr. Wonka's opinion, family members only tell you what to do, and a chocolatier needs complete creative freedom. Charlie's family is the most important thing in his life, even more important than chocolate, and so he refuses the offer.

The viewer sees that Charlie's family is living contently a while later. Charlie's father gets a new job maintaining the machine that performs his old job. Later, Wonka encounters Charlie (who has a new job as a shoe-shine boy) and, in an attempt to understand Charlie's love of family, asks Charlie to join him in confronting his own father. The elder Wonka and son end up reconciling, and in the end Willy Wonka and Charlie begin work together and Charlie's house and family are relocated to the factory's Chocolate Room. In the end, Charlie has the chocolate factory and Wonka has a family.

[edit] Production

According to those involved with the creation of the film, the main vision behind this film was for it to be a closely adapted and slightly modernized version of the original 1964 book by Roald Dahl, and not a remake of the original 1971 musical film version.

It is a topic of some ongoing debate as to which film version is "more faithful" to the original book, as both introduce some key plot, setting, and character differences. For comparisons between the book and two films, please see the article differences between book and film versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

The production team of Brad Grey and Richard D. Zanuck determined that director Tim Burton was the ideal choice for the film. Martin Scorsese and Frank Oz were both at one point attached to direct. After agreeing to direct, Burton hired Big Fish screenwriter John August; he had read the book as a child, but not seen the 1971 film. Burton recommended that August complete his first draft of the screenplay before viewing it. [1].

[edit] Casting and setting

Many actors auditioned for the role of Willy Wonka. Below is a small list.

Steve Martin Robin Williams Christopher Walken Nicolas Cage Marilyn Manson The Rock Jim Carrey

Brad Pitt Michael Keaton Ben Stiller Bill Murray Leslie Nielsen Adam Sandler Patrick Stewart

John Cleese Eric Idle Robert De Niro Michael Palin Rowan Atkinson Johnny Depp Will Smith Mike Myers

Names in bold indicate actors who had expressed great interest that they auditioned for the role.
Names in italics indicate actors who were greatly considered for the role.
Robert De Niro was attached to play Willy Wonka when friend Martin Scorsese was attached to direct.
Steve Martin was attached to play Willy Wonka when friend Frank Oz was attached to direct.

Felicity Dahl chose which actors were considered, which made it to the final ten, and which made it to the final three. For consideration, she chose the actors she felt captured the magic of Roald Dahl's books through their acting; for the final three, she chose those who she felt also captured the books' humor, as well as the magic and humor of Spike Milligan (who Roald Dahl wanted to play Willy Wonka in the 1971 musical). She had an option to choose which of the final three got the part, but she felt it was the director's honour, privilege and (most of all) right to make that choice. Once Burton joined the project, he immediately chose friend Johnny Depp, who had previously starred in Burton's films Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow (and later lending his voice in Corpse Bride), to fill Wonka's shoes. Depp agreed, and also convinced Burton to hire young Finding Neverland co-star Freddie Highmore as the new Charlie Bucket and Jordan Fry as the new Mike Teavee. Tim Burton has stated in many interviews that, had he not directed the movie and chosen who got the part, it would have gone to either Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler. The entire film was shot at Pinewood Studios, just outside of London, the same studios that most of the James Bond films were shot. Filming began on June 15, 2004. Burton preferred to avoid using computer-generated imagery, instead building actual full-size sets, created by production designer Alex McDowell.

