Fantastic and endearing, while slightly creepy

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 2005)

I am not a huge fan of the 1971 Willy Wonka movie, but found it entertaining, especially Gene Wilder's wildly mood-swinging portrayal of Wonka. His understated delivery of "No, stop, don't" has even found its way into my own lexicon.
So, when my teen daughter and I saw the trailer for Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, we both had the same response... Johnny Depp looks sooooo..... WEIRD!!!!!! We agreed we HAD to see it just to see Depp's performance. I was prepared for the possibility of disaster.
We saw it opening day, at the earliest matinÃ©e. I was impressed throughout, and laughed out loud at numerous times. The audience was mostly Moms with elementary aged children, so my mid-teen daughter may have felt a little out of place being there with her dad. But we both loved it! Interestingly, during some of the scenes where I was laughing, she would look at me and say, "What are you laughing at? That's SCARY!!!!!!" Which of course made me laugh more.
Forget all the talk about Depp channeling Michael Jackson. Maybe people have Jackson on the brain because he was recently in the news. I was aware of the Jackson comparisons before seeing the movie, and it was not at all a distraction. Depp was Willy Wonka. Not Michael Jackson, not Michael Jackson-as-Willy Wonka.
Go see this movie, and take your kids. Burton has made a movie thoroughly entertaining for all ages.