# Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)



## dwndrgn (Feb 25, 2004)

*Depp as Wonka?*

They are remaking Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory with Mr. Eye Candy himself, Johnny Depp as Wonka.  Now I've always been a fan of Gene Wilder's but I can really see Depp as the kooky chocolate man.  I think he could do just as well and add his own wackiness to the role.  Can you believe he got an oscar nomination for Pirates?  I'm flabbergasted - but I think it is deserved.


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## littlemissattitude (Feb 25, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*

I can completely see Johnny Depp as Willie Wonka.  He plays those off-kilter characters so well.  And yes, dwndrgn, eye candy is an appropriate characterization.  But one of the things I admire him so much for is being willing, in beauty-worshipping Hollywood, to play characters that depend on him hiding his looks.  For example, his role as Hunter S. Thompson and in the later parts of "Blow".

As far as his nomination for "Pirates", I'm really rooting for Bill Murray just on general principles, but if Murray doesn't get it, I sure hope Depp does.


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## Razek (Feb 26, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*

Are you sure that Depp is slated for the role?  I thought that I had heard that Christopher Walken was supposed to play Wonka.  It would be great with Depp though seeing as he is one of my favorite actors out there.  I also agree that he would be good for the role seeing as it is a little bit offbeat.  He tends to like those roles as opposed to regular, more boring ones.


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Feb 26, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*

I've also heard about this. Apparently it was one of Depp's favorite stories and movies (mine too!) and he is really into it. Should be good - eye-candy apart, Depp is certainly one of the more refreshing talents in the Hollywood scene.


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## Amidala (Mar 2, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*

I like the old one  
I don't understand why people remake films anyway its just a waste,
mind you titanic was a remake I suppose


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## mac1 (Mar 13, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*



			
				Amidala said:
			
		

> I like the old one
> I don't understand why people remake films anyway its just a waste,
> mind you titanic was a remake I suppose


*sssh* dont talk about Titanic! Potentially the greatest disaster movie of all time, made into a romance. (Sorry, I'll finish this rant before I begin it!)

Yeah, I totally agree, why remake stuff? The Italian Job springs to mind, as does The Time Machine. On the otherhand, I could see this remake being superb, Tim Burton did a very good job of Batman and Planet of The Apes so fingers crossed this will be good too. As for Depp, the guy is so incredibly diverse. He is a true method actor, only DeNiro does it better in my opinion. The interviews with George Jung on the DVD of Blow, and the documentary on the Donnie Brasco DVD really explain how devoted the guy is. This is one remake I am eagerly awaiting.


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## mac1 (Mar 14, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*

................. on the other hand imagine Christopher Walken as Willy Wonka! My Ford that would be sinister! I would love that just as much I think!


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## littlemissattitude (Mar 14, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*



			
				Bigmacscanlan said:
			
		

> ................. on the other hand imagine Christopher Walken as Willy Wonka! My Ford that would be sinister! I would love that just as much I think!


That is a truly frightenting concept.  If Walken played it, it would scare all the little kids.  Mind you, I'm not saying I don't like Walken - he's done some interesting work.  But it _is_ a kid's story, after all.  It'd be like "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T."  The film was based on a Dr. Seuss story, but it scared the crap out of me when I saw it when I was a little kid.


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## mac1 (Mar 14, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*



			
				littlemissattitude said:
			
		

> That is a truly frightenting concept. If Walken played it, it would scare all the little kids. Mind you, I'm not saying I don't like Walken - he's done some interesting work. But it _is_ a kid's story, after all. It'd be like "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T." The film was based on a Dr. Seuss story, but it scared the crap out of me when I saw it when I was a little kid.


I just had these visions of a cross between the Gene Wilder's Wonka and Gabriel from The Prophecy, coupled with Willy Wonka's hatred of children, that could be one dark surreal film, throw in a little Tim Burtonesque dark landscape, and the kids would be emotionally scarred for life I think!


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## Jayaprakash Satyamurthy (Mar 15, 2004)

*Re: Depp as Wonka?*



			
				Bigmacscanlan said:
			
		

> I just had these visions of a cross between the Gene Wilder's Wonka and Gabriel from The Prophecy, coupled with Willy Wonka's hatred of children, that could be one dark surreal film, throw in a little Tim Burtonesque dark landscape, and the kids would be emotionally scarred for life I think!


Whoa...a grimly fiendish Willy Wonka? I almost wish someone would make that one...

Those little Oompa Loompas could be quite scary, too.


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## Kerayi (May 19, 2005)

*Willy Wonka*

Just so everyone who is as excited as i am knows, Tim Burton's Willy Wonka is coming out in the UK 29th July!
WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO 

I cant wait...it looks so dark and twisted...ahh just the way i like films...you can always depend on Tim Burton


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## Winters_Sorrow (May 19, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*

Looks good

let's hope it's "Sleepy Hollow" Burton and not "Planet of the Apes" Burton who turns up.

Gene Wilder was a fantastic Willy Wonka though - he'll be hard pressed to beat that..


