Tim Burton's Gothic Imagination

against the pain of his past leads him to take away the livelihood of the town that once
thrived on his chocolate-making business. The town that huddles below the mighty factory
walls seems to exist in its shadow, drained of colour and life.
In Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, the dark reality of the exploitation of the workers is hidden away
in a subterranean industrial city, while outside the rich are perched high in the sky, bathed in
the glow of the sun. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the enchanted garden with its
chocolate waterfall and sugary grass is inside the fortress-like factory, and you need a golden
ticket to get in. Once inside, the winners slowly discover that the artificially-lit bright and
magical world that Wonka has created for himself is a deceptive and rather cruel place, the
product of a thwarted childhood and warped imagination. His paranoid response to the idea
that workers were selling his secret recipes is bound up in his sense of isolation as well as his
determination to be in total control. He reopens the factory, with a captive workforce of
Oompa Loompas enslaved by their love of chocolate.
I think of Willy as sort of the Citizen Kane or Howard Hughes of candy – somebody
who was brilliant but then was traumatised and then retreats into his own world.—Tim
Burton 45
FREE FOR EDUCATION Education Resources Tim Burton’s Gothic Imagination 27