Although truer to the book than the original, Burton's new adaptation lacks the same cinematic cohesiveness as the original.

Rating: 3/10 (27 December 2005)

Despite a characteristic, mostly enjoyable performance by Johnny Depp as the eccentric and brilliant Willy Wonka, all in all Tim Burton's new adaptation of the original lacks much of what made Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory so memorably enchanting.
First, and most egregiously, were the musical interludes so odiously perpetrated by Burton's interpretations of Dahl's mythical "Oompa-Lumpas." I literally felt like I was witnessing a performance that of some horrible Broadway showtunes meets vaudeville meets coked out clone army of miniature Peruvians led by a psychotic passive-aggressive guy with an oedipal complex. It was frenetic and strange, in a bad way.
Not only that, but the film seemed so "chopped up" according to these interludes that I felt it lost a concrete sense of cohesiveness. I watched it scene-by-scene and was unpleasantly aware of the sharp cutoffs in the midst. I wanted there to be a sense of flow--I wanted the chapters to relate--but instead they seemed patched together piecewise, and without particular thought to smoothing and making transparent the tape holding the patches together.
On the upside, the new film is far truer to the book (which is a wonderful book) and the performances--especially Depp's--are particularly good. That said, I still think Mel Stuart did a better job of casting Charley and Grandpa Joe. Johnny was good enough to compete with Gene Wilder (no small achievement), and the kids are easy enough characters to portray convincingly, but I was less impressed by Charley and Grandpa. They're contrived characters, to be sure, but at least in Mel Stuart's portrayal I wasn't quite as bored and annoyed with Charley.
All-in-all, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, if less true to the book, was nonetheless far more cohesive as a film. The characters were more convincing, the music was less odious, and in generally the movie retained a "feel" that, in my opinion, came far closer to what Dahl was really trying to write about in the first place. The new remake, although appealing with all its Burtonesque visual dazzle, simply doesn't do as entertaining, thought-provoking, or poignant a job of telling the story.