I found it to be good entertainment.

Rating: Null/10 (14 January 2006)

Not having seen the earlier "Chocolate Factory" movie(s?) I of necessity took this one for its own merits. Done in a completely whimsical style, I found it to be good entertainment. I like Johnny Depp and the characters he creates. Here he is Willy Wonka, a grown man, reasonably old, but living in one big candy fantasy, mostly chocolate candy. After years of extreme secrecy about his giant candy factory, he mysteriously decides to allow 5 lucky children (and their chosen adults) to spend a whole day at the factory, showing them all the inner workings. Worldwide, 5 giant chocolate bars each have a golden foil ticket for the day.
Young Freddie Highmore is good as Charlie Bucket, living in a slightly slanted and breezy shack with his mum and dad, plus both sets of grandparents, within sight of the Wonka factory. They are so poor he gets to buy only one Wonka bar a year, on his birthday. But Charlie luckily gets to be one of the 5 kids, accompanied by his Grandpa Joe (David Kelly)
Once inside the 5 kids begin the tour but know they are in a competition of sorts, at the end of the day one of them will be given a prize beyond their wildest dreams. We see the usual whimsical treatment of chocolate factory workings but, only when Willy opens a small door do we see the real inner workings of the chocolate factory.
SPOILERS FOLLOW. Opening the little door reveals a brightly colored fairyland of rivers of warm chocolate and chocolate falls, candy growing on trees, all tended by workers that Charlie had found years earlier in a distant forest. They are miniature people about 2 or 3 feet tall, called the Oompa Loompa. All dozens of them are played by the same actor, small person Deep Roy, through the magic of special effects. The Oompa Loompa love chocolate and work in his factory to make all the chocolate. Trained squirrels crack and clean the nuts.
The other 4 kids are all rotten and selfish in different ways, each drops out of the tour as a result of misbehavior. This leaves Charlie to win the prize which was ... to be given the chocolate factory because Willy realized that he will need an heir. But Charlie refuses when it is clear that he would have to leave his family to do so. That is the "moral" of this movie, family and good behavior are more important than worldly things. In the end all are happy as Willy moves the little shack and all family members inside the factory.
(The young Robb actress was one to the kids. She was the girl with the dog in 'Because of Winn Dixie.')