Different movie from Original, Don't't expect Gene Wilder movie!

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2005)

The idea of the story is still the same. Charlie (Freddie Highmore) is a poor boy, who lives with mother (Helena Bonham Carter), father (Noah Taylor), Grandfather (David Kelly), and 3 others grandparents in a very small shack. They live in a town where Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory is the most major mystery. Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) puts a golden ticket in five of his "Wonka Bars" and sends word that whoever finds a golden ticket gets a tour through his massive factory.
In contrast to the version of 1971, Willy Wonka already lets the people know that the winner of the kids gets the grand prize(whereas in the 1971 version, it was said that it was a life supply of Wonka Chocolate for all of the kids). The kids are now symbolized much more as some of the 7 deadly sins in this version and the parents genders changed in two places. The scary boat scene has been changed and Charlie is also portrayed as much more innocent because Burton did away with the soda pop scene. The songs are totally different and the ending was much more different.
These changes should have been easily predicted when the job was given to Tim Burton(who does everything his own way). I can't compare which movie was better due to the fact that the movies are so different. They are both good in their own ways. Don't expect the original from 1971, expect a totally new movie and you will enjoy it. Tim Burton did an amazing job and this movie will go right there with the classics (Edward Scissorhands,Batman, Sleepy Hollow) Johnny Depp was a much different Willy Wonka (more humanized) but only he and Burton could pull it off. Depp and Burton did it again! Freddie Highmore's acting was also as fantastic as it was in Finding Neverland.
I highly recommend this movie.