Well now, when I was little I loved the old movie, but I'm grown up now. The only reason why I like this movie is Johnny Depp and the hilarious way he says most of his lines here. That's enough for me, especially if I watch it on dvd and can fast-forward some scenes.
I like mother Bucket, because I always like Helena Bonham-Carter. Always. You know how sometimes it can happen that you don't understand why a certain person has been chosen for a role than they tell you "she's the wife of..." or "he's the son of..." and that's the only reason? Well, not here, never, not with Helena Bonham-Carter and Tim Burton. They're a great couple, and I love him as a writer/director, and I love her as an actress.
I also like father Bucket (Noah Taylor) because he's nice and kind; I like how the two of them always love and support each other.
Charlie (Freddie Highmore) was okay, but nothing too special.
Willy Wonka is presented as a genius that started from nothing and became the king of chocolate: years ago the town people worked for him, then after a while workers started selling his secret recipes for money, and it got so bad that Wonka fired them all and closed the factory. Today, nobody in town knows who works in there,nobody's ever seen going in or coming out. The story starts with Wonka releasing five golden tickets hidden in chocolate bars: whoever finds them wins a tour inside the factory! The first is found by a German, very fat boy, Augustus Gloop. The second is found by an English rich, spoiled brat.. sorry girl named Veruca. The third by Violet, a super competitive American girl and the fourth by Mike Teavee, an awful tech maniac boy from Colorado. The fifth is at first believed to have been found in Russia but it turns out it was a fake one, someone forged a ticket and was found out. Charlie and his family dream about him finding a ticket, but he only receives one bar a year, for his birthday. No ticket. Then his grandpa gives him a coin to buy another one: no ticket. Charlie can't believe his eyes when he finds money on the street, but he uses right away to buy another bar: Golden Ticket!!! Hoooray!
I did not like Granpa's little dance, but maybe I'm just above the age-limit for that sort of things.
What I liked ? Wonka's answer to the question "don't you want to know our names?" : "Can't imagine how it would matter" :lol: he really can't, he's not being rude, he's just weird :lol:
also : "everything in this room is eatable. Even I'm eatable, but that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is, in fact, frowned upon in most societies. Yeah. Enjoy. Go on. Scoot scoot." :lol: of course the scenery was lovely, with chocolate waterfall and river, with very green grass and everything. While tech boy smashes things, the fat boy falls into the river and is sucked into a huge pipe and here the Oompa Loompas come for their little song... two and a half minutes, really a quick fast forward, no problem. I loved this following bit: Wonka:"that pipe, it just so happen to lead directly to the room where I make the most delicious kind of strawberry-flavored, chocolate-coated fudge" - boy's mother:"then he will be made into strawberry-flavored, chocolate-coated fudge, they'll be selling him by the pound all other the world?" - Wonka:"No. I wouldn't allow it. The taste would be terrible. Can you imagine Augustus-flavored, chocolate-coated Gloop? yeuch. No one would buy it." which said by Depp is funny :-)
OOmpa Loompas again on the boat, all boring stuff to me. In the inventing room Violet insists on trying the new invention: full three-course dinner in a gum. A chewing-gum that tastes of tomato soup, roast beef with potatos and finally blueberry pie, which is the troubling part, because Violet becomes... well, violet, or blue if you prefer, and also hugely round. Another two minutes of song, but much less simply pushing a button :-)
Wonka has a solution for this: to the Oompa Loompas "I want you to roll Miss Beauregard into the boat and take her along to the juicing room at once, okay?" and to the mother: "they're gonna squeeze her like a little pimple. We gotta squeeze all that juice out of her immediately". which actually doesn't sound very funny written down, but it was when Depp was saying it, because of the way he says things and how weird his characters appears. It's different. It's not as if a man said it, Depp's Wonka is... another thing, somehow.
Of course these are all terrible kids, only Charlie makes nice questions that make him think back, although Charlie speaks much too softly for my tastes, I barely hear him: okay he's the good one, but that doesn't mean he can't have a normal tone of voice! I didn't even care much for Wonka's past, with that horrible thing in his mouth at all hours, his dentist father that didn't allow him candies and him secretly eating them and making notes...yeah. Let's move on.
The nuts-sorting room is full of squirrels, and spoiled Veruca wants one but Wonka won't sell them (Good!) so she goes to grab one herself. They stop to look at her, and when she tries to grab one they jump on her, hold her firmly on the ground, knock her head, decide she's a bad nut after all and throw her in the incinerator with all the other bad nuts... of course it's broken, so she'll land in garbage. Her father wanted to help her, but Wonka 'couldn't find the right key', and when the squirrels have done it,suddenly he finds the right key! :-p and I love the look on his face, kind of diabolical...
In the television room there's another invention: "Imagine, you're sitting at home watching television and suddenly a commercial will flash onto the screen, and a voice will say: Wonka's chocolates are the best in the world. If you don't believe us, try one for yourself. And you simply reach out and take it. How about that?" and he was very convincing when he said it, I really liked the idea, or maybe it was just the prospect of free chocolate... not sure.
The little twat shouts that Wonka has invented a teleport and only uses for chocolates, he's not a genius, he's an idiot, and stuff like this. The stupid kid then teleports himself, proving himself as the most stupid of all them kids. He forgot the little detail of the size, and he comes out very very small, simply saying : Now send me back... why does he think Wonka can send him back to his full size? stupid. Anyway, he'll get stretched by the taffy-puller no problem. Wonka:"boy is he gonna be skinny. Yeah. Taffy puller" and he's kind of creepy when he talks like that, with that tone of voice and that expression... :-D
this time the song is shorter, only a minute and a half, thank you. Charlie is the only kid left, so he won the final prize: Wonka wants Charlie with him at the factory, so to one day leave it to him. But "if I come with you I won't ever see my family again?" - "Yeah. Consider it a bonus". :-/ Come on, surely Willy was hard on his father, never going back, never a word... Many years have passed since he was a kid, after all.
At the end Willy takes them all, the house too, and it's a lovely image the old house inside the factory with sugar falling down as snow...
I don't like the fact that the Oompa Loompas are just one man over and over again.
ITA la fabbrica di cioccolato
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