Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: 2-Disc Deluxe Edition (2005) |
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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: 2-Disc Deluxe Edition (2005) |
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| General | Extras | ||
| Category | Adventure |
Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Theatrical Trailer Featurette-Attack Of The Squirrels Featurette-Fantastic Mr. Dahl Featurette-Becoming Oompa-Loompa Featurette-Making Of-Charlie And The Chocolate Factory: Chocolate Dreams Featurette-Making Of-Different Faces, Different Flavors Featurette-Making Of-Charlie And The Chocolate Factory: Sweet Dreams Featurette-Making Of-Designer Chocolate Featurette-Making Of-Under The Wrapper DVD-ROM Extras Featurette-Oompa-Loompa Dance Game-The Bad Nut Game-The Inventing Machine Game-Search For The Golden Ticket |
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| Rating |
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| Year Of Production | 2005 | ||
| Running Time | 110:10 (Case: 115) | ||
| RSDL / Flipper |
Dual Layered Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
| Start Up | Ads Then Menu | ||
| Region Coding | 4 | Directed By | Tim Burton |
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Studio
Distributor |
 Roadshow Home Entertainment |
Starring |
Johnny Depp Freddie Highmore David Kelly Helena Bonham Carter Noah Taylor Missi Pyle James Fox Deep Roy Christopher Lee Adam Godley Franziska Troegner Annasophia Robb Julia Winter |
| Case | Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual | ||
| RPI | $39.95 | Music | Danny Elfman |
| Video | Audio | ||
| Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None | English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX (384Kb/s) | |
| Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 1.78:1 | ||
| 16x9 Enhancement |
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| Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
| Original Aspect Ratio | 1.85:1 | Miscellaneous | |
| Jacket Pictures | No | ||
| Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired |
Smoking | No |
| Annoying Product Placement | Yes, if you count the chocolate bars... | ||
| Action In or After Credits | No | ||
Many people I know in my age group can remember being petrified by the Oompa-Loompas and Willy Wonka himself in the original film version of this story, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I certainly can count myself amongst them. Despite that, I liked the original film very much and was very keen to see and review this remake from the fertile imagination of Tim Burton, the man responsible for films like Mars Attacks! and Sleepy Hollow. The fact that it also starred one of the best actors working in movies currently, Johnny Depp, certainly added to its appeal for me.
The story, as you may be aware, is based upon a children's book, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, a wonderful children's author responsible for many other stories such as The BFG, James & The Giant Peach & Danny, The Champion of the World (a bit of a favourite of mine). His stories were never straight forward and always involved some slightly subversive elements, which is part of what made them great stories. I read quite a few of them as a boy. The story involves a young boy called Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) who lives with his parents and all four grandparents in one tiny little broken down shack. His family are extremely poor and they struggle to have enough food to eat. His grandparents share one big bed and rarely venture from it. One of his grandparents, Grandpa Joe (David Kelly who some may recognise from Fawlty Towers) used to work at the huge chocolate factory in the same town, owned by the mysterious and reclusive Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp). The factory was closed down many years before after many of Wonka's secret recipes for chocolate were stolen. The factory has since been reopened and has been operating, manned entirely by an immigrant workforce, the Oompa-Loompas (Deep Roy), a race of very small people. Now, Wonka has decided to invite five children to his factory for one day, with one of them to receive a prize beyond their imagination at the end of the day. In order to decide which children will be invited, he hides 5 golden invitations in 5 of his chocolate bars. Whoever finds the invitation can visit the factory. The five tickets are found by Augustus Gloop, an overeating German boy, Violet Beauregarde, a gum chewing and annoying American, Veruca Salt, a spoilt, rich English girl, Mike Teavee, a television addicted scientific genius and Charlie, who finds the final ticket. The children and one member of their family (Charlie takes Grandpa Joe) arrive at the factory on the appointed day to be ushered into the weird and wonderful world of Willy Wonka and his Oompa-Loompas. Assuming someone out there may not be aware of the story, I will leave the plot description there.
Other notable cast members include Christopher Lee as Wilbur Wonka, Willy's father, Helena Bonham Carter as Charlie's mother, James Fox as Veruca Salt's father and 'our' Noah Taylor as Mr Bucket, Charlie's dad.
So, what to say about this film...it has a hell of a lot going for it, but personally, I wasn't completely convinced. Visually, this is an incredibly impressive production as you would expect from Tim Burton. The seamless use of CGI, animatronic and real sets and characters really works, creating the wonderful world of Wonka in a very believable but out of this world way. This is especially true of the chocolate room, complete with actually constructed chocolate river and waterfall and the wonderful squirrel sequence.
Another real winner in this production is the wonderful music by Danny Elfman, who was responsible for the score and also the various Oompa-Loompa songs which were all very different running the gamut from psychedelia to heavy metal to funk. Each song was accompanied by a impressive dance sequence performed by one man, Deep Roy in each of the various positions. He basically created a whole tribe of Oompa-Loompas by standing in each different spot on the set and recreating the dance moves, rather than each one being a CGI copy of the other. The score is also impressive, especially during the opening credits.
Some story elements have been added to this version of the film, however they do not jar. The additional elements include more back story for Willy Wonka including his father, Wilbur, the dentist who refused to allow him chocolates as a child and some more Oompa-Loompa back story. Additionally, some new material has also been added to the end of the film which it would be unfair to discuss but that is not in the book.
