Skip it and rent the 1971 original

Rating: 3/10 (24 July 2005)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was my favorite childhood book and I loved the '71 version with Gene Wilder, so when I heard that they were remaking it with Johnny Depp, I thought it'll probably be very different and weird, but it was actually worse than I thought.
(sigh) Where do I begin? First I have to admit that this version is more true to the book, that however doesn't make it any better than the '71 version. First Johnny Depp as Wonka. Nothing like the eccentric, witty and clever Wonka Gene Wilder played. Instead they made him pale as a ghost, timid, frail and emotionally wounded. I don't know whose idea it was to dig into his sad childhood past, but it didn't make the plot more interesting, just well...sad. In the process Depp's Wonka wasn't funny, charming are even warm. He seemed to be afraid of the kids.
Gone are the one-liners, the philosophical quotes and the great original songs. Remember Pure Imagination? the Candyman? Veruca's song I Want it Now? All gone and replaced by the awful modernized tunes by the Oompa Loompas.
Now the Oompa Loompas. Where the '71 version had a cast of little people with green hair and orange faces singing catchy songs that tell the moral tales of the children, they have been replaced by a single person (Deep Roy) singing horrible songs that you can barely hear the lyrics to. Unlike the 'oompa, loompa, doopity do' chorus, I can't remember any of the songs because you'll want to forget them.
Other changes include Charlie having a father, which he did in the book, the effects were pretty good and the acting from the children good, but it lacks warmth and feeling. I felt that the actor who played Grandpa Joe was a bit too old and what about the whole 'I've got a golden ticket'? We don't get a sense of how badly Charlie wanted this because there was no anticipation for it. Also, they didn't get into the big worldwide search for the tickets, as in the '71 version'.
Overall, this was a big mess and not a good remake at all. I don't know why they felt the need to mess with a classic anyway.
Skip it and rent the original.