Absolute Eye Candy

Rating: 9/10 (22 August 2005)

First of all I should say that I saw the movie 3 times. That's how much I loved it.
Now I don't want my opinion to be biased because of my love for Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and chocolate, so I will be quite honest with you.
Movie Flow: The beginning starts out slow...until we are introduced to the children who win the golden tickets. Augustus Gloop has a very funny accent, Violet Beauregarde's mother is a hysterically typical soccer mom, Mike Teavee bring familiarity to parents because he never leaves the video game screen, and Veruca Salt's spoiling father and martini-downing mother are great too. When the children get to the factory gates is when the movie's pace picks up and keeps going at a good speed. Movie flow gets an A-
Acting: Johnny Depp's eccentric portrayal of Willy Wonka blew me away. His tone, facial expressions, and body language are all perfectly combined. Unlike the old Willy Wonka, (played by Gene Wilder) Johnny Depp's version is a bit more childish and even feminine, and his voice is much different. Johnny gives Willy a smallish voice, and throws a bunch of "ew"'s and "teehee"'s in his dialog to play up his childishness. Most people couldn't pull this kind of dialect off without sounding whiny and annoying, but Johnny does it in a way that's charming, a bit eerie, and very funny. The acting of the children impressed me too. Especially Freddie Highmore's take on Charlie. He had just the right homeliness and kindness to make his character warm and fuzzy, but did not give an annoyingly cutesy vibe. Acting gets an A
Visuals: The first thing to say about these visuals is that they make the original version look like it was made on a ten dollar budget. I mean these visuals were AWESOME. Especially the Great Glass Elevator ride. When we got to see the factory rooms from the Elevator, it was just stunning. And in the boat ride scene I felt like I was on a ride at Disney World! A+ hands down.
Oompa Loompas: I was never a fan of the Oompa Loompas in the original, but I do prefer them to the new ones. No doubt about it the new ones were hilarious when doing their songs for each child's demise, but I didn't think they fit well with the movie. They were 30 inch Middle-Eastern men with swirly black hair. I was expecting more imaginable things that didn't look so much like real people who were simply shrunken down with a computer. These Oompas get a B-, but their funny songs get an A.
Overall: This is a great movie overall despite some scenes stuck in that I think were not needed. Although it wasn't as dark and twisted as I would have hoped, (being a Tim Burton film) this new version definitely is more funnier and visually rewarding than the first one, and Johnny Depp as Wonka is the icing on a very sweet movie.