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## Eradius Lore (May 19, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*



			
				Kerayi said:
			
		

> ...it looks so dark and twisted...


 
yeah i agree there it looks very twisted, but not in a good way


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## Neon (May 19, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*

Aye, should be a very trippy movie.  But I've heard that this edition sticks more closely with the actual book than did the original movie.


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## LadyFel (May 19, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*

Apparently the guy who wrote the screenplay for this one never watched the first movie until his version was done, and was shocked when he finally did see it at how much lighter his version apparently is...

But don't take my word for it, they must have done some re-writing in the year or so that the film's been in production...I can't wait...


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## LadyFel (May 19, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*



			
				Winters_Sorrow said:
			
		

> Gene Wilder was a fantastic Willy Wonka though - he'll be hard pressed to beat that..


Oh...I think my beloved JD will rise to the occasion quite admirably - in his own way...


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## dwndrgn (May 19, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*

Opens July 15th here in the states.  Check out the trailer - Depp's Wonka is very surreal...

http://chocolatefactorymovie.warnerbros.com/video.html


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## garreth Jacks (May 20, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*

I think it look painfully bad or that just me being me


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## Amber (May 21, 2005)

*Re: Willy Wonka*

Certainly not the type of film, I would run to watch, especially since I was not over enamoured of the 1st one. However the twin charms of Johnny Depp, and Tim Burton may lure me to the Dark side on this one.


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## kaneda (Aug 7, 2005)

Saw charlie and the choclate factory tonight... 

...and i quite liked it! Its completly different to the original, but i think its very important to rememeber with this that its not a remake of the original but a new interpretation of the book.  But of course i will have to compare and contrast... 

One of the biggest contrasts in charlie and the chocolate factory is the opening. Theres a lot more focus on charlies relationship that he has with his family, and also we learn a lot more about granpa joe. I would go so far to say that i actually think that the beginning of the film is the best part of the film. 

I thought that johnny depps performance was amazing. He does what he always does - a performace which isn't what you're expecting. I felt quite uneasy in some parts of the films (especially at the beginning due to a michael jackson type performance from depp),  but more than that i just found wonka to be quite freaky and scary in this version. I'm not sure whose version of willy wonka i prefere to be honest, I loved wilders manic performance - they're both completly different and both work in the films.

The children....I'm not a fan of child actors... but i thought the boy who played charlie was great, he had a nice innocence to him, didn't annoy me at all. Other good child performances came from the fat boy (i cant rememeber his characters name), while the other child actors were average at best (although teevee boy was annoying - which is how hes supposed to be i suppose). 

One of the things that did annoy me considerably throughout the films was the oompa loompas. Was way too much CGI and the song routines lacked charm. While in willy wonka and the choclate factory the oompa loompas are characters that everyone likes, i got the impression from listening in to other people after the film that I wasn't the only one who found them annoying. 

I do prefer the original, maybe its because its something that I've grown up with, maybe because its shorter. But this film isn't one that i feel that i could or would watch everytime it came on TV. Theres something lacking and I'm not quite sure what it is... I do intend to see it again when it comes out on DVD because im interested in the special features, but its not a film that i would say that everyone has to see. Its a good and enjoyable film, but its not great.


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## lizzybob (Aug 9, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

i saw charlie and the chocolate factory the night i came back from holiday and thought it was brilliant.

i absolutely love freddie highmore who plays charlie because as you say he has a nice innocence that isn't annoying - unlike the original charlie who bugged the hell out of me! (it was due to the fact that depp loved working with freddie highmore on Finding Neverland that he got the part of charlie) i was a bit weary of johnny depp at the start because lets face it he is supremely wierd in this movie and it took me a while to warm to his portrayal of willy wonka - however i think for the most part i prefer his wonka to wilders.

i have to agree with you about the oompa loompa (deep roy) - he is kinda annoying in the way that they only use him reproduced several times with the use of cg and that the songs were not as good. to me the oompa loompas will always be short orange people with green hair, funny white trousers and silly shoes! You just can't beat them!!!! Also another point about the new oompa loompas is that they are all dressed in pvc latex stuff which is just too wierd for a childs movie - why dress them in pvc?!?!?! 

apart from that a brilliant movie - i really enjoyed it. my mum is taking my sister some time this week and i might just tag along again. cant wait til it comes out on dvd as i really wanna see the extras.


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## Dave (Aug 15, 2005)

This is nothing like the original film and it is quite amazing that two films with the same story can be so different. I liked it, though it's difficult to say which one is better.

Johnny Depp plays Willy Wonka much more weirdly than Gene Wilder and is probably more faithful to the book for that. He has been compared to Michael Jackson, and with the voice, the white face make-up, and the strange childhood back-story, I can see why people are saying that. Tim Burton says that it wasn't an influence though. I thought he was more 'Edward Sissorhands'. He is quite a versatile actor, you would never believe he was the same person as Jack Sparrow in 'Pirates of the Carribean'.

The back-story for Willy Wonka seemed to fit the film too. Christopher Lee plays his dentist father.

