Inferior to the original

Rating: 7/10 (18 July 2005)

Tim Burton's Willie Wonka was a typically fantastical treatment of an old favourite. Burton did not disappoint, and the movie had that Edward Scissorhands/Batman feel to it; bright colours and new and fewer songs. The kids were cast perfectly. The grandparents were fine, and as for Charlie's parents, what's Helena Bonham Carter doing in the film? It's a vacuous role for her, and she has Tech Support as a husband which distracted me somewhat.
The movie is great, but there is one obvious flaw. In the original, spies approach all the kids before they go into the factory, and offer the kids huge amounts of money if they betray Wonka's secrets to them. In the end, Wonka turns a mistake Charlie made against him and asks Charlie to leave the factory. Charlie has to make a decision, and he returns Wonka's Everlasting Gobstopper. Because of this virtuous act of Charlie, he demonstrates that he is worthy. The spy turns out to be fake, and it is reveled that it was all part of Wonka's plan.
I thought that Burton's movie was going in that direction. His Wonka seemed a little tipsy, and I thought it was part of a plan to make the spies think he was going crazy. That would explain why he kept emphasising how the waterfall churns the chocolate; like he wanted the rotten apples to tell the spies that. But in the end, Wonka really was crazy. He has to go to therapy to understand Charlie's virtuosity. What does Charlie do to earn the factory? Apart from not abandoning his family (a virtue demonstrated by the original Charlie), nothing. He's just the last one left of the bunch. The original was a lesson in good deeds and integrity. Burton's was an opportunity to use special effects not available before, and to give Depp another nice character to play. That is a pity. Burton is capable of delivering a strong message through strange characters. Just look at Edward Scissorhands.