[edit] Characters

• Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) is a poor boy who lives with his parents and four grandparents in a tiny, rickety shack in a great city. Charlie loves chocolate, especially Willy Wonka's chocolate, but his family can only afford to get him one bar a year, on his birthday. He does not complain about his life, and is a goodhearted boy. He finds a ten-dollar bill and buys a chocolate bar that contains the last golden ticket. However, he insists upon selling the ticket for money for his family, revealing his unselfish nature. He is persuaded to go by his parents, and later becomes the heir to the chocolate factory.
• Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp), the best and most magical, astounding chocolate maker in the world. He closed his factory and sacked all of his workers and replaced them with natives of Loompaland because of his fear of corporate spies working in the pay of other, less successful companies. He once made an entire palace of chocolate in India, which tragically melted in a couple of days. He sent out five Golden Tickets and allowed five children to visit the factory in order to find an heir since he saw a white hair during his haircut. He is charming and intelligent (when he wants to be), but has truly stunted social skills that render him extremely bizarre to most people from the "outside world" due to his unhappy childhood and the long isolation from the world since the factory's closure. Ironically, his father is a dentist.
• Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), a boy who is obsessed with TV and video games, demands to be the first human transported over television waves, causing him to be shrunken to miniature size, and was overstretched in the taffy puller. Got the ticket by hacking into the Wonka Computer Mainframe, and only had to buy one bar (his father says in the TV interview that he is a very smart kid, as he is in high school). He does not like chocolate and he dresses like a typical mall rat. He has a very short fuse due to playing so many video games, and a superiority complex over mostly everyone, except for his mom and dad.
• Violet Beauregarde (AnnaSophia Robb) is a girl who is constantly chewing gum, and is very competitive, thanks to, in part, her mother, Scarlett, who is also very competitive. Besides gum-chewing, she is also a practitioner of the martial arts, as shown in the scene just before her TV interview by the Atlanta television newscrew, wearing a gi with a blue belt. She hastily chews a defective piece of gum from Wonka's factory. The gum turns her into a giant blueberry, and she is sent to the juicing room for squeezing. She took part in the contest because her mother wants her to win at everything.
• Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), a spoiled rich girl from Great Britain, tries to steal a "nut assessing" squirrel for herself after Willy Wonka refuses to sell one for her to her father. When she tries, she is assessed by the squirrels a "bad nut" and is then thrown down the garbage chute. Insisted that her dad had to get her a ticket. Her rich father turned his peanut company into a candy unwrapping plant until the ticket is found.
• Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz), a gluttonous German overeater, falls into a river of chocolate in The Chocolate Room and is sucked up by a pipe, gets stuck and the pressure builds up and he shoots up the pipe, towards the fudge room. He found his ticket by accident (and accidentally bit one corner off). He ate so much candy a day that it was impossible for him to not find a ticket.
• The Oompa-Loompas (Deep Roy) are Wonka's little factory workers from Loompaland. Loompaland is an uncharted land. According to Wonka, the Oompa-Loompas lived on mashed giant caterpillars and never could work long or hard enough to keep their race fit or alive. They had a horrible life in Loompaland until Willy Wonka arrived, who promised them an infinite supply of their favourite food, coca beans, if they agreed to work in his factory.
• Prince Pondicherry (Nitin Ganatra), tells Wonka to build him a palace entirely out of chocolate, and Wonka assures him that it will be. He ignores Wonka when he is told that he should eat the palace. A few days later the sun begins to melt the palace as Princess Pondicherry is feeding the Prince with candies from a large box, and drops of melting chocolate begin to fall on his head. The palace begins to fall apart, but he and Princess Pondicherry escape covered in chocolate. He telegrams Wonka, asking for a new palace, but Wonka is busy because he has problems of his own concerning the spies coming to the factory.

[edit] Reception

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released in the United States and Canada on July 15, 2005. In its opening weekend it earned US$55.4 million at the North American box office, and received mostly positive reviews, with an 83% rating[2] on Rotten Tomatoes, a website service that summarizes the nation's top print and online film critics. As of September 2005, the film has grossed $400 million in worldwide box office receipts. It was released on DVD on November 8, 2005. According to Rotten Tomatoes the 1971 Version has a higher rating by both critics and Rotten Tomato reviewers 2005 Adaptationand the 1971 Adaptation

Some critics, however, complained that Depp's interpretation of Willy Wonka was similar to Michael Jackson and the addition of the backstory of his troubled childhood was not keeping with the spirit of Dahl's novel. It should be noted, however, that Dahl's surviving family gave their wholehearted support to the film and to the inclusion of Wonka's backstory. ^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Cast

