Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) on Netflix
PG20051h 55mAdventureComedyFamily
Charlie Bucket and his family live near Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, closed to the public. Wonka announces five Golden Tickets hidden in Wonka Bars, and four other children find them first.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/10578,606 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
Trailer
Plot summary
Charlie Bucket is a boy who lives with his parents and grandparents in a small house near the Wonka factory. Willy Wonka has kept the works shut to visitors for years, and Grandpa Joe counts among the workers who lost their places there. Charlie's father has been let go from his job at a toothpaste plant, though he hides that from Charlie. One day Wonka announces a contest: five Golden Tickets lie in random Wonka Bars, and each winner gets a tour of the factory and a lifetime of chocolate, with one extra prize at the end. Augustus Gloop, Veruca Salt, Violet Beauregarde and Mike Teavee are the first four names. Charlie buys two bars, and both come up empty.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Michael Jackson actively sought the role of Willy Wonka and secretly recorded an original soundtrack in Los Angeles; Warner Bros. refused him the part as unmarketable for a family film, offered to buy the songs for a small role instead, and Jackson shelved them.
- Because the Chocolate Room set was too fragile to walk on, cinematographer Philippe Rousselot used a cable-suspended Cablecam; on one occasion the camera was improperly secured and plunged into the faux chocolate river, destroying the $540,000 camera and delaying production.
- Deep Roy played all 165 individual Oompa-Loompas, keeping to Pilates and a diet so his appearance never changed, and with no professional dancing experience he needed a month to rehearse and six months to film each musical number.
- Wonka's chocolate river was a non-toxic faux mixture of water, food dye and a thickening agent called Natrosol that took Joss Williams months to perfect; it ran 270 feet long and 6 feet deep, holding 192,000 gallons, with another 30,000 gallons in the waterfall.
- For Veruca Salt's elimination by a hundred squirrels, Tim Burton insisted the animals be real, so trainer Mike Alexander had forty rescue squirrels trained over 19 weeks, the first three spent just getting them used to their crates and trainers.
- Visiting Roald Dahl's former home, Tim Burton was shown the original handwritten manuscripts by Liccy Dahl and found they were more politically incorrect than the published book, including a child named Herpes, after the sexually transmitted infection.
- Willy Wonka's latex gloves, which Tim Burton added as a symbol of the character's detachment from society, were provided by a London-based latex fetish BDSM clothing company.
- Tim Burton was struggling to cast Charlie Bucket until Johnny Depp, who had worked with Freddie Highmore on Finding Neverland, suggested the boy for the part.
