A great surprise!

Rating: 8/10 (7 August 2005)

I was a little skeptical when I heard a new version of this story was coming out (especially since I absolutely love the first movie). I must say I was more than pleasantly surprised. This version is so much more true to the book, except for the whole bad childhood of Willy Wonka thing and the ending (which was a little bit of a let down for me). I believe that Depp's Wonka is definitely more of the way Dahl intended him to be. Critics say he is freaky and weird, but to me that is the way he is portrayed in the book. Gene Wilder made him into more of a real person...which he is not. He lives in a fantasy world with hundreds of little men for heavens sake. The one thing that stood out the most to me was how well Burton portrayed four of the seven deadly sins that I believe Dahl wanted us to recognize from the book: greed (Veruca), gluttony (Agustus), pride (Violet) and sloth (Mike). I thought this film was amazing.