Role	Actor
Willy Wonka	Johnny Depp
Charlie Bucket	Freddie Highmore
Grandpa Joe	David Kelly
Mrs. Bucket	Helena Bonham Carter
Mr. Bucket	Noah Taylor
Mrs. Scarlett Beauregarde	Missi Pyle
Mr. Salt	James Fox
Mrs. Salt	Francesca Hunt
The Oompa-Loompas	Deep Roy
Dr. Wilbur Wonka	Christopher Lee
Mr. Teavee	Adam Godley
Mrs. Teavee	Maleah Thomson
Mrs. Gloop	Franziska Troegner
Mr. Gloop	Harry Taylor
Veruca Salt	Julia Winter
Mike Teavee	Jordan Fry
Violet Beauregarde	AnnaSophia Robb
Augustus Gloop	Philip Wiegratz
Little Willy Wonky	Blair Dunlop
Prince Pondicherry	Nitin Chandra Ganatra

[edit] Music

The original music score was written and performed by Danny Elfman, whose collaborations with director Tim Burton include the films Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Batman, Batman Returns, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Mars Attacks!, Big Fish, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Corpse Bride. The lyrics to the Oompa-Loompa songs are straight from the original book, and are thus credited to Roald Dahl. Elfman performed the vocals for the songs. The music of the main titles tracks are striking because they make use of both synthesizers and a vocoder.

The original motion picture soundtrack was released on July 12, 2005 on Warner Home Video Records. The following songs appear on the album:

1. "Wonka's Welcome Song"
2. "Augustus Gloop"
3. "Violet Beauregarde"
4. "Veruca Salt"
5. "Mike Teavee"
6. "Main Titles"
7. "Wonka's First Shop"
8. "The Indian Palace"
9. "Wheels in Motion"
10. "Charlie's Birthday Bar"
11. "The Golden Ticket/Factory"
12. "Chocolate Explorers"
13. "Loompa Land"
14. "The Boat Arrives"
15. "The River Cruise"
16. "First Candy"
17. "Up and Out"
18. "The River Cruise - Part 2"
19. "Charlie Declines"
20. "Finale"
21. "End Credit Suite"

[edit] Criticism

• Gene Wilder, who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film, initially opposed this version, stating it "is all about money. It's just some people sitting around thinking 'How can we make some more money?' Why else would you remake Willy Wonka?" [3] Johnny Depp responded by saying "We didn't remake Willy Wonka, we remade Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It's based on the same book they based theirs on. Making a statement that they only made this film because of the money is a really odd statement to make from a guy who has been in the business as long as he has ... all movies were made because somebody somewhere wanted a return on their dollar that they spent." [4] However, since the film's release, Wilder has supported Depp, stating "If I were going to cast the movie, I would cast Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka because I think he is wonderful. Mysterious—always—and magical."[5].
• On its release, the film received generally favorable reviews. The average was 83% positive on Rotten Tomatoes[6], and earned a score of 73 from Metacritic[7].
• A number of movie critics, including one from The New York Times, criticized Burton's Freudian backstory for Wonka as being both unnecessary and out of the spirit of Dahl's original novel.
• Some film reviews have noted the resemblance of Depp's performance to pop star Michael Jackson. Like Jackson, Depp's interpretation of Wonka had pale skin, spoke in a soft tone, had a childlike persona, and had a troubled childhood. Depp denied any resemblance to Jackson. Burton commented, "Here's the deal: Michael Jackson likes children, Willy Wonka can't stand them. To me, that's a big difference in the whole personality ya'know?"
• Some critics have suggested that Depp is doing a Jim Carrey impersonation throughout the film, noting that many of his mannerisms as Wonka are similar to classic Carrey schtick.
• There have been some criticisms of racism, colonialism, slavery, and group stereotyping similar to those received by the original 1964 book, in which the Oompa-Loompas were described as dark-skinned pygmies from the African jungle.[8][9] [10]

[edit] Cultural References

• In his welcome speech, Willy Wonka says "Good morning, starshine. The earth says hello!", a song from the musical Hair.
• The scene that takes place in the TV room and leads to the downfall of Mike Teavee contains a parody of 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film is shown on the TV and the famous rendition of "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Strauss plays at the same time. The chocolate bar teleported onto the screen acts as the monolith in the film. The design of the room looks very similar to the interiors of spacecraft and space stations in the film as well.
• In the TV room, the Oompa-Loompa was seen watching Oprah Winfrey, making her first cameo appearance in a Tim Burton movie, one of the modern-day enhancements of the story and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Additionally, the song "Macarena" can briefly be heard on the TV.

