Oompa. Loompa. Oompa-de-doo!
I've got another puzzle for you...
What do you get when you cannot create,
A better sequel to a film that was already great!
Depp's Wonka gives you the out right creeps,
Like Michael Jackson's little friends playin' Hide and Go **bleep**.
You get what you would expect...medicore crap.
I'm admittedly not a Johnny Depp fan. In every role I've seen him in, it seems too apparent he is acting his part. A good actor should make you feel that sense of suspension of disbelief and you should see the character as more real than the actor portraying him/her.
In Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Depp seems too disconnected from the quirky character of Willy Wonka as if he him self were rolling his eyes when reading the script and saying "Who would believe this crap?"
In one scene this problem of never quite getting immersed into the sense that this was anything but a movie was hightened in fact by Wonka excusing his dazed behavior after a cut away to a flashback scene of his childhood by saying to Mr. Salt: "Oh sorry, I was having a flashback." I'm sure the writers thought that might be cute but especially in a fantasy film where the audience is being asked to let down their guard and believe the unbelievable, lines like this hurt that sense of disassociation with reality.
The original 1971 film aside from being more magical because I was a kid when I first saw it at the baroque-decorated old Stadium Theater on Main Street in Woonsocket, RI, it was also one of the best musicals ever. The current film has a few Oompa-Loompa sung songs as well as Danny Elfman's score and they seemed okay but it was not a musical. Bad choice I think. Re-tooling all the original songs might have been interesting buit perhaps they thought they shouldn't mess with greatness. (Although that didn't stop Direct TV from using that comedian from Curb Your Enthusiasm and murdering the Golden Ticket song in thier commercials)
Another thing was the special effects. Those that were CGI were very apparently CGI and scene for scene, despite the advance of 34 years in FX technology, the original was BETTER.
Take the scene where Violet Beauregarde turns into a giant blueberry. Despite the use of CGI, not much more astounding than the original. In fact, the skin turns blue in a very fiberous way, as if her veins and capillaries are filling with blue fluid, a bit more gross than the original. (I sit close to the screen to be able to see details like that, once it's released to video you probably won't notice that on a TV).
The scene with the trained squirrels "rejecting" Veruca Salt and tossing her in the garbage funnel seemed oh so fake and, again, a bit darker than the original. Those hundreds of squirrels pouncing on here en masse seemed scary. And what was wrong with the original's golden goose room...I mean Veruca's whining to her father demanding a special gold egg-laying goose does seem much more the epitomy of the brat who wants the most opulent of things...a trained squirrel doesn't compare. And her rejection at the end of her musical tirade as the result of being designated a Bad Egg in the original was much more effective than a CGI animated squirrel knocking on her head and declaring her a Bad Nut. What gives?
And last but not least, in the original there was the underlying core of the tale, Charlie's pure heart and goodness. Don't get me wrong, this Charlie was great, Freddie Highmore looks great in the part and he played his role fantastically. The writer's did well in showcasing his good morals and values and loyalty. But it was done more with lines and deeds in assisting Willy with repatriating a relationship with his father...all well and good and I liked the difference in this end story. But, if you remember, in the original, there was the underlying temptation of Slugworth's offer: a large sum of money for an Ever-Lasting Gobstopper. You knew that each of the other kids were going to run, not walk, to Slugworth with the Ever-Lasting Gobstopper the second they were out of the factory. And the overwhelming poverty of Charlie's family would lend one to think, would he too, out of absolute nessessity need to go that route as well. When Wonka declares that Charlie has forfeited the Grand Prize because he broke the rules and sampled the Floating Fizz with Grandpa Joe, it looks like Charlie will be dismissed and will return to his family's hovel dejected. I remember thinking that I would show Mr. Wonka up and sell the candy to Slugworth in a heartbeat out of spite. But what does Charlie do? Charlie calmly places the Ever-lasting Gobstopper, worth thousands of dollars, on Mr. Wonka's desk.
Even as a kid, and to this day, whenever I see this scene it tears me up. Charlie would rather keep his honor and principles of fair play and standing by one's word rather than accept a gift worth a fortune from a man who could not keep his word.
