Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...

[fajrdrako]

I'd never seen the earlier version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Gene Wilder, and when Beulah brought over the DVD of the 2005 Johnny Depp version, I wasn't sure what to expect. I hadn't much liked the look of the trailer and one of my guilty secrets is that I don't much enjoy Tim Burton movies. I think I should like them, as they are clever and inventive, but they don't end up feeling entertained by them. Always a disappointment.

I also have my doubts about Roald Dahl's books, too. I might have liked them at eight. I see the cleverness of them. But I don't really like them.

So, what did the movie have going for it? Johnny Depp, of course. I liked Freddie Highmore as Charlie, and his family, and their weird little house. Otherwise I pretty thoroughly disliked the music, the Oompa Loompas (who struck me as uncharming and vaguely racist), the Chocolate Factory, the plot, the writing, the sets and the direction.

Comments

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

I did like the original version, especially the ompah loompah's but I guess I was at the right age for them.
Didn't watch the new version (even though I have it on my hard disc). I am not sure if it would work for me at my present age.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I think my age might be the problem here. I never read Roald Dahl as a child - by the time most his children's books were published, I was a teenager. The only one I have ever read was The Witches, at the urging of an eight-year-old friend when I was in my thirties. I suspect the books are much more entertaining to the prepubescent, who would appreciate their viewpoint.

I just look Dahl up at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl; he seems to have been an interesting person. I knew, but forgot, that he was married to Patricia Neal. I should try reading some of his works for adults.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

his adult work is quite nice, but I suspect I might have been to young for it ;-)
The movies made of the witches book was soooo scary. It might still work for precent day 8 year olds. I am not a huge Roald Dahl fan, but i enjoyed some. My aunt liked them and she read us childrens books (amongst them the books by Paul Biegel, a Dutch author who I think is superior to Dahl.)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't think that even when very young I would have appreciated Dahl in the right spirit - there's a level of irony to his writing that I wouldn't have liked. And don't much like now.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

I love the Gene Wilder version - one of my all-time favorite movies. But much as I love Johnny, I didn't like the new version at all.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I should maybe make a point of watching the Gene Wilder version. I don't generally like Gene Wilder, but everyone tells me it's good. I usually like Johnny Depp, but didn't know what to make of him here. I wasn't sure whether we were supposed to have sympathy for Willy Wonka, or if he was just an idiot.

[lilithlotr.livejournal.com]

Gene Wilder's Willy was a little snarky, and a little crazy, but he was in charge. I felt like Johnny's was just off his rocker; I won't want to have sympathy for him, I want to feel like he's controlling events, and I didn't.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yes - I expected Willy Wonka to be in charge and to be directing things, and he didn't seem to have much of a clue as to what was going on. I don't know if this is straight from the book, or Tim Burton's idea. Pretty weird either way.

[monsieureden.livejournal.com]

I didn't like the music. That was probably my biggest issue. I liked Johnny. I never liked the original movie, or even the story (I thought it was creepy, the thought of a grown man luring in a bunch of self-indulgent kids, and I didn't like any of the kids except Charlie) so I wasn't expecting much.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I agree about not liking the story or the music. Yes, it would have been better with appealing music. Maybe.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I read a couple of them as a child, and didn't see what the fuss was about. I thought them a bit sick, and not in a good way.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

"Unappealing" is the word I would use. Cynical.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Sadistic.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That too.

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

Yup. Me too. Cynical. Unappealing. Sadistic. But then, I found a lot of Dahl's writing to be like that even when I read it and didn't have the words for why I disliked it. It's funny because I loved fairy tales which can be quite cruel but there was something about Dahl's writing which just didn't sit right with me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Welt, it's a certainly style of writing.... And I've always been a Romantic, so it doesn't appeal to me, but it plays counter to the old sickly-sweet tradition of children's stories and I can think how that would be appealing to an eight-year old. It can be satisfying to see the hated snobby bully come to a horrible end, without sympathy. It isn't the kind of story I like.

I don't know but I suspect I would have liked it even less when I was eight.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

I was certainly filled with sadistic fantasies towards bullies at school. Well, not sadistic in a sexual sense but more in a revenge. But I don't remember Dahl's more sadistic motives realy resonating with me.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I imagine a lot of kids want revenge on those who bully them or annoy them. And not many people get it.

[wijsgeer.livejournal.com]

isn't there some kind of saying that those who are at the top of school hiarchies will be at the bottom of society's when they grow up and vice versa. I don't believe it is a hard role, but I am sure it does happen and that can feel like a belated revenge.
But bullying can leave so much scars, perhaps the wish for revenge is one of them...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love that saying - not that I've heard it, but it sounds as if it should be true. No one likes a bully! And bullying techniques are a bad preparation for the real world.

[star-momma.livejournal.com]

You've never seen the Gene Wilder version?! Get thee to Blockbuster, young lady! ...and many thanks for the rec of the Othello with Chris Eccleston. It was excellent!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, wasn't the Eccleston Othello stunning? Haunting, even. Glad you enjoyed it.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

I've also watched "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" last week and I have mixed feelings about it - at the one side I love Johnny Depp, he's like a painting - at the other side I'm not sure if I like Tim Burton. As I've noticed on the imdb there are peole who hate him or peaple who love him, nothing in between.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think Tim Burton is one of those people whose work you either like or don't get at all - and I'm in the latte category. I always think I should/will like his movies and I end up not liking them and thinking "huh"?

Johnny Depp is always good to look at and he always gives a good performance, even in weird movies.

[hamadryad11.livejournal.com]

I've never seen the movie because the trailer totally creeped me out. In retrospect, I suspect the story probably creeped me out a bit when I first read it, too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

The trailer creeped me out, too. And the movie was just like the trailer - I suppose that the advantage is that the trailer warned me what to expect. Which was what I got. So, no surprises. Strange that Johnny Depp can be so pretty and so creepy at the same time.