Another pointless Tim Burton remake.

Rating: 3/10 (5 September 2005)

This version adds nothing to the 1971 version, except for a superfluous back-story about Wonka's 'issues' with his dad...Wonka is an enigma, so why did the scriptwriters feel we had to 'understand' him (or is it due to some American fixation with psychoanalysis?)? The original had at least one song which has become a 'standard'('The Candy Man'), yet I was hard-pressed to remember any of the songs in the new version, five minutes after they'd finished. Being able to turn one man into a whole tribe of Oompa Loompas shows how far technology has advanced, but robbed them-literally-of any individuality. On a personal note, coming from the UK, hearing English characters in a film set in England talking about 'candy', 'summer vacation', and brushing mud off their 'pants', really made my teeth grate (and when did the British currency become the dollar!). ...and on a petty note, most people living below the breadline don't speak like members of the upper-classes (I'm talking to you Helena Bonham Carter!).