Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
About the Film
The reclusive chocolatier Willy Wonka has kept the gates of his fantastical factory closed to the public for years. To choose an heir for his empire, he hides five Golden Tickets inside his chocolate bars, promising the finders a private tour. Around the world, four spoiled children uncover tickets, but the fifth goes to Charlie Bucket — a good-hearted boy from a desperately poor family who lives in the factory’s shadow and receives only a single chocolate bar each year, on his birthday.
Against all odds, Charlie finds the last ticket and enters the factory with his Grandpa Joe. Inside, Wonka leads the children through a series of wondrous and dangerous rooms, where the other visitors are undone one by one by their own greed, gluttony and vanity. As the tour unfolds, Wonka’s own troubled memories of his estranged, candy-forbidding father surface — and Charlie’s kindness ultimately helps the lonely inventor reconcile his past, opening the door for the whole Bucket family to share in his magical world.
Plot synopsis by johnny-depp.org.
Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp reimagined Willy Wonka as an eccentric, emotionally sealed-off man-child, deliberately distinct from Gene Wilder’s 1971 portrayal. Depp drew on the manic cheerfulness of children’s television hosts and game-show presenters, giving Wonka a pageboy bob, oversized sunglasses and ever-present latex gloves that hint at his discomfort with human contact. Beneath the sing-song voice and exaggerated mannerisms lies a lonely figure shaped by a strict, sweets-banning father — a wound the film gradually reveals and, through Charlie, finally heals.
Cast & Crew
Cast
Willy WonkaJohnny Depp
Charlie BucketFreddie Highmore
Grandpa JoeDavid Kelly
Mrs. BucketHelena Bonham Carter
Mr. BucketNoah Taylor
Dr. Wilbur WonkaChristopher Lee
The Oompa-LoompasDeep Roy
Violet BeauregardeAnnaSophia Robb
Veruca SaltJulia Winter
Mike TeaveeJordan Fry
Augustus GloopPhilip Wiegratz
Mrs. BeauregardeMissi Pyle
Mr. SaltJames Fox
Mr. TeaveeAdam Godley
Crew
DirectorTim Burton
ScreenplayJohn August
Based on the novel byRoald Dahl
MusicDanny Elfman
CinematographyPhilippe Rousselot
ProducersBrad Grey, Richard D. Zanuck
StudioWarner Bros. Pictures
“Everything in this room is eatable. Even I’m eatable, but that, my children, is called cannibalism, and is, in fact, frowned upon in most societies.”
— Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Filming Locations
- Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, England (principal photography)
- CompAir factory, High Wycombe, England
- Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, England
- Wrotham Park, Hertfordshire, England
- Establishing shots filmed in Germany, Yemen and the United States
More about this film
Trivia
- Michael Jackson reportedly recorded an entire soundtrack in the hope of playing Willy Wonka, but Warner Bros. rejected the idea as unmarketable for a family film.
- Deep Roy played all 165 Oompa-Loompas, using split-screen photography and digital effects; each musical number took months to shoot.
- Forty live squirrels were trained over 19 weeks — learning to crack walnuts — for Veruca Salt’s elimination scene.
- A camera worth around $540,000 fell into the artificial chocolate river during filming, delaying production.
Awards
- 2006 Academy Award — Best Costume Design (Gabriella Pescucci), nominated
- 2006 Golden Globe — Best Actor, Musical or Comedy (Johnny Depp), nominated
- 2006 BAFTA Awards — nominations for Costume Design, Make Up & Hair, Production Design and Special Visual Effects
- 2006 Grammy Award — Best Song Written for Visual Media (“Wonka’s Welcome Song”), nominated
DVD Easter Eggs
- Complete the “Golden Ticket Game” in the Activities section on Disc 2 to unlock an animatic of the Oompa-Loompas’ dance from Augustus’s fudge-tube scene.
- In the Features menu, highlight “Main Menu” and press Down to reveal a giant “W,” then Enter for an animatic music video of the Mike Teavee song.
