M&M: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

I like and respect Roald Dahl as a writer and enjoy watching the movie “Mathilda” several times and I did enjoy reading “The BFG” even as an adult. Maybe I should some day read his book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, on which this movie from the year 2005 is based on.

To be honest, I don't like the movie much. It's predictable from the start and the whole conception of it is just purely annoying. A typical Tim Burton movie with the “usual suspects”: with Danny Elfman scoring the music, like he did with almost every Tim Burton movie, we also have Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka in the lead role and Helena Bonham Carter (then still fiancé of Tim Burton) as mother of Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore). Charlie's family is so poor, they barely have enough just to eat. Still it's Charlie of all people, who gets one of the rare golden tickets. The golden ticket enables Charlie and other children to visit Willy Wonka in his famous chocolate factory and get a tour there, one which none of them will ever forget. In the end even Willy Wonka, living estrangd from his father, learned something. Yawn. In fact at the end I had the feeling that the movie should have been called “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”, because it was somehow most of the time about Willy Wonka, his life style and his factory and not about Charlie Bucket.

While nobody would wish for anybody to grow up in such poor circumstances that Charlie has to be in. However the other kids that get the remaining golden tickets are rotten and spoiled. Each of the spoiled kids will get into a nasty situation according to their character. Charlie is the only one getting away from that tour in a positive way, since he's already punished enough by living in the poor family situation he grew up in.

The movie respectively the factory has jarring colourings in a typical Tim Burton way. As a fan of Danny Elfman's music I listened to it several times before I saw it was on tv one day. I don't know if my parents knew what the movie was about or that it was a Tim Burton movie respectively some parts would be musical songs. I don't know what bothered my parents the most. In any case they turned it off soon. I watched it alone some time later. As I watched it, I had the feeling Danny Elfman's music held everything together and especially in the factory it seemed that they were moving from one song to the next. I liked the music. Especially the first tracks of the album (1-5) are funny and diverse like the characters they're about (“Wonka's Welcome Song”, “Augustus Gloop”, “Violet Beauregarde”, “Veruca Salt”, “Mike “Teavee”). Danny Elfman sang the lyrics to the songs himself and as he reported himself, as he composed the songs, he had laughing fits so hard that his wife checked in on him a couple of times,to see if everything was ok. I can very much imagine that. The tracks are “quirky”, upbeat and dynamic. With “Augustus Gloop” there is however already a revelation that nothing really bad will happen to the kids. Of course not! It's a children's movie and as rotten as the kids may be, nobody wishes them anything terrible („But don't, dear children be alarmed, Augustus Gloop will not be harmed, Augustus Gloop will not be harmed“). The tracks 13-15 (“ Loompa Land”, “The Boat Arrives”, “The River Cruise”) and 18 (“The River Cruise – Part 2”) are pretty dark tracks, by the way. So it's by all means not all just cheery music. I'm listening to the soundtrack again after a long time as I'm writing this blog post.

I would almost suggest to not watch the movie and just listen to the soundtrack. Of course you won't see the kids that way or in what kind of situations they get into and the lessons they'll learn. By only listening to the soundtrack you will also not know the ending and what happened to Willy Wonka and Charlie Bucket after the tour. I like Helena Bonham Carter, who can only be seen shortly as the mother and I also like Freddie Highmore. Still, I personally would prefer listening to the soundtrack happily and repeatedly, which I find much more entertaining by itself with the sounds and the lyrics, than watching this quirky, predictable movie. Probably most people will want to watch the movie after listening to the soundtrack anyway. To that I can only say this: Watch it at your own risk!

M&M: Nightmare Before Christmas

Dear reader,

did you ever thought about the holidays we celebrate? Easter, Valentines Day, Halloween, Christmas? The animated film “Nightmare Before Christmas” by Tim Burton is just about that!

Jack Skellington is a skinny skeleton in a black-and-white striped suit and the head of Halloween Town, who's people are responsible for Halloween. Jack is sad. For a while now he didn't have fun scaring others and he wants something else. Only he doesn't know what that might be. During a walk he comes to another town: Christmas Town. Everything there is snowy and has a wonderful scent and everybody has fun and is happy. Also there's supposedly somebody huge and red and he brings presents. Jack finds out that this somebody is called “Sandy Claws”. Wonderful!

Jack wants this Christmas, too. He'll be preparing for the next one himself. Three kids, usually out to collect sweets are send by Jack to kidnap Sandy Claws so that Jack can do his job. Although Jack specifically tells the kids not to bring Sandy Claws to Oogie Boogie, that's exactly what they do. Oogie Boogie is the only really mean and scary person in Halloween Town and ready to kill somebody just to be entertained, that's especially true for this oh so great Sandy Claws.

Jack doesn't see any of that coming and everybody is excited. Only Sally is very worried. She's a bit like the Frankenstein monster stitched together and is held captive by her creator, Doctor Finkelstein in his castle. She likes Jack. Jack doesn't quite see that. In a vision she sees Christmas go completely and utterly wrong, so she does everything she can, to stop Jack's plan. Jack doesn't listen to her at all. Christmas goes totally wrong and ends in Jack being shot down with his flying sleigh. Only then does he realise how wrong he was, although he had meant well. Sandy Claws has to come back! Will Jack rescue him and with that Christmas in time? You've got to find out for yourself!

Like many animated films by Tim Burton, “Nightmare Before Christmas" has many songs and it's a kind of musical. The music was written by his permanent partner, the composer Danny Elfman. The latter also was the singing voice for Jack Skellington. Although Danny Elfman does the singing for demos of his songs, his voice is not heard in the films. That's what makes “Nightmare Before Christmas” something special for fans. When I saw the film for the first time, I didn't know Tim Burton as such, I have to admit. I knew his films – in hindsight – but the name got familiar for me only after “Nightmare Before Christmas”. I was lucky to see that film when a professor at uni offered to show it to those willing to come one afternoon before Christmas holidays. Being handicapped myself, I was fascinated with Sally and her body parts stitched together. One scene especially is just brilliant, when she runs away from the castle of the doctor to see Jack. She jumps out of the window. For a moment you almost believe she died from the jump. She's lying there motionless on the ground. But then she moves and stitches one of her arms tight to the rest again in a very resolute way. It's gone loose from the jump.

Jack was a very special character for Danny Elfman at the time the movie was made in 1993. His music career started in about 1972 when he started in the music group formed by his brother Richard Elfman. When Richard wanted to quit, Danny took over the group and it was cut from 20 to just 8 people and went on to be a New Wave/Ska/Punk/Rock Band: Oingo Boingo. They recorded their first album “Only A Lad” in 1980. According to Danny Elfman he still doesn't get it why the young director Tim Burton wanted him of all people to write the music for his first big film “Pee Wee's Big Adventure” in 1985. That's how Danny Elfman got into the film business. He got more and more famous as a film music composer and then it became obvious to him that he couldn't go on with Oingo Boing and composing for film at the same time. Both together were just taking too much time and energy. But how to choose? How should he go on? A very uncertain future for Jack Skellington in the movie as well as Danny Elfman in real life. It was this connection with Jack, not only through writing the lyrics and music, but also on a personal level, which made Danny Elfman want to sing the part of Jack Skellington himself – which he did in the end.

Until next blog,

sarah