Reluctantly loved it!

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2005)

When I first heard Tim Burton was remaking this film, I thought it was a great idea. Then I started seeing the trailers with Johnny Depp, and I began to get a little disappointed. I wasn't very fond of the girlie bob haircut and high voice. I guess that was never the impression I got of Willy Wonka either from the book or from the first movie with Gene Wilder. However, the personality given to the character Willy Wonka by Johnny Depp turned out to be quite fabulous I must admit. It surely was a bit creepy, and a bit insane. Very well done I must say. I guess Depp did a great acting job based on the direction Tim Burton must have given him.
The costumes were tremendous, and Deep Roy as the Oompa Loompa was fantastic. Obviously the scenes with multiple Oompa Loompas were done with the help of CG, but it was done in such a way to almost make each individual move his own.
I can't exactly remember the plot of the original book because I read it about 30 years ago. So the plot of the movie may have been more true to the novel than the original film, I'm not sure. But both films were very similar, with regards to the character development, anyway. I also understand that the Oompa Loompa songs were from lyrics in the novel, too. There wasn't as much singing as the original film, either. Mostly just the Oompa Loompa songs. I rather thought Danny Elfman was going to either re-perform or re-write those songs, but gladly did not.
I went into the theater reluctantly, but was captivated with the drama and utterly in stitches with laughter (as were most everyone else) very early on. People were actually clapping at the end, an event I certainly did NOT witness at the end of Star Wars: Renvenge of the Sith. Definitely one to see on the big screen.