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Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

© James C. Hess

Fons et origo.

Several years ago I attended a writing workshop spearheaded by a criticially-acclaimed, multi-award winning writer who has a well-deserved reputation for not suffering fools gladly.

During the workshop I was 'discovered' by this writer, who pronounced me such, and promptly followed it with something just this side of a literal bloodletting: A would-be writer attending the workshop had taken a well-known children's story and rewritten it from the perspective of the villain.

Clever? Perhaps. But not, according to the writer leading the workshop, creative or original. And he made this known in absolute remarks, heavy on the profanity and obscenities.

By the time he had finished laying waste to the would-be writer the would-be writer was on the verge of a breakdown. And when a break in the workshop came the would-be writer fled, never to be seen or heard from again.

There was a reason for the carnage, and it was this: Don't be clever. Be creative or original or both. In the long term it will serve you well.

I thought about this lesson recently, while watching the latest cinematic production mounted by director Tim Burton, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and had to wonder if he has ever actually been creative or original in his work.

It is hard to say, and Johnny Depp's appearance in this particular movie did little, if anything, to suggest otherwise.

Understand, both Depp and Burton understand and comprehend the visual, as invention to the imagination. But, still. . . the concern on my part remains.

In all fairness Burton correctly titles his cinematic presentation of the novel by Roald Dahl, first published in 1964. He does a wonderful job of creating the Bucket house and casting the household. His realization of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, complete with Oompa Loompas, a sugar-coated landscape of chocolate rivers, gum drop trees, and rock candy mountain, is just this side of perfect.

The concern, the problem--and it is a big one--is how Burton brings it all together, as mostly embodied by Depp as Wonka, who comes across as the love child of Michael Jackson and Carol Channing, with a sideways tryst involving Carol Burnett, apparently.

I found myself so distracted by Depp's unnatural and unsettling pale face, his lipstick, his hat, his teeth, his mannerisms, that I kept mentally blinking, pausing, and wondering what it was I may have missed because of this abomination.

They may seem superficial complaints and concerns, these opinions, but they are not. After all, what was the real intent behind Willy Wonka's actions and behaviors? He punished bad children and rewarded the good, specifically Charlie. But why? Did this go to the real reason for why he closed his factory to the public fifteen years before? Was there a message or lesson implied ? After all, by way of his flair and dress, Wonka demonstrated he is something of a mystery, a man of mystery.