Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

This afternoon Amy and I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the new Rave Motion Pictures cinema at the Northeast Mall in North Richland Hills (or is it Richland Hills... or Hurst?). This was my first time at a Rave cinema and it is quite an impressive complex with multiple sectors and levels. The most difficult part of seeing a movie at Rvae was determinign which half of the complex our movie of choice was playing in so that we could proceed to the correct atrium and hand over our tickets to get behind the velvet rope. To aid this process, Rave has erected two giant signs in the main lobby, one by the entrance to each atrium. One would assume that all of the movies listed on a particular sign would be playing in the theatres connected to that particular atrium, so if you see your movie listed on the right sign you proceed to the right atrium. But no, instead the movies are liste don the signs in seemingly random order with tiny arrows poiting left or right towards the appropriate atrium. So after crossing the lobby to the right where Charlie was on the right sign, we see the tiny arrow directing us back across the massive lobby to the left atrium (and presumably to the left ventricle and upstairs via the escalator aorta to where the movie is actually playing).

Anyway, I enjoyed the movie and the cute yet creepy nature of it. Compared to the origninal, which seemed more organic, the excessive use of CG in this version made seems less touchable and more dreamlike. Amy, who lists the original Willy Wonka as one of her favorite movies, if not her absolute favorite, had similar thoughts and was dissapointed at the opening sequence that featured a CG Rube Goldberg chocolate machine instead of a real one, and thought that the Ooompa-Loompa songs were either really odd or in the case of thr rock version, too had to understand. The addition of the legend of the chocolate palace in India, however, was met with a more positive reaction.

After watching the chocolate waterfall and river in larger than life size on the screen, we had no choice but to head over to Milwaukee Joe's Ice Cream in Bedford (yes I'm sure this one is Bedford) for some triple chocolate ice cream. Mmmmm.