We liked the Umpa-lumpas in the original better, and the songs too, I think, though there are songs in this too, with a score by Danny Elfman.

The squirrels with the nuts are in the book, but they missed out some parts that were in the first film that we liked such as licking the walls.


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## nixie (Aug 17, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

Ok took my 7 year old nephew to see it last night,my son tagged along as well,wasn't bad but prefer the original,Depp brilliant as usual but the resemblence to Micheal Jackson made my blood run cold.Not keen on the new look Ompa Lumpas.


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## Leto (Aug 17, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

Can't compare with the original you all refers too as I've never seen it. I can only use the books as references, although I've read them decades ago. 

Was a really enjoyable movie, and I may be the only one who didn't see any similitude between this Willy Wonka and Michael Jackson. The Ompas Loompas could have been more interesting, but yes too many CGI made them more annoying than anything else. Stangely I found the film too short.


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## Alysheba (Aug 23, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

I liked it but wasn't crazy about it. Personally I prefer the first one, though Burton seemed to follow the book more than the one with Gene Wilder. The Oompa-Loompas didn't impress me and I found it annoying they all looked the same. Burton's version had a creepy tone (which his films seem to do anyway) which at times was unsettling. However, I did like the fact that Burton expanded on the other children a bit more than the first one did AND we got to see what happened to them afterward. The moral was emphasized more in this version which was nice. But I liked the first one better.


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## GOLLUM (Aug 27, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

I've only seen the original, which I didn't mind but most critics here in OZ are saying it's better than the original.

Not surprised J. Depp does a good job, he's great in most roles he plays.

Maybe the Oompa-Loompas look the same because they're all played/replicated with the one actor...


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## Alysheba (Aug 27, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*



			
				GOLLUM said:
			
		

> Maybe the Oompa-Loompas look the same because they're all played/replicated with the one actor...


 
Yes, CGI overload. I prefered how they were similar in the first movie but different (played by actors not computer generated actors). Nit picky, I know, but maybe I'm just getting old. LOLOL


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## GOLLUM (Aug 28, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

NAH...your'e not getting old, wait till you've spent a few centuries beneath the Misty Mountains and then you'll know what old is....


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## Rosemary (Sep 4, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

I haven't seen the movie but I did happen to see this in our newspaper.
You MIGHT find in interesting 

There were 927,403 litres of fake chocolate used for the river and waterfall in Charlie and The Chocolate Factory.


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## kaneda (Sep 4, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*



			
				Alysheba said:
			
		

> Yes, CGI overload. I prefered how they were similar in the first movie but different (played by actors not computer generated actors). Nit picky, I know, but maybe I'm just getting old. LOLOL



P*ssed off everyone I know who has seen it (from 18 years old upwards). You are not alone!


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## Kerayi (Sep 11, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

yeh i totally agree. The oompa loompas were a total letdown. To me it seemed like the easy, lazy way out to just make cgi copies of that one guy (Deep Roy is it?) But i thought the rest of the film was grrrrrrrrrreat! I loved how the chocolate river actually swirled and moved like chocolate, unlike the original where it just looks like brown, milky water...does anyone else think that?


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## MoonLover (Sep 11, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

I thought the movie was quite good, but I agree with the Oompa Loopma sentiment. They were funnier, hipper I suppose, but the one thing that annoyed me about them was the fact I couldn't understand half of what they were singing! The songs were just a blur. And I was disappointed a bit by the boat ride - it was one of my childhood nightmares in the original version, but this one was a bit tame - no headless chickens or anything! But Johnny Depp was excellent, in a creepy sort of way.
Karen


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## sanityassassin (Sep 11, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

feel sorry for deep roy who played the oompa loompas he worked harder than anyone on the film having to do things again and again trying to make the oompa loompas all original there wasn't much cgi with them he just did it again and again


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## polymorphikos (Sep 11, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

I liked the Oompa Loompas, confound it. They had a nasty edge to them, and the slight inconsistency in size made it hard to find reference points on them.

I also like how much more sinister this Wonka is than I remember Wilder's being. There's a malicious glee throughout this entire film that I really loved.

I did find, however, that all the other characters sort of fade away once Wonka hits the scene, and I ended-up kind of forgetting about them. This was alright, as Wonka is frankly fascinating, but also distracting. It is about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, anyway. At least nominally. In this film Charlie just wanders in and doesn't fiddle with anything, and as a result he wins.

I'm also conflicted about the back-story of Charlie. On the one hand, it adds another dimension to things, but on the other I found the resolution a bit jarring, a little to warm and fuzzy perhaps. Obviously they needed a definite resolution, though, because unlike Dahl they couldn't be sure of cranking-out a sequel - hence no leap into mad-cap adventures.

All in all, a lovely film. One or two quibbles aside it was exactly the kind of movie I like.


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## rune (Nov 30, 2005)

*Re: charlie and the chocolate factory*

I finally got to see this at the weekend.  I thought Depp's acting was rather wierd at times, very strange.  But very amusing too.  I was never a big fan of this movie, but this recent version I think is better than the old one.

I want one of those squirrels     They were so cute


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