Disappointing.

Rating: 5/10 (30 September 2005)

Tim Burton had a captive audience, an audience that truly wanted this remake to succeed. And, well, he blew it, in my opinion.
The opening credits were enthralling, the factory and Charlie's house captivating, Noah Taylor as Charlie's Father a pleasant surprise, one-armed Arthur as Grandpa Joe great casting, casting in general a comforting factor  and I was settling in to enjoy a nostalgic trip back to Roald Dahl land. And then we entered the Chocolate Factory. The puppet show, while enabling an introduction to Willy Wonka and highlighting his subtle sarcasm, was dismal as were the children's reactions to it all. We headed on in and entered the Chocolate Room and this is where I started to feel queasy in the pit of my stomach and the stench of a bad film turn to bile in the back of my throat.
Tell me Mr Burton, with all today's technology, why the Chocolate room looked just like the one out of the original film. Explain to me why it didn't dazzle me. I'm not a jaded movie goer by any means, and I don't really go in for gadgetry in film but it seems you blew an awful lot of money on the opening sequence and then didn't have any left over for the Chocolate room.
And, while I'm in question mode, just how tall is an Oompa Loompa? In some scenes they were mid-calf in height, while in others they were waist-high. Are they elastic? Or made from Taffy? So they can be pulled into any height Mr Wonka decides? Alas, no, it was just pretty terrible animation and cinematography. Oh, there was so much wrong with the Oompa Loompas that I can't even begin to get into it here without reducing myself to a wailing mess.
Despite my comments above, the film, in general, had charm and was enjoyable. There were stunning moments and cringe worthy moments. I was taken to new highs and plummeted to new depths. And, the comparisons to the original kept surfacing, even though I fought them off with a passion. Gene Wilder was a charming Willy Wonka who eventually won over the audience by showing his humanity. Johnny Depp (or was it Michael Jackson in disguise?) was obviously given no real direction to take the character and he labored and eventually drowned in his own performance.
Shortly before the release of this film I had the misfortune to read a diatribe from Mr Burton which stated that he absolutely hated the original film even though he had not seen it (unbelievable!!) and that the film even had the wrong name (i.e. Willy Wonka and the CF instead of C and the CF). He stated he wouldn't be remaking that film but putting together something which adhered closely to the book. In fact, he missed loads of the book out and ended up with a montage of both the original film and the book  I think if I hadn't read Mr Burton's article I would have enjoyed the film more. I felt Mr Burton's ego simply got in the way.