Not As Horrific As The Original

Rating: 5/10 (19 March 2006)

I remember the original of this film as somewhat horrific and it scared the pants off me when I was a kid.
I was pleasantly surprised with this new version. Gone was the horrific chicken be-heading scene in the tunnel, and this time the oompa-loompas were not scary at all.
I thought Johnny Depp was very good in the role and, in my opinion, his casting for the part was a good choice.
I enjoyed Deep Roy's interpretation of the oompa-loompas, I had seen him act before in Doctor Who's "Talons of Weng-Chiang" as the sinister Mr.Syn. I also liked the idea that he was much smaller than the oompa-loompas in the original film and I was pleased to see an explanation was given how Wonka managed to acquire them from the jungle.
The effects were great too, and I thought the music numbers were a good giggle as well.
The German kid did make me feel sick with the chocolate all over his face and I was somewhat pleased when he fell in the river and got sucked up.
I must say though that I was very disappointed with the ending, it seemed all very sad to me.
Although the original version of this film scared the hell out of me, I would still say that the original was the better of the two versions made. However, this film is definitely worth a look and now sits amongst my DVD collection.