Burton and His Cast Have Done Dahl Right

Rating: 8/10 (18 July 2005)

As much as I like "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," this was a film crying out to be remade. It was a minor classic thanks to the performances of not only Gene Wilder (still the definitive Wonka, I think), but also the rest of the cast (especially Peter Ostrom)--as well as its often witty script. But it was dragged down by depressing production design (which resembled a mini-golf course built in an old waterfront warehouse), those Bricuisse-Newley songs (stop the movie I want to get off), and the hideous Oompa-Loompas (purple-faced, orange-haired freaks in genie shoes).
Burton's remake gives Dahl's classic story the production values it deserves--and ratchets up the creepiness. Johnny Depp's Wonka is a ten-year-old, and a rather anti-social one at that, in a adult's body--a freak with Carol Channing's hair and smile, Jack Skellington's physique, and Oscar Wilde's wardrobe. Depp does an excellent job, but he doesn't make the character quite likable enough (Wilder's Wonka was mercurial yet affable); still, he fits Burton's vision of Wonka's world. (I've often thought that Depp would be the only actor other than Wilder who could play this role.)
Danny Elfman does excellent work on the score. The various Oompa-Loompa songs (Dahl's words set to different musical styles, such as 1980s "hair metal") are great numbers that "doop-a-dee-doop-a-dee" beat the original movie's rather sugary tunes.
Best movie of the summer so far.