[edit] Continuity errors

• The appearance of the Golden Ticket in each chocolate bar: At the beginning of the film, Wonka is seen placing the tickets on the underside (the smooth side) of the bar, but as the tickets are discovered, they are shown to be on the top of the bar (the squared side).
• As the children are ready to go into the factory, there are policemen shown standing a metre or so away from the crowd in the aerial shot. But when the camera zooms in on Mr. and Mrs. Bucket, the policemen are shown to be standing right in front of the crowd, with no gap.
• When Mike Teavee is smashing the pumpkin in Wonka's factory, he steps on it twice so that it just opens, but when the camera angle changes as his father comes to talk to him a few seconds later, the pumpkin is entirely smashed up.
• When Mike Teavee has been sent by television: Wonka is pointing to the screen when the camera is showing outside the screen, but a split second later, when the camera is showing inside the screen, both of Wonka's hands are leaning on his cane.
• When we see the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots punch each other with Mike in the areana, in the spilt second the channel is switched to the shower scene the blue robot's head pops up stating that the red robot has won. When Mike returns to get punched by the robots the blue one's head is back to where it was.
• In the candy store, when Charlie opens the Wonka Bar, Charlie holds both the bar and the Golden Ticket. When Charlie starts holding the Ticket, the bar vanishes from Charlie´s hands.

[edit] Miscellanea

• Deep Roy played every Oompa-Loompa himself: each of several hundred Oompa-Loompas represents a separate performance by Roy. These were then put together digitally. However, for some shots (such as the boat ride), animatronic Oompa-Loompas were used and therefore they could be filmed along with the live actors.

[edit] See also

• Differences between book and film versions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

[edit] References

• August, John. "Did I ever watch the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?", johnaugust.com (2004). Retrieved July 19, 2005.
• Jury, Louise. "Wonka unwrapped", Belfast Telegraph, July 13, 2005. Retrieved July 19, 2005.
• Slotek, Jim. "Johnny Depp perception", London Free Press (London, Ontario), July 19, 2005.
• Associated Press, "An Interview with Johnny Depp", July 7, 2005. Retrieved July 19, 2005.

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Internet Movie Database
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Rotten Tomatoes
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film page on the Tim Burton Collective fan site
• Roger Ebert Review
• Fanstastic Fansite
• Film Soundtrack
• Sound clips from the movie
• Movie Review Xdafied.com.au

Tim Burton ( This box: view • talk • edit )
Director
The Island of Doctor Agor • Stalk of the Celery • Vincent • Frankenweenie • Pee-wee's Big Adventure • Beetlejuice • Batman • Edward Scissorhands • Batman Returns • Ed Wood • Mars Attacks! • Sleepy Hollow • Planet of the Apes • Big Fish • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory • Corpse Bride • Sweeney Todd
Producer
The Nightmare Before Christmas • James and the Giant Peach • Batman Forever • 9

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)

Characters: Willy Wonka | Oompa-Loompas | Charlie Bucket | Augustus Gloop | Veruca Salt | Violet Beauregarde | Mike Teavee | Grandpa Joe | Mr. Slugworth | The Candy Man | Prince Pondicherry | Vermicious knid | Mr. and Mrs. Teavee | Mr. Salt | Mr. Beauregarde | Mrs. Beauregarde | Dr. Wilbur Wonka (only in Tim Burton film) Books: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory | Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator Films: Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory | Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Misc.: Differences between the book and film versions | Golden Ticket | Wonka Bar | Video Game | other Roald Dahl films | other Roald Dahl books