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Eric Melin (left) J.D. Warnock (right)
Open with clip from movie.
Eric Melin: And onto why did they bother remaking this movie in the first place. It’s time to review Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the new movie from Tim Burton and unless you’ve been living under a rock you already know who Tim Burton is or else you probably wouldn’t have checked out this web site in the first place.
So that said we’ve got Willi Wonka, Gene Wilder early 70s kind of classic movie. A big cult movie in some respects but I think that one of the reasons the original is so good is because it’s so strange and it’s really an anomaly in its time uh for a motion picture. Anyway, Tim Burton’s got the new one. We’ve got Jonny Depp starring as Willi Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory based on the original Roald Dahl novel.
Cut to clip
Eric Melin: What did you think J.D?
J.D. Warnock: I loved it. I loved it. I think you’re being persnickety to begin with.
Eric Melin: woo hoo
J.D. Warnock: I loved it, I thought it was sweet. For me I was trying to figure out why do this movie? What is the point? What do they have to offer that’s going to be different?
Eric Melin: and the answer?
J.D. Warnock: Well, I think the answer is the ???? The whole everything has to do with exploring Willi Wonka. The first movie is told through Charlies experience and Willi Wonka is sort of uh..
Do other with a little more lovable and a little bit more softer than the Jonny Depp thing. Which, that’s a little odd. This time around it’s… there’s a lot of back story of Willi Wonka that wasn’t in the first movie and probably is irritating certain people who like the way it was before, but really the first three quarters of this movie are very very similar. It’s not like a shot for shot like Psycho kind of thing, but it’s very similar to the original.
And I liked it. I thought it was great. But I was trying to figure out what was the point, until the last quarter of the movie and it really went in a different direction and I thought it was cool.
Eric Melin: Now see I, I, I would have to agree with you. I think that the Jonny Depp part, uh the background of Jonny Depp and Christopher Lee who plays his father the dentist. That was awesome, that was a great back story. It was really, you know, it brought it brought, like this emotion that had kind of been missing in the whole movie up to that point. Uh… Except for beginning part with Charlie and his family and their really poor and the uh grandparents are all sleeping in the same bed type thing.
But my point is, the the movie starts out being about Charlie and then it ends up being about Willi Wonka. And it doesn’t it doesn’t in in in the meantime there’s nothing to really like you know ground you. There’s no emotional pull, it’s a lot like Big Fish, which for me Big Fish was a pretty cool movie. But it seemed like it was going through the motions and it wasn’t making you feel anything. It’s like okay here’s this next weird scene. And here’s Ewan McGregor acting all innocent and being like “oh my god” and you know and there’s another weird scene and it’s like I’ve got another tall tale to tell. And I don’t know if he’s going to believe, but
It seemed like he was going through the motions. I don’t think Tim Burton has really hit his his uh since Sleepy Hollow I don’t think he’s a had a movie that you know follows a really good storyline. Gets you from A to B you know I think I think Willi Wonka is a collection of vignettes, sometimes funny sometimes not. And I do agree with you that the scenes with his father and the back story was phenomenal. That was my favorite part of the movie actually.
J.D. Warnock: yeah it it a little bit too much followed the uh oompa loompa songs. I mean it was almost like it was moving just to set up the next thing, but that’s really the convention that the first film had as well. I just think that this one didn’t have as much uhmm Emotion
Eric Melin: Orange
J.D. Warnock: emotionally kind of
Eric Melin: Orange didn’t have as much orange and white. It was a small Indian man doing all the parts.
J.D. Warnock: That was terrible. That was the one thing that I thought was absolutely terrible was the whole CGI and the whole race of people uh.
Eric Melin: race of people? Uh..
J.D. Warnock: He’s one guy and he’s been CGI’d and cut in and composited to make uh the entire population of oompa loompa’s. I uh that was terrible. And it looked bad and it was distracting.

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