OF CHOCOLATE FACTORIES, OOMPA LOOMPAS AND FAMILIES

Of Chocolate Factories, Oompa Loompas and Families

I have never been a fan of chocolates. In a world where the next girl’s favorite things include telephones, pinks and chocolates, I have always felt the odd-girl-out. But for the past couple of months, I can’t seem to stop craving for a chocolate-filled river. Up until I entered The Chocolate Factory.

Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory is the largest candy / chocolate factory in the world. But during the last fifteen years, nothing – no one – comes out of the factory except the candy bars. Until Wonka decides to open its gates to five children who could get their hands on five Golden Tickets hidden inside five Wonka candy bars, along with a promise that one child will get the biggest surprise of them all. This sent children out of their homes to buy as much Wonka chocolate bars as they can, including Charlie Bucket.

Charlie is a gangly, kind-hearted young boy who lives with his parents and both sets of grandparents in a run-down shack overlooking the massive chocolate factory, eating watered-down cabbage soup every night. Such was his excitement about the five Golden Tickets up for everybody’s grabs, but there was one small hitch – Charlie can only afford one chocolate bar every year, during his birthday.

Opening his early birthday gift resulted to a big disappointment for Charlie. No Golden Ticket. His second chance to a Golden Ticket, using his Granpa Joe’s last coin, also proved to be a disappointment. But when Charlie found money on the street, he used it to buy himself a Wonka bar. Lo and behold! The fifth and last Golden Ticket!

Along with four other Golden Ticket holders and their chaperones, Charlie and Granpa Joe met the very odd Willy Wonka and entered the majestic Chocolate Factory. They were dazzled by chocolate fudge mountains, chocolate waterfalls, chocolate rivers, candy apple trees, edible mint-sugar grass, spun-sugar dragon boats, invention rooms, hundreds of squirrels trained to crack nuts, a glass elevator that can go up, down, sideways, slantways, any way you want it to go, and the Oompa Loompas, the factory’s only work force. And by only, I mean they were practically everywhere, doing anything and everything.

The first four Golden Tickets went to a German glutton, an English brat, a highly competitive gum-chewing champion and a cynical know-it-all. All of them met some crazy mishap, like being turned into a blueberry or being rapped in the head by hundreds of squirrels and then thrown down the garbage chute. For every time a child drop from the tour, the Oompa Loompas would go into a musical number, singing of the reason and the moral behind the supposed accident.

Only Charlie was left to complete the tour and win for himself the biggest surprise of them all – the keys to the Chocolate Factory. But he was the one who gave Willy Wonka the biggest surprise when he turned down the ownership after learning that his family can not go with him to the factory.

This made Willy Wonka think if Charlie and his family had something greater than a world-famous chocolate factory. All throughout the tour, Charlie’s innocent questions made Willy Wonka go back to his past, to his dentist father who refused to give him anything sweet that led to Wonka’s lifelong fascination with candy and chocolate. After Charlie’s refusal to own the factory, Willy Wonka decided to reconcile with his estranged father and discovered for himself the greatness of a family with Charlie’s own parents and both sets of grandparents.

The Chocolate Maker and the Lucky Kid

The eccentric Willy Wonka was played by equally eccentric actor Johnny Depp. I couldn’t have enjoyed Willy Wonka’s character more had they chosen another actor to play the part. Depp, who is starting to be loved as a character actor, gave such a weird yet effective portrayal of the chocolate maker, showing interesting combinations of aloofness, humor and at the same time vulnerability. Those bright eyes that would light everytime mischief happen see a whole lot more that what his quirky clothes and age-old expressions reveal.

There was a certain amount of magnetism to Charlie Bucket, played by Freddie Highmore, that made me want to reach out to the screen, grab all the chocolate I can and drop them on his lap. There was such an air of innocence around him that would make viewers say, “This boy deserves all the chocolate in the world”. What made the character of Charlie personally interesting was the fact that throughout the tour, he was neither behind nor in front of all the other children. He was really just an average kid, driven by a sincere and kind heart, centered by a loving family that would eventually show the great chocolate maker the wonders of having one for himself.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory belies the first impression that it is a children’s story. Even adults can appreciate the pleasure and comfort that candy can bring. Chocolate has become a best friend to those who are celebrating as well as to those who are nursing a broken heart. More than being visually stimulating and humorous, the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory provides a simple formula towards a sense of completeness. Behind all the chocolates and the candies, the colors and surreal environment of the chocolate factory, is a great moral story. In a world where people strive for happiness and success, sometimes happiness and success lie in simple yet important things such as family. Most of the viewers, if not all, can relate to a timeless and remarkable story about a family who stays together amidst poverty, and would never trade their family “for all the chocolates in the world”. •