Johnny Depp's performance is interesting, channelling a strange mixture of Michael Jackson, Monty Python and a game show host. I found it difficult to understand when he first appeared but it worked better as the film continued. This may also have something to do with the strange plastic look they gave his make-up which made him look not quite human. Some actors changed the pronunciation of Oompa-Loompa, stretching the vowel sounds, which I didn't like. Depp is very good, I am just not sure about the characterisation. The other element which I found difficult to understand were some very silly jokes which really didn't fit with the mood of the film. A perfect example is a dumb sight gag which has a montage of a boy travelling all over the world, only to reveal that he is in fact in a flag museum.
My only other comment of a critical nature is that the movie seemed to lack emotion when compared to the previous film which for me left me with the impression of an incredible production which lacked some soul.
Overall, a visually impressive film which has some fantastic elements but was slightly lacking in true emotion.
The video quality is very good but a slightly low bitrate introduces some minor issues which keep it from being excellent. These issues would not be noticeable on many displays but may become more pronounced on a projector. The video bitrate averages 5.7 Mbps which is not bad but also not quite optimal.
The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio 16x9 enhanced which is close to the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1.
The picture was very clear and sharp throughout without quite being as crisp as some major releases, with no evidence of low level noise. Shadow detail was excellent. There was some light grain visible in some scenes which is probably due to the MPEG compression. Examples where it can clearly be seen are at 10:38 and on a gray jacket at 85:41. This is not by any means a major issue but considering that this is a major release I believe it is worth noting.
The colour was wonderful, rich and solid throughout.
There were no noticeable artefacts.
There are subtitles in English & English for the hearing impaired. The English subtitles were a little high on the picture and a little small, making them not as good as many.
The layer change occurs at 45:03 and was not noticeable.
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The audio quality is excellent, however, is not at the full bitrate.
This DVD contains an English Dolby Digital 5.1 EX soundtrack encoded at 384 Kb/s which is not the best bitrate for a 5.1 track. It should be noted that the packaging indicates that a Dolby Digital 2.0 track is also available, however this is not the case.
Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.
The score of this film by Danny Elfman, as mentioned above, is one of the highlights of the show.
The surround speakers added significant surround effects and atmosphere throughout the movie.
The subwoofer was used regularly for music and many other effects.
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There is an extra disc containing many extras, which are detailed below. These extras unlike many I have reviewed lately are excellent in terms of both quality and quantity with the possible exception of there not being a commentary. All are presented non 16x9 enhanced, some in widescreen some full frame.
The menu design is very cool featuring Oompa-Loompas and various machines, lots of motion and sound effects.
Quality trailer.
An interesting featurette about the squirrel sequence. Includes interviews with the animal trainer and director. Covers training the live squirrels and the issues involved and also the use of prosthetics and puppet squirrels to fill out the crowd.
Now this is the sort of extra which should be included more often on DVDs, something about the source material or original author rather than all the extras focusing on the production. This documentary is about Roald Dahl, the author of the original novel and his story is told by interviewing many members of his immediate family including his widow, many of his children and grand-children. They discuss him with great fondness, tell anecdotes about him, read from his books and show his writing shed and some home movies. Wonderful stuff.
Another excellent featurette which covers how Deep Roy was used to portray all the different Oompa-Loompas and the amount of work he did for that to be achieved. Includes interviews with the actor, director, voice coach, music coaches, choreographer and others. Also covers what parts were done with animatronics including the boat ride.
This section includes a number of short featurettes about the making of the film. All are interesting and worth seeing.
This featurette covers the story, how they wanted to stick closely to the book, the characters, subversive elements and changes they made to the ending.
This one covers casting, Johnny Depp's role and approach to the character, Freddie Highmore and other casting. Very self-congratulatory.
Very interesting featurette about how they came up with each of the Oompa-Loompa songs and their various inspirations. Tim Burton & Danny Elfman are interviewed.
This time the focus is on costumes and production design especially focusing on the chocolate room, machines and the use of models.
Focuses on the special effects and how they wanted to do things as real as possible. Covers how they did the waterfall and the blow-up blueberry.
Teaches you two different Oompa-Loompa dances and also includes a game where you have to follow one of the dances with your remote.
A game where you have to help the squirrels sort the nuts into good and bad. Fun for kids.
Allows you to choose ingredients for a new candy and see how it effects an Oompa-Loompa. Kids will love it, especially if they can make the Oompa-Loompa fart.
Another game which has five sections, one for each of the children and then three levels in each child. You need to help each child find the ticket in different ways. Will keep the kids amused for a while.
Includes a demo version of the PC game available for the movie. Two of the games on the CD are here for playing and there are details of the other ones available if you purchase the game. Also included are a variety of weblinks plus the InterActual player.
There are two Easter eggs on Disc 2, both of animated versions (including some rehearsal footage) of two of the Oompa-Loompa songs. To access them do the following : (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) The first one can be found by going to the Features menu, then hitting the up arrow to highlight the W at the top of the screen. This shows 1:32 of Mike Teavee's song. The second one can be found in the Activities menu, selecting Search for the Golden ticket, then Start, highlight Exit and go left to display a thumbs up sign. This shows 2:06 of Augustus Gloop's song.
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 1 version seems to be exactly the same in terms of features when you are comparing the two disc versions. Let's call it a draw as I have no ability to compare video quality.
The video quality is very good, bordering on excellent.
The audio quality is excellent.
The set has a large collection of extras, which are mostly of excellent quality.
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| Review Equipment | |
| DVD | Pioneer DV667A DVD-V DVD-A SACD, using Component output |
| Display | Sony FD Trinitron Wega KV-AR34M36 80cm. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 576i (PAL)/480i (NTSC). |
| Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
| Amplification | Pioneer VSX-511 |
| Speakers | Bose 201 Direct Reflecting (Front), Phillips SB680V (Surround), Phillips MX731 (Center), Yamaha YST SW90 (Sub) |