UK Charlie teaser now up
![[Burning Puppets]](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/wonkafire.jpg)
Warner Bros. UK has a new teaser trailer up for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s almost exactly the same as the US version, with the addition of some burning puppets about two-thirds of the way through, right after the lyric, “A magician and a chocolate wiz.”
“What’s the deal with those flaming puppets?” you may well ask.
Well, they were always supposed to be there. In the movie, these puppets sing the catchy-yet-annoying “Willy Wonka” song, and well, things go awry. Apparently, the US version of the teaser trailer was supposed to be identical to the UK version, but when the MPAA reviewed the trailer, they wouldn’t approve the puppets being on fire. (For whatever reason. I don’t know the details, and it’s only frustrating to speculate.)
The good news is that thanks to the web, you can see the teaser as it was meant to be. See it here.
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February 10th, 2005 at 11:40 pm
John, speaking of that song (which I find more catchy than annoying) was it you or Elfman who wrote the lyrics? Also, did I see in the credits for Big Fish that you and Elfman collaborated on a song? I couldn’t confirm this on IMDb. I only ask because I’m intensely envious — I’ve been a fan of Elfman’s since the days of the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo.
February 11th, 2005 at 2:49 am
Love it. Even though it’s brief, I think the burning puppets add more to it.
February 11th, 2005 at 6:40 am
I’m not going to be able to sleep for a week after seeing those innocent puppets like that. Well maybe a 2 year old.
With movie trailers, I always think that, “Unless it is a magnificent trailer, by the end of the film you would have forgotten it”. This trailer is short and should do the touch.
I guess that this would play with children’s films most likely and they aren’t really that long, so this should be remembered.
Very good and thanks for the news. The shot before the burning puppet, looks new. The life-up pan of the Dragon Boat.
February 11th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
David,
I wrote the song into the script, but Danny Elfman changed around some of the lyrics, so we’ll see if there’s a shared credit or not. What’s odd is that we share a credit on “Twice the Love” from Big Fish, but I never actually met him until well into shooting Charlie. He’s doing the music for Corpse Bride, and there’s some overlap between us on that.
February 12th, 2005 at 2:11 am
Hollywood has lost their collective sack. I remember as a kid, Dark Crystal, The Labyrinth, even Stand By Me. Films that used to scare, excite, entertain me as a kid. You felt like you went on a journey, you felt like you were right there with the main characters. Nowadays, kids movies are so washed over; God forbid that you hear a swear word, see blood, or even see someone die.
Didn’t we learn anything from Goonies?
February 12th, 2005 at 10:59 pm
The puppet in the Saw trailer freaks me out more than the puppets in Charlie.
Man, The Labyrinth is such a great movie. As is Legend. I just can’t wait for Charlie.
March 10th, 2005 at 8:41 pm
Help me out here. My eight year old daughter saw the U.K. Willy Wonka trailer for the first time tonight. She freaked! She was in tears. She’s a tough kid raised in a somewhat liberal environment. But this was almost devastating. 2 seconds, if that, of burning dolls.
She understood that this was the U.K. trailer and she asked the anxious Daddy question, “Is that going to be in the US movie?”. Can someone give a little help here so I can calm her. I red some other posts and maybe us Americans have gotten too soft and there is solace to experience valleys along with the peaks. Wilder did it so well in the first one when he scolded and kicked out Charlie before Charlie returned his candy. That was one of most moving scene I have witnessed and it makes you tear up watching it.
Thanks in advance.
– stevej
March 11th, 2005 at 9:42 pm
Eh. Fear is what makes kids’ films good. Anyone else remember the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang? Scared the hell out of me and kept me on the straight and narrow.
But not today. No, now we have a generation of young “adultsâ€? who grew up with movies like Fly Away Home and they’re out ratting the streets in their khakis that are five sizes too big or their dungarees that five sizes too small — and both slung too low.
I don’t know if it’s going to be in the movie, but if it is, just tell her that’s what happens to dolls that do drugs.
March 14th, 2005 at 10:22 am
Steve:
I guess I’m surprised that an eight-year old would freak out about burning dolls, but all kids are different. The puppets catch on fire, but in the context of the movie, it’s pretty funny. But let’s keep in mind Dahl’s original story: terrible things happen to terrrible children, so it’s certainly not going to be appropriate for some kids.
