Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
original film poster
Directed by	Tim Burton
Produced by	Brad Grey Richard D. Zanuck
Written by	John August Roald Dahl (book)
Narrated by	Geoffrey Holder
Starring	Freddie Highmore Johnny Depp David Kelly Helena Bonham Carter Noah Taylor Missi Pyle James Fox Jordan Fry Deep Roy Christopher Lee Annasophia Robb
Music by	Danny Elfman
Cinematography	Philippe Rousselot
Editing by	Chris Lebenzon
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Village Roadshow Pictures
Release date(s)	France: July 13, 2005 United States: July 15, 2005 United Kingdom: July 29 2005 Australia: September 1 2005 Disney Channel: June 27, 2008
Running time	115 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$150 million[1]
Gross revenue	$475 million[1]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. Based on the 1964 Roald Dahl children's novel of the same name, the film also stars Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket and is the second film adaptation of the book. It is also the second film based on a Roald Dahl novel worked on by Tim Burton after producing James and the Giant Peach (1996). It became a box office success and received positive critical reaction, receiving an Academy Award nomination at the 78th Academy Awards for Best Costume Design. The film was released in North America on July 15, 2005 by Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures.

Plot

In a chocolate factory, a purple-gloved hand (Willy Wonka's) places five Golden Tickets randomly among hundreds of Wonka Bars on a conveyor belt, which are then boxed and shipped across the world. Near the factory, Charlie Bucket lives in a small, dilapidated house with his parents and four grandparents. Mr. Bucket provides the only family income by screwing caps on toothpaste tubes at a nearby plant, and family meals consist only of watered-down cabbage soup.

Charlie has long been enthralled with Wonka and his chocolate, so much that he has built a scale replica of his factory entirely out of defective toothpaste caps sneaked home by Mr. Bucket. Grandpa Joe tells Charlie about the time he worked for Wonka, and how Wonka was commissioned by Prince Pondicherry to build a palace entirely out of chocolate, which promptly melted in the boiling sun after he ignored Wonka's advice to eat it. Plans to rebuild it were curtailed, however, due to problems concerning spies amid Wonka's staff, who stole his secret recipes and used them for their own businesses. As a result, Wonka fires all his workers and shuts down the factory, which later inexplicably reopens despite no new workers being hired.

The next day, Charlie hears about a contest on television: five Golden Tickets have been placed in five random Wonka Bars worldwide, and the winners will be given a full tour of the factory as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate, while one ticketholder will be given a special prize at the end of the tour. Wonka's sales subsequently skyrocket, which causes a rise in cavities. This in turn boosts toothpaste sales, and with the upswing in profits, the toothpaste factory decides to automate and replaces its workers (including Mr. Bucket) with faster-working machines.

Meanwhile, the first four tickets are found fairly quickly. The recipients are Augustus Gloop, a gluttonous German boy; Veruca Salt, a very spoiled English girl; Violet Beauregarde, a competitive gum chewer; and Mike Teavee, an arrogant television and video game addict. Charlie's birthday Wonka Bar does not have a ticket, and Grandpa Joe secretly gives Charlie a silver dollar for a second bar, which also comes up empty. After overhearing that the final ticket was found in Russia, a crestfallen Charlie starts to walk home when he finds a ten-dollar note half-buried in the snow, which he uses to buy a Wonka Bar at a newsstand. At the exact moment it was revealed that the Russian ticket was forged, Charlie discovers the real fifth ticket inside the wrapper. After the euphoria dies down, he tells his family that he had received an offer of $500 for the ticket and that the money was more important. Grandpa George rebuffs Charlie by telling him that money is commonplace but there are only five Golden Tickets in the world.

