Not much improvement seen

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2005)

When I first heard that they were going to remake Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I thought that it was an odd movie to remake. Sure, the movie in the 70s was a little campy, but could also be considered a classic children's movie that succeeds very well on its own. I didn't feel that it had the same potential to improve as a movie like Oceans 11 would.
The remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory actually starts out quite strong. There is more background behind the motivation of Wonka to open up his factory and the personalities of the children have been given a face-lift as well. Americans really are pretty annoying. Up until the time where the children reach the Wonka factory, I felt that the movie actually had improved upon the old.
And then comes Johnny Depp as Willie Wonka. Let me preface my next comment by saying that I enjoy Johnny Depp in most everything and dislike Gene Wilder in most everything. The Willie Wonka character came off as someone you wouldn't let your child within ten miles of, much less go into a factory with. The performance of Willie Wonka was one of the worst that I have seen in recent memory. Perhaps some of that feeling was also due to the fact that the chocolate factory had lost much of its charm from the original film. The oompa loompas were forgettable, as was the music, and it seemed like much of the happiness of the original movie was sapped.
The end of the film was also changed from the original version in a way that I didn't care for either. Without being too specific, in the original, Charlie drinks the fizzy soda which was against Mr. Wonka's rules and loses his prize. In the end, though, Charlie realizes that what he did was wrong and decides not to seek vindication against Wonka. In the current movie, Charlie is never posed with any question of vindication, nor does he do anything wrong that would exclude his eligibility from winning a prize.
The film is decent with a nice update on the pre-factory portion of the movie, but much of the magic of the factory is missing from the current film and Wonka's character has a very unsavory feel. This film does not significantly improve upon its predecessor and therefore deserves no more than an average grade.