willy wonka 



the new willy wonka movie--rather, <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0367594/" target="NewWindow">charlie and the chocolate factory</a>--is, if anything, even darker than the 1971 <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0067992/" target="NewWindow">version</a> with gene wilder. as best i can recall, it is even more faithful to roald dahl's book than the first. i was at first skeptical of johnny depp as the chocolatier, and of the knee-high oompa loompas, but i'm entirely won over. (<a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0746989/" target="NewWindow">deep roy</a> as all of the oompa loompas is worth the price of admission.)

wonka is, in fact, completely insane. wilder played him as very eccentric, with a rather dark, almost hallucinogenic side, but depp and burton's wonka is michael jackson-style batshit crazy. the array of wretched children and guardians are even more awful than the originals, especially violet beauregarde and her ghastly 'patsy ramsey' mother. the buckets are just wonderfully pathetic, with their little crooked house. the visuals are pure burton, with a certain homage to the 1971 version; the oompa loompa song numbers are, in my mind, superior--but i won't go forgetting the old ones, either!

re: the oompa loompas, it all put me in mind of futurama, and the slurm wonka's comment on the grunka lunkas: 'they think they have a good union, but they don't: they're basically slaves.'

go see this movie!

(we are already looking forward to <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0121164/" target="NewWindow">corpse bride</a>.) 

Posted: Fri - July 22, 2005 at 11:49 AM             |

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