I have seen this film twice. I haven’t been that "Tim Burton-mania" for very long time. His last film "Big Fish" is not that interesting to me.
But, this time, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is so great! I have seen the old version of the movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" right before I went in the cinema. The new one is undoubtly more successful then the previous one.
One of the reason is that the improvement in filming technology and also the big budget of making this film. I am sure that the old movie cannot make a real chocolate waterfall because of the limitation of budget. The real chocolate waterfall set is really impressing.
The most impressing thing to me is not the gorgeous setting, but the style of storytelling of Tim Burton. I found a few point that is so special showing why it is a Tim Burton’s film.
1. Black Humor - showing from the scene Willy Wonka welcome the visitors turn out burning the dolly robots, and building a room for curing the burnt robots in the factory (Which should not existed in the novel)
2. Relationship between Father and Son - same as Big Fish, it is the theme of most of Tim Burton’s film, also in "Edward Scissorhands", the relationship between Edward and the Scientist invented Edward. This time, the relationship between Willy Wonka and his Dentist father. The family love can also be showed in the faith of loving from parents of Charlie.
This 2 points make this movie is not just a children movie. In fact, the parents can enjoy this movie as much as their children.
Last words to note, please those parents of young children see the Cantonese dialog version of the film. I cannot stand a child asking question to its parent and distract me from the fantastic movie world…