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That's what you get when you mix two movies in one post. ;)
(skip to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

At last! The long awaited Tim Burton's adaptation of Roald Dahl's wonderful book that has inspired children throughout the years has arrived. It's been out for a while, but i only just got around to see it. The expectations were very high, mainly because the dream team got together again; Tim Burton, Johnny Depp and the musical genious Danny Elfman.

The movie starts with a – typical – dark tone, showing Charlie's family and how poor they are. What goes better with cabbage... then cabbage? his mother asks rhetorically. The house in which they live seemed to be taken out of Nightmare Before Christmas – the acclaimed Tim Burton's first animation film. With a skewed architecture, which only helped to set itself apart from the rest of the landscape, the house was situated just down the road from the chocolate factory. No wonder Charlie loved Wonka's candy. ;)

Before long into the film, Charlie's grandpa – a child trapped inside an old body, he was – starts telling the story of Willy Wonka and the factory.
In one of these flashbacks, i noticed one reference to another Burton-Depp movie; When Willy Wonka is grabbing a pair of scissors while inaugurating the factory, memories of Johnny Depp as Edward Scissor-Hands popped into my head. Apparently, there were a couple of other references to some Burton movies, but i must have missed them.

The story is not as childish as you would expect, mainly due to Depp's impersonation of Willy Wonka. He inspired himself on the presenters of old children shows from his childhood, which end up building a very creepy Wonka. He's not the typical good guy in every child story, in fact, i'm not so sure he's the good guy at all. I did enjoy Johnny Depp's performance, mainly because it gave the movie a bigger sense that it is in fact a Burton film. The quick changes of facial expressions, the giggling at the end of sarcastic and somewhat gruesome sentences, all that and more made Wonka a character with such a depth that is not normal in movies like this one. Loved it.

Visually, the movie is pretty appealing given all the colorful sets – which are not very Burton-esque – inside the factory, and the dark landscape of the city. This was a good representation of how special Wonka's world was, amidst such a dark and sad world. The contrast between the two worked perfectly.

Another highlight of this movie is its music. Danny Elfman was in charge – as always in Tim Burton films – of writing the songs to the soundtrack and what a great job he did. The musical scenes of the Umpa-Lumpas were amazing, giving it a feel of a real musical at times. Some of those songs were pretty catchy! I wasn't aware of Elfman's talent for writing catchy pop songs. Apparently, he even sang on some of them. Cool.

The boy Charlie, was played by Freddie Highmore, which Depp brought from Finding Neverland. He was great in both of the movies. In this one he played a Charlie filled with joy among a sad and poor family which was quite different from Peter in Finding Neverland, which was a closed kid in a family finding their ground and dealing with a tragedy. This kid could be the next big thing, but i need to see more of him. He definitely has potential.

I did find they rushed a bit at getting rid of the characters, as you'll see. They could have explored the factory a bit more, specially since the movie is only 115 min. long – maybe it's not that short being a movie for children, i don't know. I did love the Whipped Cream room, even though they only rushed through it.

A sidenote for an unexpected element of the cast... Sir Christopher Lee. I wasn't aware that he was in the movie and it was a pleasant surprise to see him there. Still, i didn't like him in this role. I can't really explain why, whether it was due to the short ammount of time onscreen or because of something else. It just didn't suit him, IMHO.

A movie for the child who lives inside of us. Don't let him/her die. Ever. ;)

The Tim Burton Show will soon continue with The Corpse's Bride, stay tuned. :)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Once again, i was left with the feeling that i should have read the book before watching the movie! I've heard all about the book, i was aware of the catch 42, the general plot and some other things that should have hinted me that this is the sort of comedy for me. But it didn't, i never picked up the book... maybe because i was too lost in the land of elves, hobbits, dwarfs, men and other creatures.

It's been a – long – while since i laughed so hard in a theatre. I'm not that easy with comedies that always turn out to be too shallow and too predictable, but this is totally different, with a silly but also intelligent humour. Douglas Adams helped writing the screenplay and i could bet that if he didn't, the movie wouldn't come out so great, so I'm glad he did.

Firstly, Martin Freeman, who is known for his performance in the british version of The Office – ie, the good and original one – did a splendid job filling the shoes of Arthur Dent, the silly Brit looser who is saved just in time from certain death by his friend Ford, who ends up being an alien who wrote the best-selling book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Ford helps Arthur Dent hitching a ride right before Earth gets destroyed because it's standing in the way of a intergalactic freeway.

IMHO, one of the highlights of the movie – and there's plenty – was the character Marvin, a computer with GPP – Genuine People Personalities – who is constantly depressed and complaining about how awful his "life" is. I couldn't hold my laughter when Marvin first appears on the film. Actually, every time he was on screen, the whole room filled with laughter. He was sarcastic, very sad and extremely funny, even if he didn't mean to be.

When you add that to all the ridiculous events that keep happening throughout the movie, with some predictable jokes – the trailer shows a bit too much, i think – and others not so quite, the movie goes on with good pace.

Oh, one other thing, I wasn't aware that BabelFish got its name from the book, which is obvious now. And probably the IM client Trillian also owes its name to Douglas Adams' mind. Apparently, this book inspired a couple of expressions now used commonly in the English language.

Also, some of you who might be paying attention – yes, i mean you two – will think i overrated this movie, but i'm very harsh judging comedies... i either love them or hate them and this one made me laugh throughout the movie with well-thought jokes, unexpected turns, plus it has a good sci-fi feeling to it and a good screenplay. It doesn't have breathtaking scenic performances by the actors, but all of them present a very consistent performance which is more than adequate for the movie in question. That's why I loved it so much. ;) Not that i need to justify myself, but i wanted to make that clear. ;)

Last but no least, I have a question to those of you who have already watched the movie and also read the books;

Is it worth to read the first volume of The Trilogy of Four after watching the movie, or do you think it's better to skip right ahead to the second one, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe?

I think I'd enjoy reading his books... it sounded like my kind of humour. Non-sense.