[2005 aug 14]
People are looking at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory all
wrong. Just like Pirates of the Caribbean, it's another
high-budget B movie. Let's look at the evidence: Johnny Depp plays a
completely over-the-top creepy dude, there is an entire staff of teeny
people who all look the same and periodically break into song, a
little girl turns into a giant blueberry and is rolled offstage by her
mom and a team of the aforementioned tiny people, and a chocolate bar
is teleported into TV land to the tune of "Also Sprach Zarathustra".
If the movie had been made by a bunch of college students for $1000,
it would have been pretty funny; with the Hollywood touch it was
totally brilliant. Roger Ebert says
"Depp's strange Willy Wonka is not fatal to the movie, although it's
at right angles to it". Bah! I say Depp's performance is perfect --
B movies have snuck into the mainstream. And who better to pull it
off than Tim Burton. Also, Danny Elfman rocks (as usual).