Amedei

I finally watched the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp. I liked it better than the '70s version. (For one, that annoying "Oompa Loompa" song wasn't in it.)

It's been like 20 years since I read the book, so I don't remember off the top of my head which movie is closer to it. But Roald Dahl did have a kind of dark humor, and I think that comes out more in this film more than in the happy adventure with Gene Wilder. The cartoon goth effects from Tim Burton worked really well with the overall tone of the film.

The children in the story still serve as cautionary tales: don't be greedy, gluttonous, TV-addict, me-me-me all the time (that's almost half of the seven deadly sins right there)! Keep it real like Charlie! Each of the kids was such a caricature, and there were a few ethnic stereotypes (the fat German kid, the prissy English girl, the weirdly combo Indian/African/South Pacific Oompa Loompas), but overall it was a decent film. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it. I think I just felt compelled to watch it. Actually, I put it in my Netflix queue because I added Pirates of the Caribbean, and then decided to put some other Johnny Depp movies in there.

Thoughout the whole movie, I also couldn't get the notion out of my head that Depp looked eerily like Michael Jackson: the pale face, the high-pitched voice, some of the mannerisms. Depp is a brilliant, brilliant actor. But since it's a children's movie, it kind of creeped me out.

And, like Chocolat (also, weirdly, another Johnny Depp movie), I had severe chocolate cravings long before the credits started to roll.