Charlie and the other ticket holders are greeted by an automated puppet show that sings "The Wonka Welcome Song" and presents an unoccupied throne; fireworks then set the puppets alight and cause them to break down. Wonka first appears as having mingled into the group to watch the show as well. During the tour, each of the bad children disobey Wonka's orders after being tempted by something each related to their own character flaws, and suffer various consequences: Augustus is sucked up a chocolate extraction pipe after drinking from a chocolate river, Violet is turned into an oversized blueberry after chewing an unfinished three-course-meal gum, Veruca is pushed into a garbage chute by worker squirrels after she tries to take one as a pet, and Mike is shrunk with a teleporter that he uses on himself. The Oompa-Loompas sing a song of morality after each elimination. The children leave the factory with an exaggerated characteristic or deformity related to their demise.

Wonka then invites Charlie to come live and work in the factory with him, and reveals that the purpose of the tour was to find a young heir to his chocolate empire. The only catch is that Charlie must leave his family behind, because Wonka believes family is a hindrance while a chocolatier needed creative freedom. A subplot told in flashbacks involves Wonka's dentist father, Dr. Wilbur Wonka, denying his son candy because of the potential risk to his teeth. After sneaking a leftover piece of chocolate from the fireplace (which Dr. Wonka had previously used to burn all his Halloween candy), he is instantly hooked. He ran away from home to follow his dreams of becoming a chocolatier.

As his family is the most important thing in his life, Charlie refuses the offer. His family is living contently a while later, as his father gets a new job at the factory maintaining the machine that had originally replaced him. However, Wonka is too depressed to make candy the way he used to, and turns to Charlie for advice. Charlie decides to help Wonka confront and reconcile with his estranged father; Wonka finally realizes the value of family, while his father learns to accept his son for who he is, and not what he does. The Buckets move into the factory's Chocolate Room. In the end, Charlie has the chocolate factory, and Wonka has a family with whom he can sit down to dinner.

Cast

• Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket, a soft-spoken and optimistic child who lives in poverty with his parents and two sets of grandparents, who share the same bed. He idolizes Willy Wonka and his factory enough to create an elaborate model of both made entirely out of deformed toothpaste caps. Despite Wonka's offer to have Charlie abandon his family in favor of becoming Wonka's heir, Charlie declines out of his love for his own family, but later accepts when Wonka changes the offer in allowing them to come.
• Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, the highly imaginative but disturbing and antisocial chocolatier who invites five children to a tour of his factory. Throughout the film, he has flashbacks recalling his damaged relationship with his dentist father. During these flashbacks, he is played by Blair Dunlop.
• David Kelly as Grandpa Joe, Charlie's lively grandfather. He once worked for Wonka in his small corner store, and now accompanies Charlie in his tour of the factory. He is modeled after Woody Allen
• Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Bucket, the mother of Charlie Bucket. Because of the Buckets' financial situation, she can only afford to use cabbage to make all of her family's meals.

• Noah Taylor as Mr. Bucket, the father of Charlie Bucket. He works for the Smilex Toothpaste factory until he is laid off to make way for a new machine.
• AnnaSophia Robb as Violet Beauregarde, a competitive girl who has an obsession with bubble gum.
• Julia Winter as Veruca Salt, a rich child who is spoiled by her equally rich parents.
• Philip Wiegratz as Augustus Gloop, a gluttonous German child who is always seen eating something.
• Jordan Fry as Mike Teavee, a brash and hyperactive, but gifted, child who is addicted to television and video games.
• Missi Pyle as Mrs. Scarlett Beauregarde, the mother of Violet and her chaperone during the tour of the factory.
• James Fox as Mr. Salt, Veruca's father and chaperone during the tour of the factory who runs a profitable nut business.
• Deep Roy as the Oompa-Loompas, a cacao bean-loving people from Loompaland who agree to work in Wonka's factory in exchange for all the cacao beans they could ever want. All the Oompa Loompas were voiced by film composer Danny Elfman.
• Christopher Lee as Dr. Wilbur Wonka, Willy's dentist father, who forbids his son from consuming candy.
• Adam Godley as Mr. Teavee, Mike's father and chaperone during the tour of the factory.
• Franziska Troegner as Mrs. Gloop, Augustus' mother and chaperone during the tour of the factory.
• Francesca Hunt as Mrs. Salt, the wealthy mother of Veruca Salt who deals with the pressures of her child by downing martinis
• Liz Smith as Grandma Georgina, a senile grandparent of Charlie who loves grapes.
• Eileen Essell as Grandma Josephine.
• David Morris as Grandpa George, a pessimistic grandparent of Charlie who doesn't believe Charlie will go to the factory.
• Geoffrey Holder as the Narrator, who is revealed to be an Oompa-Loompa at the end of the film.

