It will never replace the older movie in my affections, but it has enough good moments to pass an enjoyable two hours.
Burton's ending tends to go on too long, and as sweet and winsome as it may be, it appears anticlimactic. Nevertheless, my concerns are few, and this new "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" makes for a splashy, eccentric movie treat. It will never replace the older movie in my affections, but it has enough good moments to pass an enjoyable two hours.
Video:
Now, here's the thing: While I think this disc has one of the best HD-DVD images, if not the best, I've ever seen, I didn't think the standard-definition disc was all that great. Not that the SD transfer was at fault, but the director had purposely shrouded the first third of the film in the dullest possible shades of grays, blacks, and browns, so there wasn't much color there, at least at first, and then he purposely lighted up later scenes almost too brightly. Moreover, many scenes looked rather glassy, a condition that only worsened as the director's brighter tones came into play.
The general appearance of Burton's film remains the same on HD-DVD, but now I have to change my assessment of how it comes across on disc. While the colors continue to look muted in the beginning of the film and too bright later on, the definition and detail of the HD-DVD are so good that the film is joy to look at. Burton fills every frame with a multitude of tiny particulars, and they show up in pinpoint focus. More important, faces display a multitude of nuances; just look closely at Grandpa Joe's facial features, his lines and wrinkles, so well delineated and realistic you'd think you could reach out, touch him, and feel his whiskers. Yes, there is still a bit too much glassy brightness as the film proceeds, but it's part and parcel of the movie.
Audio:
This time out Warner Bros. present the sound in Dolby Digital Plus 51. It is not spectacular sound, but the DD+ does a better job than the standard edition's regular Dolby Digital 5.1. Interestingly, in comparison the new DD+ seems lower in gain, a few decibels lower, than the DD 5.1. Yet it displays a greater clarity and subtlety, appearing to open up the rear channels more. There still isn't a very big dynamic range or much deep bass, but that is probably a condition of the movie's original audio. I saw this movie in a theater and don't remember being overwhelmed by the sound there, either. Also, by comparison the regular DD 5.1 seems brighter and more garish, the DD+ more open and more natural. I'm only sorry there was no Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, just the music-only track listed below.
Extras:
The extras include a few things not contained in the standard-resolution Two-Disc Deluxe Edition. The most important of these are an "In-Movie Experience" where Tim Burton, the actors, and the filmmakers share a wealth of information with us via picture inserts on-screen as the movie plays. As the narrator (Geoffrey Holder) says, it's information all "jumbled together like a mouthful of candy." Then there's an audio commentary with director Tim Burton that was oddly missing from the Deluxe Edition. Several more things you don't find on the Deluxe Edition menu (although they might be among the Easter Eggs, I don't know) are two pre-visualizations: "Augustus Gloop Dance" and "Mike Teavee Dance," each about two minutes long, done up mostly in CGI; a European club reel, a short dance-music video; and a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 music-only track showcasing the music of Danny Elfman that makes one wish the audio engineers had done up the whole soundtrack in TrueHD. It is smoother still than the DD+ track, if at an even lower gain, perhaps to accommodate a wider dynamic range. Oh, well....
Then, repeated from the previous edition, there's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Chocolate Dreams," seven minutes of interviews and behind-the-scenes bits; "Different Faces, Different Flavors," ten minutes on characters and casting; "Designer Chocolate," nine minutes on costume and set design; "Under the Wrapper," seven minutes on visual effects; "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Sweet Sounds," seven minutes on composer Danny Elfman's music; "Becoming Oompa-Loompa," seven minutes on how the filmmakers turned actor Deep Roy into hundreds of Oompa-Loompas; "Attack of the Squirrels," nine minutes on how the filmmakers used live squirrels, puppet squirrels, and CGI squirrels to create the nut-sorting scene; and "Fantastic Mr. Dahl," a seventeen-minute biography of the late Roald Dahl, using interviews with his family and friends and vintage footage of Dahl himself.
What you won't find (or I couldn't find) on the HD-DVD are the Deluxe Edition's games, the "Oompa-Loompa Dance," "The Inventing Machine," "The Bad Nut," and "Search for the Golden Ticket." I wasn't disappointed at their absence so much as curious why they weren't there. (For all I know they could be among the items in the "In-Movie Experience," though I doubt it; I didn't watch all of it.)
The extras wrap up with thirty-two scene selections, but no chapter insert; a widescreen theatrical trailer; English as the only spoken language; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired. As always, Warner Bros. also include pop-up menus, an indicator of elapsed time, a zoom-and-pan feature, and an Elite Red HD case.
Parting Thoughts:
The Wife-O-Meter and I both agreed the new "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is quite different from the older "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" but not necessarily better. It's best to view the two films as entirely separate entities that just happen to share the same characters and plot. The difference in the personality of Willy Wonka alone is startling enough to make a person forget one or the other character. Yet my wife and I agreed that there is a greater warmth in the older movie, a captivating charm that is hard to beat, as well as a better forward pace. Although it may simply be nostalgia, a sentimental attachment to something that's been around for so long, our affection for the older film was not enough to keep us from appreciating Burton's new effort. I'm sure we will have the two movies on the shelf, side by side, for a very long time, especially now that they are both available in HD.
