Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

US
Director: Tim Burton
Screenplay: John August
Book Author: Roald Dahl

When our hero, Charlie (Freddie Highmore), the good kid, inevitably wins one of the five golden ticket and heads to Willy Wonka's (played by Johnny Depp) chocolate factory, and inevitably wins the ultimate prize, the factory itself, in the end, I can't help thinking: it is just too obvious. No way the whole thing is so simple.

Charlie gets his first piece of Wonka chocolate as an early birthday present, although his family almost runs out of food. No golden ticket. His grandpa gives him some money he hides for a long time, telling him to go to the nearest store and buy the first chocolate Charlie sees. Still no golden ticket. Then Charlie finds a bill half buried in the snow outside the sidewalk, he grabs it and without thinking, he runs into the nearest store for another Wonka chocolate bar. The store owner hands him one, and this time charlie is getting lucky. Yes, luck. Not the money from Charlie's beloved parents and grandparents, but random money from the street and the chocolate from a stranger's hand.

It's clear that the other 4 kids being chosen is a meditation, a scheme somehow organized by Willy Wonka. So the Oompa Loompas will have a song when a spoiled kid is "punished" for his or her behavior. But what about Charlie? The heterogeneity of a single character, usually the leading one, is created for the audience to project our sympathy. But how Charlie gets the grand reward blurs the movie's main theme, the connection between good heart, good deeds and good consequences is weaken. As a movie primarily made for children, I can not help wonder is there any dark intention hidden in this colorful and overall delightful movie.