Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 2005 film directed by Tim Burton. It is the second film adaptation of the 1964 British book of the same name by Roald Dahl and stars Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket. The storyline concerns Charlie, who takes a tour he has won, led by Wonka, through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world.
Development for another adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, filmed previously as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, began in 1991, 20 years after the first film version, which resulted in Warner Brothers providing the Dahl Estate with total artistic control. Prior to Burton's involvement, directors such as Gary Ross, Rob Minkoff, Martin Scorsese and Tom Shadyac had been involved, while Warner Bros. either considered or discussed the role of Willy Wonka with Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, Michael Keaton, Brad Pitt, Will Smith and Adam Sandler.
Burton immediately brought regular collaborators Johnny Depp and Danny Elfman aboard. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory represents the first time since The Nightmare Before Christmas that Elfman contributed to the film score using written songs and his vocals. Filming took place from June to December 2004 at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom, where Burton avoided using digital effects as much as possible. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released to audience praise and was a box office success, grossing approximately $475 million worldwide.
Plot[]
Charlie Bucket is a loving and kind boy from Inverness, who lives in poverty with his mother, father, and four bedridden grandparents. His mother is unemployed and his father works at a toothpaste factory, responsible for putting the caps on the tubes of toothpaste that come through the line. Down the street is Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, which had recently been reopened after industrial espionage forced him into seclusion and to fire his employees. Charlie's Grandpa Joe had worked for Wonka directly and was laid off when that happened.
One day, Wonka announces a contest; the children that find the five Golden Tickets wrapped in ordinary Wonka candy bars will be given a full tour of the factory and a chance for an unknown grand prize. Four children quickly claim their prize: the greedy and gluttonous Augustus Gloop from Düsseldorf, the spoiled and rotten Veruca Salt from Buckinghamshire, the competitive and boastful Violet Beauregarde from Atlanta, and the arrogant and aggressive Mike Teavee from Denver. Charlie hopes to win as well, but neither the bar he is given as a birthday present nor the one bought for him by Grandpa Joe contains a ticket. A fifth child in Russia claims to have found the last Ticket. Charlie, on finding a ten-dollar bill, buys a Wonka bar as news breaks that the Russian child's Ticket was fake; Charlie finds the bar he just bought contains the last Golden Ticket. Bystanders attempt to buy it from him, but with the shopkeeper's help, he returns home with the ticket.
Grandpa George reminds Charlie that money is far more common than the Tickets, and convinces Charlie to keep it. Grandpa Joe offers to accompany him on the factory tour. On the day of the tour, the children and their chaperones find Wonka to be a strange, lonely individual, acting odd at the mention of "family". As they proceed with the tour, they discover the fantastical factory is now manned by short humans called Oompa-Loompas. The other four children succumb to temptation, and end up caught in the factory workings before being safely recovered by the Oompa-Loompas, albeit in worse shape than at the start of the tour: Augustus falls into the river of chocolate but is rescued before the processing center, Violet expands into a oversized blueberry when she tries an experimental piece of chewing gum, Veruca is thrown away as a "bad nut" by trained squirrels, and Mike is shrunk down to a few inches tall after being the first person transported by Wonka's new television advertising invention.
Wonka congratulates Charlie as the last remaining child and the winner of the grand prize, to become Wonka's heir to the factory. However, Wonka forbids Charlie to bring his family to the factory, and Charlie rejects the offer. Charlie comes to learn that Wonka had a troubled past with his father, Wilbur Wonka. Wilbur, a dentist, had forbidden Wonka from eating candy, but once Wonka got a taste, he wanted to become a confectioner himself against his father's wishes. After running away from home to follow his dream, Wonka later returned to find Wilbur and his home gone completely. Charlie is able to help locate Wilbur and convinces Wonka to visit him. Wonka finds his father has followed his success throughout the years, and the two reunite as father and son. Wonka allows Charlie's family to move into the factory while he and Charlie plan out new types of candy to make.
Cast[]
- Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka
- Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket
- David Kelly as Grandpa Joe
- Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Bucket
- Noah Taylor as Mr. Bucket
- Missi Pyle as Mrs. Beauregarde
- James Fox as Mr. Salt
- Deep Roy as Oompa-Loompas
- Christopher Lee as Dr. Wilbur Wonka
- Adam Godley as Mr. Teavee
- Franziska Troegner as Mrs. Gloop
- AnnaSophia Robb as Violet Beauregarde
- Julia Winter as Veruca Salt
- Jordan Fry as Mike Teavee
- Philip Wiegratz as Augustus Gloop
- Blair Dunlop as Young Willy Wonka
- Liz Smith as Grandma Georgina
- Eileen Essell as Grandma Josephine
- David Morris as Grandpa George