A psychedelic roller coaster. Burton delivers. As usual.

Rating: Null/10 (1 August 2005)

Given that Tim Burton's previous remake "Planet of the Apes" is seen by many as his worst film and also, given that both Dahl's novel and the 1971 adaptation are seen as classics, he was really touching sacred territory when he started work on this project. So initially, I was a little sceptical about this film. But never the less, I put my faith in Burton's skill as a director and bought a ticket.
The combination of Dahl's uniquely dark writing style and Burton's equally unique dark visual style is a match made in heaven. Dahl always had the knack of being to communicate rather adult and mature ideas to a child audience without having to talk down to them and in a similar sense, Burton's view of the world often communicates to the child with in all of us. Be it the fear of the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow, the child like innocence of Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood's almost child like desire to please his audience or Bruce Wayne's pent up anger and sadness at witnessing the murder of his parents when he was a child in Batman.
First of all, do not compare this to the 1971 film. Any ideas of comparison between the two are totally pointless; this film really is a different kettle of fish entirely. Where as the earlier version put it's own spin on the bulk of the novel, this film owes itself purely to Dahl's vision, Burton's vision and Depp's masterful interpretation of Wonka's character. In this film we see a Wonka who, not only does not like children, but has some sort of phobia or mental condition where the idea of the family unit and parental love sends him into convulsions of sickness and nausea, stemming from his rather dysfunctional upbringing by a fascist father (brilliantly played by Christopher Lee). Does this adequately explain Depp's child like, performance? Absolutely. Does this make his character a little unsettling? Definitely. But this only adds to the mystique of his character, who in order to do the things he has done must be more than a little insane! That is the only aspect of the film where Burton hasn't remained true to the source material; every where else he has remained true to Dahl's story. Other characters have been changed slightly (Mike TV is obsessed with the video games instead of TV), but are still totally recognisable as the characters in the book. The film definitely benefits from the inclusion of Charlie's father (something the '71 version failed to do), giving the sense of a family who, although extremely poor have a strong family bond which makes them richer than all the other spoilt and rude children in the film. Charlie's character perfectly epitomises childlike innocence with Freddie Highmore giving an impressive performance for such a young actor. And you will believe that Grandpa Jo's (superbly portrayed by David Kelly) bedside tales of the miracles of Wonka's chocolate are what captivates Charlie's imagination.
You really do get the sense with this film that it was a labour of love for Burton. He has created a cinematic world that perfectly complements Dahl's literary world with every frame dripping with colour and magic. Put simply: fans of Tim Burton and Roald Dahl will love this film