Burton and Depp take a lot of risks -- most pay off, but some crash and burn.

Rating: 8/10 (20 July 2005)

I liked this version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a lot. I thought it was well acted, particularly by all the members of the Bucket family. The sets were beautiful, and I liked the opening sequence. Freddy Highmore and Johnny Depp deliver excellent performances.
However, the Oompa Loompa songs made me cringe every time they started...they were so cheesy! Furthermore, although his acting was just fine, some of Deep Roy's dancing was pretty hideous. Of the Oompa Loompa songs, I thought Veruca's was the least bad, but I still would have preferred the movie without them. The rest of the music (Danny Elfman's score) was excellent, I thought, particularly at the beginning of the movie.
For me, the Oompa Loompa songs take the movie from a 10/10 to an 8.5/10. Johny Depp's acting was a little over the top at times for me, which takes it down another half of a point to 8/10.
Overall, it was a great movie: I think they took a lot of risks, and most of them paid off. Some of the risks crashed and burned, however, and hurt the overall film.