Review of the movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Based on the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, the movie is as interesting as the book. If you have read the book you would remember about the chocolate factory, Mr Willy Wonka, Charlie Bucket and his four grandparents and parents all packed in a crooked and dilapidated hut, the Oompa-Loompas, the Wonka something-something fudgemallow chocolate bar, the five golden tickets and the five who obtained them. They were Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde, Mike Teavee and of course Charlie Bucket. I can’t help agreeing that the book and also the movie were superb to the eyes and the mind of the readers and audience.

The cinema was filled with small kids and adults and teenagers. On the surface the movie appeared colourful and appealing to the eyes of kids. However, actually this movie was filled with deep meanings that made it actually horrifying if one thought deeply. Firstly the oopma-loompas. They were from a country which nobody knew the location of. The oompa-loompas were constantly attacked by ferocious beasts that dominated the area. One day the owner of the factory Willy Wonka visited the country and found out that they loved and worshipped cocoa beans. So he invited all of the oompa-loompas to work in his enormous factory, which once was served by human beings. The oompa-loompas were short beings who could only reach until an adult’s knee. And their complexion was relatively dark, darker than any person who appeared in the movie. There were a lot of oompa-loompas featured in the movie but all of them were identically short. I wonder if this was racism, perhaps not by Roald Dahl himself but by the director of the movie. But I’m not sure so don’t further ask me.

All the four kids were somehow injured except for Charlie Bucket. The first one, Augustus Gloop was greedy so he bent into the river of melted chocolate but in the end fell down the river. A sucker (ya, a machine like a sucker) sucked him up the pipe and that was horrifying enough if it happens in real life. The result was him covered in chocolate and that was a reversible error or mistake, since it could be washed off. This wasn’t the most alarming thing.

Next was Violet Beauregarde who loved to chew on gums. She chewed on a gum which was first-of-its-kind – a whole meal with a blueberry pie as a dessert. The gum was still in its ‘beta’ stage, and there was an error. The gum caused Violet to turn violet and expand like an inflated ball, more like a blueberry which was like a few thousand times bigger than the average berry. To turn her back into her original manner, she had to be squeezed or un-juiced. The result? She was still as violet as a blueberry but unfortunately she was extremely flexible. She was shaped like a normal girl, luckily, and did not remain as a huge blueberry. She was a karate champion before she got turned into this state, and she particular loved her flexibility though her mother was utterly worried. In real life this would not happen, but who could imagine what could happen to Violet if she remained so flexible and violet?

Next on the list is Veruca Salt. She is a terribly spoilt girl from Buckinghamshire, England and lived in a mansion that could be compared with the Buckingham Palace. Her father owned a factory and to get the golden ticket for her beloved daughter Veruca, he ordered all his factory workers to stop their daily routine work and unwrap the millions of chocolate bars he purchased instead. And of course they found one. In Willy Wonka’s factory, she was attacked by squirrels and finally dropped down to the rubbish chute. Her father followed her down as well. The result was a spoilt daughter and a rich father covered with rubbish, walking out of the factory.

Finally Mike Teavee was a boy who loved the television and television games. He was quite fortunate in the sense that he was the fourth to be eliminated, but very unfortunate since he turned very small and had to be stretched into a tall bamboo, twice as tall as his father but much, much thinner. He totally resembled a bamboo and I wonder what could happen to him. This boy, together with Violet, is the more unfortunate casualties since they are most likely irreversibly changed, forever.

Willy Wonka seems to ignore and neglect the injuries of the casualties. He seems nonchalant, though he knows what to do to help them and that he might not be able to help completely. He does not really ill-treat the oompa-loompas, though the idea of oopma-loompas might make some people feel irritated.

On the whole, the movie is wonderful, a treat to the eyes and the mind of the audience. Kids might find it totally hilarious and that there’s not a single hint of unhappiness in this movie, but actually it might contain some sinister ideas and deeper meanings, and the underlying message is… well maybe the naughty kids would get their lessons and the good ones (like Charlie Bucket) will be rewarded ( His reward was to become the owner of the chocolate factory, taking over Willy Wonka!)! I’m not surprised if some schools choose this book as the book for studying for Literature lessons, since the story is actually complex and not shallow. Nevertheless, it’s no wonder Straits Times gave it a 4 out of 5 stars for the movie review. I strongly recommend this movie, and if you haven’t watched it, there is no reason for you not to rush down to the cinemas to view it before it ends. Quick! Disconnect your internet service and turn on the computer, and rush down to the cinema to view it. You’ll be most likely amazed and you’ll love it.

However, one thing is that one part of the story is not included in the movie. Remember Dahl wrote about Willy Wonka producing ‘square candies that look round, and round candies that look square’? I can’t remember exactly but it’s somewhere close to this. This part isn’t featured in the movie at all, though it doesn’t make a big difference to the overall quality of the movie.