I've got another puzzle for you...
What do you get when you cannot create,
A better sequel to a film that was already great!
Depp's Wonka gives you the out right creeps,
Like Michael Jackson's little friends playin' Hide and Go **bleep**.
You get what you would expect...medicore crap.
I'm admittedly not a Johnny Depp fan. In every role I've seen him in, it seems too apparent he is acting his part. A good actor should make you feel that sense of suspension of disbelief and you should see the character as more real than the actor portraying him/her.
In Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Depp seems too disconnected from the quirky character of Willy Wonka as if he him self were rolling his eyes when reading the script and saying "Who would believe this crap?"
In one scene this problem of never quite getting immersed into the sense that this was anything but a movie was hightened in fact by Wonka excusing his dazed behavior after a cut away to a flashback scene of his childhood by saying to Mr. Salt: "Oh sorry, I was having a flashback." I'm sure the writers thought that might be cute but especially in a fantasy film where the audience is being asked to let down their guard and believe the unbelievable, lines like this hurt that sense of disassociation with reality.
The original 1971 film aside from being more magical because I was a kid when I first saw it at the baroque-decorated old Stadium Theater on Main Street in Woonsocket, RI, it was also one of the best musicals ever. The current film has a few Oompa-Loompa sung songs as well as Danny Elfman's score and they seemed okay but it was not a musical. Bad choice I think. Re-tooling all the original songs might have been interesting buit perhaps they thought they shouldn't mess with greatness. (Although that didn't stop Direct TV from using that comedian from Curb Your Enthusiasm and murdering the Golden Ticket song in thier commercials)
Another thing was the special effects. Those that were CGI were very apparently CGI and scene for scene, despite the advance of 34 years in FX technology, the original was BETTER.
Take the scene where Violet Beauregarde turns into a giant blueberry. Despite the use of CGI, not much more astounding than the original. In fact, the skin turns blue in a very fiberous way, as if her veins and capillaries are filling with blue fluid, a bit more gross than the original. (I sit close to the screen to be able to see details like that, once it's released to video you probably won't notice that on a TV).
The scene with the trained squirrels "rejecting" Veruca Salt and tossing her in the garbage funnel seemed oh so fake and, again, a bit darker than the original. Those hundreds of squirrels pouncing on here en masse seemed scary. And what was wrong with the original's golden goose room...I mean Veruca's whining to her father demanding a special gold egg-laying goose does seem much more the epitomy of the brat who wants the most opulent of things...a trained squirrel doesn't compare. And her rejection at the end of her musical tirade as the result of being designated a Bad Egg in the original was much more effective than a CGI animated squirrel knocking on her head and declaring her a Bad Nut. What gives?
And last but not least, in the original there was the underlying core of the tale, Charlie's pure heart and goodness. Don't get me wrong, this Charlie was great, Freddie Highmore looks great in the part and he played his role fantastically. The writer's did well in showcasing his good morals and values and loyalty. But it was done more with lines and deeds in assisting Willy with repatriating a relationship with his father...all well and good and I liked the difference in this end story. But, if you remember, in the original, there was the underlying temptation of Slugworth's offer: a large sum of money for an Ever-Lasting Gobstopper. You knew that each of the other kids were going to run, not walk, to Slugworth with the Ever-Lasting Gobstopper the second they were out of the factory. And the overwhelming poverty of Charlie's family would lend one to think, would he too, out of absolute nessessity need to go that route as well. When Wonka declares that Charlie has forfeited the Grand Prize because he broke the rules and sampled the Floating Fizz with Grandpa Joe, it looks like Charlie will be dismissed and will return to his family's hovel dejected. I remember thinking that I would show Mr. Wonka up and sell the candy to Slugworth in a heartbeat out of spite. But what does Charlie do? Charlie calmly places the Ever-lasting Gobstopper, worth thousands of dollars, on Mr. Wonka's desk.
Even as a kid, and to this day, whenever I see this scene it tears me up. Charlie would rather keep his honor and principles of fair play and standing by one's word rather than accept a gift worth a fortune from a man who could not keep his word.