It works for three reasons

Rating: 7/10 (24 December 2005)

Last night, my neighbor let our family borrow a few DVDs. During dinner, our family watched Madagascar. After that, we were bored, and my sister suggested "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." I thought "Oh, why not?" and put the DVD into the DVD Player. I must admit, my expectations were low.
I really enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, much more than I expected to. In my opinion, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory work for three reasons.
The first one is Johnny Depp's performance. He is an excellent actor. (His fan base is way too large.) He captures all the strange lines in a strange voice. He also captures all the weirdness that we would expect Willy Wonka to have, even if his character does sound weirder then he needs to be at times, like when he says: "Good morning star shine, the earth says 'Hello!'"
The second reason is Burton's weird world that he created. Like most re-makes, the newer one has to have better special effects. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory did have better special effects, and it made a better movie. It resembled the odd factory that the story takes place in.
The third and final reason the new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory works out is because it's funny! For example, take this scene: Willy Wonka: If you had to choose only one half of your son, which one would it be? Mr. Teavee: What kind of question is that?
But, the film does have its fair share of flaws. First of all, the film is weird, but seems like another adventure film, except with weird elements. It doesn't seem weird enough to seem original. Second, I preferred Gene Wilder to Johnny Depp. Third, the songs were not as good as the original. The songs in this movie didn't come as often, and didn't sound as good. The songs were just plain weird! Fourth, the film is unrealistic: even for a fantasy. The family is poor, and the father screws toothpaste caps on for a living. Now, how do they afford a television? But, the main reason it wasn't realistic was because of the children. Can the four wicked children not realize that they were being rude? No person in the right mind would play video games during an interview! Well, I enjoyed this film, for these three reasons, but thought it could have been better if those other reasons weren't existent.
7/10
Good: Depp's performance, special effects, comedy, better than the original.
Bad: Too weird, Wilder was better, songs were worse and it was too unrealistic.