A Serious Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (23 January 2019)

15 July 2005. Tim Burton's version of Willy Wonka is more serious and at times more funny than the original. There are some rather disturbing scenes with squirrels for younger children and some other somewhat nasty, curt remarks while Johnny Depp attempts to provide a background character that has more depth than Gene Wilder. Here the audience gets to experience a historical storyline for Willy Wonka that has a much stronger connection to the ending of the updated version that while risky brings the story full circle in terms of Mr. Wonka's character throughout the movie. The grandparents are wonderful, as if they were lifted straight from the book. The humor is mostly reserved for Johnny Depp with his great use of expression and facial features, his quirky personality. The movie is a difficult balance between a quality, mainstream children's movie and the more odd and strange world of Tim Burton. The balance is sometimes precarious in the movie and not always perfect. The lyrics apparently from the book, using the high energy music that attempt to both keep one's attention and at the same time provide a morality story about bad children is somewhat submerged in the not so easy to understand loud music and hyper-octane of the dancing of the Oompa Loompas. This version is a much different, strong sharp colored rendition with off-putting Wonka dialogue that Johnny Depp or Tim Burton deliberately incorporated into the movie to offer up a much more serious and substantive Wonka and more qualitative ending than the original. For the most part it works, but at times it becomes just more noise and more of the same. Eight of Ten Stars.