Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Tim Burton, dir. Roald Dahl (book); John August (screenplay). USA/UK: Warner Bros., Village Roadshow Pictures, The Zanuck Company, Plan B Entertainment (prod.) / Warner Bros. (most dist.), 2005. Alex McDowell, prod. design.

The fantastic factory is very much monumental (post)Modern—with Victorian echoes—on the outside and both low-tech and very highly mechanized within, with advanced electronics (teleportation) and transportation (sic: the teleporting won't get people from here to there). The film raises issues of worker displacement by automation, to say nothing of displacement by alien, and apparently ununionized, Oompah Loompahs, and highly trained squirrels. (RDE, 21/07/05)