Tim
Burton's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory: 10th
Anniversary Edition (2005/Warner
Blu-ray)
Picture
B+ Sound: B+ Extras: B- Film: B+
Candy
doesn't have to have a point that's why its candy!
Who
better to retell Roald Dahl's classic children's fantasy than Tim
Burton? Vastly different from Gene Wilder's psychedelic 1971
original, Burton's film stars Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie
Highmore as Charlie with several other great supporting actors
including Helena Bonham Carter, Missi Pyle, Deep Roy, and even Sir
Christopher Lee himself as Willy Wonka's Father! While the story
here is familiar to us all, Burton's sharp direction and Danny
Elfman's inventive musical score help craft a uniquely new spin on
Charlie
and The Chocolate Factory.
It's
hard to believe it has been ten years since this film was released
and especially now with having Burton's take on Alice
in Wonderland
to compare it to makes it a more compelling watch. This is a quite
nice edition of the film on Blu-ray disc with cool slip-case
packaging, a 32 page collector's insert booklet, and even a letter
from Burton himself in the edition.
The
eccentric manufacturer of chocolates and candy, Willy Wonka, promotes
a tour through his highly secretive chocolate factory, the greatest
in the world, through five golden tickets hidden in the bars of Wonka
Chocolate. The poor and sweet boy Charlie Bucket finds one, much to
the joy of his very supportive family, and spends the day in a
mysterious competition for an unknown award with four other nasty
girls and boys.
It
is an interesting analysis to compare this version to the original
film. Aside from modernizing things, which is a given, both films
are equal parts dark and light for a children's story and both highly
creative in style. Burton's film tells us more backstory on the
Willy Wonka character than the older film and even includes the
character of Wonka's Father that wasn't there before. The Ooompa
Loompas are also quite different, here with actor Deep Roy cloned and
multiplied whereas the original Loompas were more iconic and creepy.
Johnny Depp's interpretation of Willy Wonka is half creepy and half
child-like while Gene Wilder's performance was more darkened,
businessman, and wise but most of all Burton's version is closer to
the original source material.
The
film looks great on Blu-ray in stunning 1080p high definition in its
aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with a wide range of color pallets and detail
that captures the original 35mm negative image. What is brilliant
about Burton's film is that the colors throughout the first act are
so dark and desaturated whereas once we step into the factory
everything is very colorful and bright, not unlike the original
Wizard
of Oz
film. The audio is superb with a lossless Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track and
standard Dolby tracks in multiple languages in accompaniment. This
disc is pretty good looking even if it isn't that big of a jump from
the previous Blu-ray release.
Don't
expect too much new in the way of extras with most of them here
carted over from the previous Blu-ray and 2 Disc DVD edition release
is:
-
In Movie Experience (pop up videos and info tracks)
-
Commentary by Tim Burton
-
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Chocolate Dreams
-
Different Faces, Different Flavors Designer Chocolate
-
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Sweet Sounds
-
Becoming Oompa-Loompa: How They Turned One Man into Hundreds of Oompa
Loompas
-
Attack of the Squirrels: A Look at the Trained Nut-Sorting Squirrels
-
Fantastic Mr. Dahl: A Look into the Life of Roald Dahl
-
2 Previsualizations: Augustus Gloop Dance and Mike Teavee Dance
-
Dolby TrueHD Music-Only Track Showcasing Danny Elfman's Score and
Songs
-
European Club Reel
-
Theatrical Trailer
It
would have been nice to have a Ten
Year Retrospective
on the disc (considering how big of a deal is being made about this
edition being an anniversary disc) but I guess even a golden ticket
can't get us that.
In
any event, this edition is great if you don't own the film on Blu-ray
disc yet. I have seen the film on DVD and Blu-ray and think the
quality is really night and day and definitely worth buying again if
you like the film!
-
James Harland Lockhart V
www.facebook.com/jhl5films
