Coffee Klatch

Today I found a translation tool that puts Babelfish to shame. It’s called InterTran and is at http://www.translation-guide.com/ free_online_translators.php. They’ve posted it as a Free Online Translator, with an interface supported by www.tranexp.com. I’m not sure how they work it out, because InterTran is a program that you can buy, but Translation-Guide.com is making this Free Online Translator available at their website. Click the link above to try it out. You can type in one or more words, or you can enter a URL and have it translate an entire webpage. If there are alternate translations for a word, there will be a little arrow next to the word, and a mouseover will give you the alternatives.

Supported languages are: Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian & European), Romanian, Russian, Serbian (Latin script), Serbian (Cyrillic script), Slovenian, Spanish (Latin American & European), Swedish, Turkish, and Welsh.

Pretty cool!

Current music: Reflections of Passion, by Yanni

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is opening tomorrow and there are mixed opinions as to whether it will be better or worse than the original. I’m looking forward to it and I admit that it’s nice that they kept it rated PG (”quirky situations, action and mild language”). It’s a movie that children will want to see, based on a children’s book, so I’m glad they kept the content suitable.

UPDATE: Be sure to visit the FLASH version of the official site.

Here is some extra information from Entertainment Today:

Preview:

The doors to Willy Wonka’s extraordinary chocolate factory will open again this Friday (July 15th), only this time it’s Johnny Depp playing the quirky candy maker, Willy Wonka, in Tim Burton’s remake of the 1971 film “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. The 2005 film is titled “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and also stars Freddie Highmore as Charlie.

Charlie Bucket is a poor but generous boy, who lives with his parents and grandparents and is one of the lucky finders of a golden ticket. The ticket grants Charlie, his grandfather, and four other children a tour of Wonka’s chocolate factory that is rumored to have had no visitors in fifteen years. The children are all awe struck by the wonders Wonka has hidden away in his vast candy factory, and in the end, only Charlie can prevent greed from getting the best of him.

Ironically, given Burton’s reputation for dark movies such as Beetlejuice, Sleepy Hollow, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and Edward Scissorhands, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is a more vibrant tale than the 1971 classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. Burton’s remake gives its audience a more humorous and less musical version of this classic story. The factory, complete with its oompa-loompas and chocolate lakes, opens July 15th.

Facts:

The book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” just celebrated its 40th anniversary. It was originally published in 1964.

The book has sold over 13 million copies.

Felicity Dahl, wife of Roald Dahl who authored the book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, helped in the production of the 2005 movie.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the fourth movie Tim Burton has produced that Johnny Depp has starred in. The other three are Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, and Sleepy Hollow.

Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Christopher Walken, Marilyn Manson, Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, and Michael Keaton were all considered for the role of Willy Wonka.

Marilyn Manson was the inspiration behind Depp’s persona in the movie.

Plan B is the production company for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”. It is owned by Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston.

Roald Dahl hated the original movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. He refused the rights to his books after its making because much of the original script Dahl intended for “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was rewritten.

The Quaker Oats Company originally financed “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. They wanted to time the marketing of their Wonka chocolate bar with the release of the movie. However, the bars melted very easily, even while on the shelf, and were subsequently taken off the market. Nestle now owns Wonka-branded candy (most of which isn’t chocolate-based).

The original “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was released to theaters June 30th, 1971 and was a flop.

Peter Ostrum, who plays Charlie Bucket in the 1971 original, made no other films. He later became a veterinarian.

Compare and Contrast:

The 1971 movie “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” is a musical. Only the oompa-loompas sing in the 2005 movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.

“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” was filmed in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” was filmed at Britain Pinewood Studios.

“Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” replaces Wonka’s trained squirrels that appear in the book with a machine. The producers of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” held true to the book and trained 40 squirrels to crack walnuts and place them on a conveyor belt.

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is based more on the book than “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.”

The primary difference between the book and the 2005 movie is the movie uses flashback to reference where the oompa-loompas came from.

Extra Trivia:

Johnny Depp practiced his Willy Wonka on his six year old daughter because he was scared he’d make the character too dark.

A 1971 lower-budget version was titled “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” Dahl hated it and refused to allow a sequel. His widow liked this new script, however, because she said it respected the fact that children can be adult.

244,993.9 gallons of fake chocolate were used in making this year’s movie, along with 110,000 fake chocolate bars and 1,850 real ones. Real candy was used in making the giant pink sugarcanes, lollipops in trees and giant humbugs.

The sets are real, not computer-generated. But one actor plays all 10 Oompa-Loompas, thanks to digital technology in this movie, which some reports estimate cost $150 million to make.