Directed by:
Tim BurtonScreenplay:
John AugustCinematography:
Philippe RousselotComposer:
Danny ElfmanCast:
Freddie Highmore, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, James Fox, David Kelly, Christopher Lee, Deep Roy, Jordan Fry, Phillip Wiegratz, Missi Pyle, Noah Taylor (more)VOD (2)
Plots(1)
Most nights in the Bucket home, dinner is a watered-down bowl of cabbage soup, which young Charlie gladly shares with his mother and father and both pairs of grandparents. Every night, the last thing Charlie sees from his window is Willy Wonka's great factory, and he drifts off to sleep dreaming about what might be inside. For nearly fifteen years, no one has seen a single worker going in or coming out of the factory, or caught a glimpse of Wonka himself, yet, great quantities of chocolate are still being made and shipped all over the world. One day Willy Wonka makes a momentous announcement. He will open his famous factory and reveal "all of its secrets and magic" to five lucky children who find golden tickets hidden inside five randomly selected Wonka chocolate bars. Nothing would make Charlie's family happier than to see him win but the odds are very much against him as they can only afford to buy one chocolate bar a year, for his birthday. One by one, news breaks around the world about the children finding golden tickets and Charlie's hope grows dimmer. But then, something wonderful happens. Charlie finds some money on the snowy street and takes it to the nearest store for a Wonka Whipple-Scrumptious Fudgemallow Delight. There, under the wrapper is a flash of gold. It's the last ticket. Charlie is going to the factory! The family decides that Grandpa Joe, who used to work in the factory, should be the one to accompany Charlie on this adventure. Once inside, Charlie is dazzled by one amazing sight after another. Wondrous gleaming contraptions of Wonka's own invention churn, pop, and whistle, crews of merry Oompa-Loompas mine mountains of fudge beside a frothy chocolate waterfall, a hundred trained squirrels on a hundred tiny stools shell nuts for chocolate bars, and Wonka himself pilots an impossible glass elevator that rockets every which way you can think of through the fantastic factory. Almost as intriguing as his fanciful inventions is Willy Wonka. He thinks about nothing but candy--except, every once in a while, when he seems to be thinking about something that happened long ago, that he can't quite talk about. Meanwhile, the other children prove to be a rotten bunch, and one by one, their greedy personalities lead them into all kinds of trouble that force them off the tour. When only Charlie is left, Willie Wonka reveals the final secret, the absolute grandest prize of all: the keys to the factory itself. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (9)
Tim Burton made me very happy this time. The magic of the film lies solely in the stylisation and arrangement of each scene, and it doesn’t deserve to be part of the elite just because it’s divinely scored and looks beautiful, but because of its unadulterated joy of storytelling and visual experimentation simply cannot be resisted. Who else could build such a simple and sentimental story in such an engaging and creative way? Maybe only Jára Cimrman. 80%
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Where all sweet wishes come true, where a group of little creatures sings mocking songs about your failed candy bars, where the word "family" is a small charm... There awaits a magically mysterious master of sweets who will find you strange no matter how hard you try. But the visit is worth it. So be glad you don't have to search for any golden tickets and come take a ride on that waterfall too.
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A breathtaking visual experience. The atmosphere of the entire film is pleasantly "sweet" and the moral messages are not surprisingly intrusive; on the contrary, they need not be restricted to the kids. :) For Burton, for Depp, for Elfman, for the feast for the eyes, and for some really hilarious jokes, 5 stars.
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The Burton - Elfman - Depp trio make this picture an original, typically Burton-like, screwy movie. It’s a family movie where mainly the adults in the audience do all the laughing, because Tim approached it.. Simply in his own way. One crazy idea follows another; total stylization; Depp’s Willy Wonka is somewhere between Michael Jackson and Marylin Manson and it is all accompanied by an absolutely madcap soundtrack by Danny Elfman. There is not much of a story; it’s more like a road movie traveling through this fairytale factory, with the center of attention in the form of Depp, but also Christopher Lee is certainly worth mentioning too. The rest of the cast are given no room at all, which is refreshing because the children’s roles are played nicely and aren’t annoying. The whole thing is “sweetened" by being a kind of ingenious parody on A Space Odyssey. ♫ OST score: 4/5
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This is a lovely, funny, and imaginative movie that I really enjoyed, and although I am not familiar with the book, I think it sticks to the book quite well and where it did deviate, it did so in a witty, original, and playful way. The actors are excellent – both the adults (Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, in particular, gives a terrific performance) and the child actors. The child actors portray the little bastards superbly, but best of all are AnnaSophia Robb and Jordan Fry; of the "good" ones there is only one – Charlie – played, of course, by Freddie Highmore. The soundtrack (as with most of Tim's movies) is, as always, excellent, the sets are a little garish and over the top, however, that is just something that simply belongs to Tim’s world, and only adds to the movie’s uniqueness. This is therefore a great movie that has left me impressed for a long time after seeing it.
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