message in the movies By Rev. Bruce Batchelor Glader

                
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  Rated PG
Directed by Tim Burton. Starring Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore

Photo © Copyright Warner Brothers
When I first heard that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were remaking “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (the cult classic from 1971), I wondered why.  Now that I have seen this remake, I can honestly say that both films succeed as remarkable visualizations of Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s classic.  Willie Wonka is a reclusive chocolatier who opens his top secret factory to five children who find a golden ticket in one of his Wonka bars.  Charlie Bucket is a poor but decent boy who manages to make the trip accompanied by his Grandpa Joe.  The other four kids all represent negative habits (selfishness, gluttony, etc.) and there are moral lessons galore as bad behavior is punished and good deeds rewarded.  Both films are really like good theme park rides, and Burton’s imagining of the factory is quirky and delightful, accompanied by Depp’s hesitantly cheery performance as Willie Wonka.  This new version is closer to the Dahl book than the earlier film (although Dahl himself wrote the 1971 screenplay), but it adds a poignant back-story about Wonka’s relationship with his candy-hating dentist father (Burton’s films often deal with dysfunctional families) and many references to the psychedelic 70’s (including a humorous homage to “2001: A Space Odyssey”).  All of the Oompa Loompas are played by the African actor Deep Roy, who deserves a Special Oscar for the Most Supporting Actors in a Film (he is multiplied a hundredfold courtesy of computer generated effects).  The 1971 film is one of my favorites, although I hear that many people who hated that version love this one.  But why quibble when “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is so good? 

Pitchfork Rating: Four halos. (An imaginative new version of a classic story, with positive moral messages and family values throughout.)   One pitchfork. (Many bizarre situations that are all resolved by film’s end.)

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