Production

Warner Bros. bought the rights to a film adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 1999, with Gary Ross attached to direct and Scott Frank writing. Ross left in 2001, and Rob Minkoff, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson and Martin Scorsese were considered for directing, or attached to the project, while Gwyn Lurie began rewriting the script in February 2002.^[2] On May 26 2003, Tim Burton was hired to direct,^[2] and was annoyed by the previous drafts which portrayed Wonka as a father figure to Charlie Bucket.^[3] He commissioned Pamela Pettler and then John August, with whom he had worked on Corpse Bride and Big Fish respectively, to pen new drafts to his satisfaction.^[2]

In 2003, young British actor Freddie Highmore was cast in the role as Charlie Bucket at the same time Johnny Depp was cast as Willy Wonka. According to Burton, Depp modeled the character's hair on Anna Wintour.^[4] Filming completed in late 2004

Music

The original music score was written by Danny Elfman, a frequent collaborator with director Tim Burton. Elfman's score is based around three primary themes: a gentle family theme for the Buckets, generally set in upper woodwinds; a mystical, string-driven waltz for Willy Wonka; and a hyper-upbeat factory theme for full orchestra, Elfman's homemade synthesizer samples and the diminutive chanting voices of the Oompa-Loompas.

Elfman also wrote and performed the vocals for four songs. The lyrics to the Oompa-Loompa songs are adapted from the original book, and are thus credited to Roald Dahl. Each song in the score is designed to reflect a different archetype. "Wonka's Welcome Song" is a maddeningly cheerful theme park ditty, "Augustus Gloop" a Bollywood spectacle (per Deep Roy's suggestion); "Violet Beauregarde" is 1970s funk, "Veruca Salt" is 1960s bubble-gum pop / psychedelia; and "Mike Teavee" is a tribute to late 1970s British pop (such as Queen) / early 1980s hair bands.

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"

Distribution

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released in the United States on July 15, 2005.^[1] In its opening weekend it earned $56,178,450 at the North American box office and went on to gross $475 million in worldwide box office receipts.^[1] The film was released to DVD and VHS on November 8, 2005. In the US, a single-disc edition and a two-disc deluxe edition were released.

Reception

The film received generally favorable reviews. The average was 84% positive on Rotten Tomatoes,^[5] and earned a score of 73 from Metacritic.^[6] According to Rotten Tomatoes the 1971 version has a higher rating by both critics and Rotten Tomato reviewers, though the 1971 film's score is gleaned from a much smaller sampling than the 2005 film. However, David Stratton of At the Movies rated it as "infinitely better" than the original.^[7]

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?"^[8] There was some criticism 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.^[9][10][11]

Awards and Nominations

• 2006 Academy Awards: Best Costume Design (nominated, lost to Memoirs of a Geisha)
• 2006 Kids' Choice Awards: Favorite Movie (nominated, lost to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) and Favorite Movie Actor (nominated, lost to Hitch)
• 2006 Teen Choice Awards: Choice Actor - Comedy (won)

References

• August, John. "Did I ever watch the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?", johnaugust.com (2004). Retrieved July 19, 2005.

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 at Box Office Mojo
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Yahoo!
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film page on the Tim Burton Collective fan site
• Detailed Comparison between Theatrical Cut and HD-DVD