I liked it. I enjoyed the Oompa-Loopa songs and spectacles. Altogether the film was creepier than the 1971 movie but not as cruel. True, Johnny Depp screaming at Mike Teevee to stop mumbling was funny but nothing beats Gene Wilder screaming at him You should open your mouth a little wider when you speak! The imagery and design was great – as is all of Burton’s films and I loved the Toys R Us knife-wielding maniac soundtrack provided by Danny Elfman.
I don’t know why I love movies where bratty kids get ripped on. I think it is a distaste for the Disney formula mother-less heroine and her two anthroporphic object buddies. I think kids resonate with it, too. They know Veruca Salt is a little selfish bitch that deserves high comeuppance – as do her repulsive parents. I loved that Violet’s mom as a past-prime soccer mom clinging to youth by dressing just like her daughter with the bleach blond Southern Belle Aquanet bubble hairdo and overdone bronzer.
I didn’t love Depp’s Wonka – though it was still enjoyable. Liked the creepyness but not the chirpy voice. I think that is from the previews – seeing previews over and over again makes me resent movies when I actually see them. I liked the whipped cream imagery but wanted more subversive stuff like that.
I think I’m too attached to the 1971 movie. Was anyone else traumatized as a kid when they heard Gene Wilder’s You! Get! Nothing! tirade?
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