March 17th, 2005 at 8:14 pm
Man, I am SO glad I saw this. I saw the US version first, a few months ago, then went to watch the french one for no reason (it also had no flaming dolls), and then the spanish. When I first saw the spanish trailer (it has the dolls) I was like, “What the…” and went back. The flaming puppets came as a surprise. A pleasent one. I watched the spanish one over and over (because I have almost no life… O_o), and then searched for an english one with the puppets, and found out the UK had it too. >.< I’ve always hated how America wants kids to live in happy dreamland. And if they don’t have the flaming puppets in the US movie, I’ll, I’ll… Um… pout, seeing I’m not old enough to go to the UK and watch it… >.< DARN YOU, MPAA!!!
March 17th, 2005 at 8:16 pm
I’m having a tough time trying to come up with something to start off with. I’ve created and taken away four sentences, so I figure this is as good a start as any.
Still having trouble…um…as an avid fan of Roald Dahl, I was always disgusted by the 1971 version. It tore the book to pieces. Now, subplots are fine, but only when they’re the proper kind. Adding a cheesy moral and an even cheesier villain always made me want to do something interesting to Seltzer [only joking]. And then he has Charlie go and drink the fizzy-lifting stuff, and then it just went to pieces.
At the risk of insult, I always considered the English to be at least a bit brighter than our across-the-pond friends. Speaking as a person from Birmingham, you know, that industrial city in the upper-north of England? No? Anyways, when we were in the theatre, and that [lovely, terrific, awesome, tubular, etc] advert showed for Charlie, I was drooling all over my Cadbury’s, which I nearly dropped when the flaming dolls came onscreen. The dolls got a terrific reaction from nearly everybody in the cinema. It’s got much of my school talking [I'm fifteen, by the way], most of which have read the book, and the others know that the 1971 movie didn’t follow it.
In short, I and most of the population of the UK are looking forward to this and I probably appear to the reader as a drooling fanboy.
Hurrah.
-Calvin
April 10th, 2005 at 2:07 pm
Ooooh - interesting to see this….
We had a big discussion at work about where that song was in the movie - I think we decided that it was either a TV advert or a Shrek-like (the Duloc song) puppets sequence.
April 17th, 2005 at 5:49 pm
I know this off the subject but do the Oompa-Loompas sing in the new version? I hope to God that they do.
April 17th, 2005 at 6:40 pm
They have Roald Dahl’s songs from the book. Danny Elfman wrote the music.
April 23rd, 2005 at 6:55 pm
John, is it true that the oompa loompa’s songs are a different style in each room?
Plus, I just got funny feeling when I realized you like worked on tjis film. I mean, I knew that ages ago but it just sorta sunk in coz u know what happens.
PS: Is the burning mechanical dolls in the factory entrance coz that’s a good place for them to be because they need sumfin to do when they first get in.
ETHAN
April 29th, 2005 at 9:10 pm
Dearest Mr. August, is it true that the only songs in this 2005 remake are those of the Oompa Loompas and the quite annoying (sorry but it is) “Willy Wonka” fast paced song which is in the teaser trailer? If so, why aren’t there more songs like the 1971 version? In an interview with cast members/crew of “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” (1971), one of the producers said they used joyful, uplifting songs mainly to reassure young children watching that Wonka was not completely mad, and that Wilder’s characterization made him look much more caring than Dahl’s version of Wonka, yet also crazy and not concerned about the demises of Salt, Beauregarde, Gloop, and Teavee (which was Dahl’s intent). Is there any sense of warmth or care from Depp in this film? If not, don’t you think this will frighten the younger age group that will see the film? Thanks, Patrick.
May 1st, 2005 at 8:35 am
There aren’t more songs because this isn’t a musical. This is an adaptation of the book. So, adding any songs beyond the Oompa Loompa songs (which I’m am so thrilled will be using the lyrics from the book, as far as I’ve been able to decipher from conversations on here) is going a bit far. I’m fine with the addition of the “Willy Wonka” song ’cause it’s short, fast, and it does its job (evoking the creepy feeling like “It’s A Small World” does).
I do have a question for you, Mr. August. When you wrote the scene with the wooden dolls and the Wonka song…. were you by any chance paying homage to the “Duloc Is” scene in “Shrek”, or was it developed with no influence from that scene? I ask because I find a lot of similarities between the two scenes, up to where the dolls in CatCF catch on fire.
Even if it isn’t an homage or play on “Shrek”, I still think it is brilliant!
Joy
November 2nd, 2006 at 7:40 pm
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