Best adaptation of a children's book to movie!

Rating: 10/10 (24 July 2005)

Anyone who doesn't like this movie, and claims the original is true to form obviously never read the books. While the original movie was a fine production, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was a great improvement. The first such improvement lay in the title: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" -- NOT "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory". This movie is about Charlie first and foremost, not about a comedian from SNL. The rest lay in the scripting of the book to movie format. While all translations will undergo some changes (Lord of the Rings), this movie kept true to not only the attitude of each character (Violet and Mike make perfect sense), but presence of the gadgets (opening scene), the Oompa Loompa description (Deep Roy was amazing as opposed to candy colored midgets of the first movie), the songs (all written by Roald Dahl), down to Willy Wonka's view of the degradation of society. Roald Dahl's second wife has a producing credit on the film, forming a close tie between the family and this production (which, according to her in a recent newsweek interview, was lacking in the first film). I believe this made all the difference. The only major change in this book dealt with Willy Wonka, however, considering the character description in the book compared with last years "Series of Unfortunate Events", it would likely frighten any kid if Willy Wonka were put in makeup to resemble the book description. Having said that, Johnny Depp is Willy Wonka, as opposed to Gene Wilder being Gene Wilder. Charlie is always an innocent, without a single mean streak, rather than the first movie. The rest of the kids you absolutely hate -- like you should. I have seen it twice and wish to see it again.