Product Description
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Willy Wonka, the eccentric owner of a candy factory,
decides to open up his factory to five lucky kids who won a
contest by finding golden tickets in his candy bars. As the tour
progresses, each kid succumbs to a temptation of their weaknesses
except for Charlie Bucket, an innocent child whose family has
grown up in poverty in the shadow Willy Wonka's monstrous
factory.
.com
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Mixed reviews and creepy comparisons to Michael Jackson
notwithstanding, Tim Burton's splendidly imaginative adaptation
of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would almost surely meet
with Roald Dahl's approval. The celebrated author of darkly
offbeat children's books vehemently disapproved of 1971's Willy
Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0009FGWLW/%24%7B0%7D ) (hence the change in
title), so it's only fitting that Burton and his frequent
star/collaborator, Johnny Depp, should have another go, infusing
the enigmatic candyman's tale with their own unique brand of
imaginative oddity. Depp's pale, androgynous Wonka led some to
suspect a partial riff on that most controversial of eternal
children, Michael Jackson, but Burton's film is too expansively
magnificent to be so narrowly defined. While preserving Dahl's
morality tale on the hazards of indulgent excess, Burton's
riotous explosion of color provides a wondrous setting for the
lessons learned by Charlie Bucket (played by Freddie Highmore,
Depp's delightful costar in Finding Neverland (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0007CNXUK/%24%7B0%7D )), as he and other, less
admirable children enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Wonka's
confectionary wonderland. Elaborate visual effects make this an
eye-candy overdose (including digitally multiplied Oompa-Loompas,
all played by diminutive actor Deep Roy), and the film's
underlying weirdness is exaggerated by Depp's admirably risky but
ultimately off-putting performance. Of course, none of this stops
Burton's Charlie from being the must-own family DVD of 2005's
holiday season, perhaps even for those who staunchly defend Gene
Wilder's portrayal of Wonka from 34 years earlier. --Jeff Shannon
DVD features
The second disc is filled with a number of distinctive
featurettes. The likely crowd-pleaser in most households is
"Attack of the Squirrels," which recounts how those fuzzy little
creatures (a combination of hard-to-train live animals,
animatronics, and computer graphics) can be ornery in their own
right. "The Fantastic Mr. Dahl" is a 17-minute look at author
Roald Dahl through vintage footage and new interviews with
family, friends, and colleagues. "Becoming Oompa-Loompa" follows
Deep Roy as he is filmed over and over again through his dance
steps and music performances.
Roy is a constant throughout the kids' activities as well. You
can follow him to learn two different dance steps "Augustus
Gloop" and "Violet Beauregarde," and make him taste weird candy
inventions in a simple game. "Search for the Golden Ticket" is a
five-part challenge that tests your remote-control fingers, your
deductive abilities, or your luck. Finally, if you just want
basic behind-the-scenes information, "Making the Mix" is a
collection of featurettes (around 40 minutes total) covering the
film's casting, music, production design, and special effects.
--David Horiuchi