Just as Sweet the Second Time Around

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2005)

Seeing the earlier version as a child and recently rereading the book, I was very interested in also seeing Tim Burton's version of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. Although I did enjoy the earlier version with Gene Wilder and appreciate the film's creative ingenuity for its time, I really enjoyed Burton's take on the same story.
For the most part, I felt Burton did an excellent job with casting and creating the characters to be authentic, as in the book. Characters such as Charlie, Grandpa Joe, Veruca Salt, and Augustus Gloop seem to come alive in the film directly off the pages from Roald Dahl's book. The film seems modernized with Violet's character and her ultra-competitive mother, which provides some additional social commentary to the parents' roles, not just the spoiled and ill-mannered children.
The special effects, as expected, were impressive. It's interesting in watching the earlier version where there weren't as many special effects used (or available at that time, for that matter)and noticing that it did not affect the film's overall quality. After seeing Burton's version, though, it is an eye-opening experience as to the advances that have come along in film-making. It's almost as though you didn't know that you were missing these in the older version.
Overall, I felt that Burton's version was much closer to the book than the original (which is very interesting, considering that the author, Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for the first version!). While many people were upset that a classic was remade, I felt it was justified given the difference in technology available for film-making in regards to special effects, and the fact that the storyline is actually more authentic in the second version. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also has Tim Burton's creative influence, which can be sometimes outside the box, but for the most part was laugh-out-loud funny and very entertaining.