This collection of entries is from July 27, 2005.
We went to the AMC South Barrington 30 this afternoon to catch a 5:45 showing of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory tonight. I loved the original so much, that I didn't know what to expect.
LOVED IT!!!
TWO things:
OOMPA-LOOMPAS!!!! Holy crap I loved these guiys... or guy actually (It was one guy - Deep Roy - who played 165 oompa-loompas via digital effects) GREAT new songs - all from Roald Dahl himself (lyrics, anyway. Music and vocals by Danny Elfman)
and Squirrels! (or, has Veruca says "squir-rels" - I don't know about you, but around here we call them "squirlz" and not "squir-rels") You have to see 40 REAL (not digital produced) squirrels opening nuts in the nut sorting room (they do get digitally animated later in the scene for some specific actions), but they actually trained the squirrels for the nut-sorting!
Over-all, very enjoyable! And the inclusion of a Willy Wonka backstory seems to round-out the script and gives what I think is a more satisfying ending to the moving (compared to the original).
I only missed one thing - I would have LOVED to hear Johnny Depp deliver that wonderful verse:
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"There's no earthly way of knowing
Which direction we are going
There's no knowing where we're rowing
Or which way the river's flowing
Is it raining?
Is it snowing?
Is a hurricane a-blowing?
Not a speck of light is showing
So the danger must be growing
Are the fires of hell a-glowing?
Is the grisly reaper mowing?
Yes, the danger must be growing
'Cause the rowers keep on rowing
And they're certainly not showing
Any signs that they are slowing! "
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We still have a cable TV feed into the house. We keep it as a backup to the satellite and it's only Basic Cable - just local channels. I had Comcast come out and install a CableCard into the new TV. It's a PCMCIA card (just like you would use in a laptop computer). It replaces a digital cable box, but you don't get any interactive functions (like On Demand video and a Guide - big deal). I did this so that I could get local HD channels (since DirecTV doesn't have that ready yet).
Well - I'm not impressed. We got 8 more stations on cable - and that doesn't cover all of the local digital transmissions that are available.
I'm not sure it was worth it. I mean, I'm getting the digital signal for Channel 2 which I can't pull in over the air, but... eh... We've got a couple of HD local channels now.
It's GORGEOUS outside!!! That rain yesterday afternoon was the long awaited cold front! The sun is out, just a slight breeze, hardly a cloud in the sky, and the temperatures this morning are in the 60's!!! We opened up all the doors and windows to get air out the place - it's wonderful!