Video:
Now, here's the thing: While I think this disc has one of the best HD-DVD images, if not the best, I've ever seen, I didn't think the standard-definition disc was all that great. Not that the SD transfer was at fault, but the director had purposely shrouded the first third of the film in the dullest possible shades of grays, blacks, and browns, so there wasn't much color there, at least at first, and then he purposely lighted up later scenes almost too brightly. Moreover, many scenes looked rather glassy, a condition that only worsened as the director's brighter tones came into play.
The general appearance of Burton's film remains the same on HD-DVD, but now I have to change my assessment of how it comes across on disc. While the colors continue to look muted in the beginning of the film and too bright later on, the definition and detail of the HD-DVD are so good that the film is joy to look at. Burton fills every frame with a multitude of tiny particulars, and they show up in pinpoint focus. More important, faces display a multitude of nuances; just look closely at Grandpa Joe's facial features, his lines and wrinkles, so well delineated and realistic you'd think you could reach out, touch him, and feel his whiskers. Yes, there is still a bit too much glassy brightness as the film proceeds, but it's part and parcel of the movie.
Audio:
This time out Warner Bros. present the sound in Dolby Digital Plus 51. It is not spectacular sound, but the DD+ does a better job than the standard edition's regular Dolby Digital 5.1. Interestingly, in comparison the new DD+ seems lower in gain, a few decibels lower, than the DD 5.1. Yet it displays a greater clarity and subtlety, appearing to open up the rear channels more. There still isn't a very big dynamic range or much deep bass, but that is probably a condition of the movie's original audio. I saw this movie in a theater and don't remember being overwhelmed by the sound there, either. Also, by comparison the regular DD 5.1 seems brighter and more garish, the DD+ more open and more natural. I'm only sorry there was no Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, just the music-only track listed below.
Extras:
The extras include a few things not contained in the standard-resolution Two-Disc Deluxe Edition. The most important of these are an "In-Movie Experience" where Tim Burton, the actors, and the filmmakers share a wealth of information with us via picture inserts on-screen as the movie plays. As the narrator (Geoffrey Holder) says, it's information all "jumbled together like a mouthful of candy." Then there's an audio commentary with director Tim Burton that was oddly missing from the Deluxe Edition. Several more things you don't find on the Deluxe Edition menu (although they might be among the Easter Eggs, I don't know) are two pre-visualizations: "Augustus Gloop Dance" and "Mike Teavee Dance," each about two minutes long, done up mostly in CGI; a European club reel, a short dance-music video; and a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 music-only track showcasing the music of Danny Elfman that makes one wish the audio engineers had done up the whole soundtrack in TrueHD. It is smoother still than the DD+ track, if at an even lower gain, perhaps to accommodate a wider dynamic range. Oh, well....
Then, repeated from the previous edition, there's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Chocolate Dreams," seven minutes of interviews and behind-the-scenes bits; "Different Faces, Different Flavors," ten minutes on characters and casting; "Designer Chocolate," nine minutes on costume and set design; "Under the Wrapper," seven minutes on visual effects; "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Sweet Sounds," seven minutes on composer Danny Elfman's music; "Becoming Oompa-Loompa," seven minutes on how the filmmakers turned actor Deep Roy into hundreds of Oompa-Loompas; "Attack of the Squirrels," nine minutes on how the filmmakers used live squirrels, puppet squirrels, and CGI squirrels to create the nut-sorting scene; and "Fantastic Mr. Dahl," a seventeen-minute biography of the late Roald Dahl, using interviews with his family and friends and vintage footage of Dahl himself.
What you won't find (or I couldn't find) on the HD-DVD are the Deluxe Edition's games, the "Oompa-Loompa Dance," "The Inventing Machine," "The Bad Nut," and "Search for the Golden Ticket." I wasn't disappointed at their absence so much as curious why they weren't there. (For all I know they could be among the items in the "In-Movie Experience," though I doubt it; I didn't watch all of it.)
The extras wrap up with thirty-two scene selections, but no chapter insert; a widescreen theatrical trailer; English as the only spoken language; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles, with English captions for the hearing impaired. As always, Warner Bros. also include pop-up menus, an indicator of elapsed time, a zoom-and-pan feature, and an Elite Red HD case.
Parting Thoughts:
The Wife-O-Meter and I both agreed the new "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is quite different from the older "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" but not necessarily better. It's best to view the two films as entirely separate entities that just happen to share the same characters and plot. The difference in the personality of Willy Wonka alone is startling enough to make a person forget one or the other character. Yet my wife and I agreed that there is a greater warmth in the older movie, a captivating charm that is hard to beat, as well as a better forward pace. Although it may simply be nostalgia, a sentimental attachment to something that's been around for so long, our affection for the older film was not enough to keep us from appreciating Burton's new effort. I'm sure we will have the two movies on the shelf, side by side, for a very long time, especially now that they are both available in HD.
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[release]21243[/release]