Visually splendid and fairly faithful remake

Rating: 7/10 (22 September 2005)

Former Disney animator Tim Burton has a rather hit and miss record as a film-maker but he usually has a firm grip on fantasy and does Roald Dahl proud here. He sticks pretty close to the original story except for an interesting if not wholly successful attempt to flesh out Willy Wonka's background, with Christopher Lee playing Willy's father. All the children save Charlie are monuments to defective parenting and of course all get their come-uppance. Charlie is of the deserving poor but wedded to his family and is duly rewarded.
The production values can hardly be faulted. Money and a vibrant imagination is a potent combination. The exterior of the chocolate factory, the squirrels' nut-cracking room, the chocolate river ride all linger in the mind long after. Only the Bucket house, too comically dilapidated to be true, struck a false note (the other buildings were generally realistic  even the chocolate factory could have come out of the same architect's office that produced the Battersea power station). The Oompa Loompa song and dance numbers could have been done by Busby Berkeley, though he would not have been able to get by with only one Oompa Loompa (here computer graphics provided the rest).
The acting was perfectly fine; I only hope the children escape the oblivion which awaited the child actors in the 1971 film with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. I enjoyed particularly David Kelly, his subtle Irish charm turned on to full, as Grandpa and James Fox as Veruka Salt's ramrod-straight but weak dad. Johnny Depp denies basing his characterization of Wonka on Michael Jackson but there is an uncanny resemblance. His Wonka has also a touch of Howard Hughes and even overtones of Henry Ford  industrial autodidacts who did things their way, meeting with both spectacular success and failure. In this film his shyness is more apparent but he could not be described as child-like except for his love of candy. The Mars family of candy bar fame are pretty reclusive  though it's probably not because they are shy, just mega-rich.
This is a kid s movie and the members of the target audience I saw the film with evidently enjoyed it. For me it was a visual treat. The story and the atmosphere are almost intact though I'd suggest reading the book first, or hearing Roald Dahl read the story on tape/CD.