Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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■ ‘CHARLIE’ Continued from page 6 impoverished family. Charlies four grandparents are confined to one bed, while Charlies father (Noah Taylor) works at a toothpaste factory, and Charlies mother (Helena Bonham Carter) waters down cabbage soup to feed her family and save money. One day, it is announced that Willy Wonka, the enigmatic candy maker and chocolate factory owner, has hidden five golden tickets that will allow five children to enter the factory and receive a lifetime supply of chocolate. Out of those five, one lucky child will win a secret prize at the end of the tour. Although Charlie gets only one chocolate bar a year, he and his Grandpa Joe (David Kelly) hope to find one of the golden tickets. Eventually Charlie finds the final ticket, and he and his Grandpa Joe, a former worker at the Wonka factory, tour the factory along with Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop, Mike Teavee and Violet Beauregarde. Wonka guides the tour and leads the visitors through different rooms that tempt and eventually reveal each child’s fault. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is in no way a remake of the 1971 “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” starring Gene Wilder. “Charlie” goes back to the basics of the book and attempts to stay faithful to Dahl’s original story. There are no fizzy-lifting drinks that Charlie and Grandpa Joe sample, and the geese and golden eggs that Veruca admires in “Willy Wonka” are replaced with squirrels that are trained to shell nuts as in the book. “Charlie” does not have the sugary-sweet songs of “Willy Wonka” and instead uses the Oompa Loompa lyrics Dahl wrote in the book as the songs sung after each child gets into trouble. Each Oompa Loompa song uses different musical styles and plays on different musical periods in history. The Oompa Loompas are also given a background story and reasons for coming to work for Wonka at the factory. Deep Roy plays the Oompa Loompas, tan miniaturized tribal members instead of orange-painted dwarfs with green wigs. Even Willy Wonka is given more depth with the story of his strict childhood under his domineering dentist father, Wilbur Wonka (Christopher Lee). Depp plays Willy Wonka with flair and flamboyance that is more of a caricature of the man than Wilder’s silly yet serious Wonka in the original film. Depp’s pale-faced, bobbed-haired, straight toothed Wonka is no more loveable than he is detestable. The Wonka Depp channels is a man more concerned with himself and his chocolate than with the actual children, Charlie included, and the audience is unsure whether to like or despise him. By having a Wonka like this, the film allows the audience to look past Wonka’s image and see Charlie’s heart, moving the focus away from Wonka and onto Charlie himself. Burton’s visual vision of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is funny, heart-warming, tragic and beautiful, and ironically becomes more real than the original. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatiires@gwm.se. edu SPECIAL TO THE GAMECOCK Johnny Depp channels an eccentric Willy Wonka who offers a glimpse into his past and the reason behind the chocolate factory in Tim Burton’s version of the Roald Dahl classic. ■ POET Continued from page 6 Columbia Museum of Art. The Sunday session will consist of readings of the best poetry written by the participants. Kwame Dawes, director of Poetry Initiative, said Poetry 101 teaches its students that they can sit down, write a poem and have fun in the process. “What they need to know is writing poetry is fun,” Dawes said. Poetry School 101 is an outreach program of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative at USC. The organization is statewide and works with schools, museums, libraries, colleges and community organizations to promote and celebrate the reading, writing and performing of poetry in South Carolina. Objectives for the Poetry Initiative include offering resources for South Carolina poets to develop their craft, making poetry more accessible to students at colleges and other schools and celebrating the accomplishments of poets in the region by promoting contests, readings, tours and residences. “We hope Poetry School 101 provides an avenue in which emerging writers in the community can discuss contemporary issues,” Spearen said. Though the Poetry Initiative is a part of USC’s English Department, Poetry School 101 is open to the entire Columbia community. The Poetry Initiative has a long list of partnering organizations, including the African American Writers Alliance of Columbia, Columbia Lesbian and Gay Alliance, Columbia Museum of Art, Gallery 701 and many more. More information about the Poetry Initiative can be found on its Web site, www.cas.sc.edu/engl/ poetry/index, htm. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc. edu i USC's Totally NEW Off-Campus Housing Site 0 Searchable Off-Campus Housing Listings 0 Pictures & Maps 0 Email/Web Site Links 0 Roommate Listings 0 Furniture to buy/sell 0 Summer sublets to list for rent Hwiw.sa.sc.eflu/offcampMS