Burton and his muse Depp, find redemption for Burton.

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”
Starring: Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore, Helena Bonham Carter, Noah Taylor, Deep Roy
3 stars out of 4


Tim Burton along with his favorite actor arrive in the summer scene and have done something worth noting, they have successfully translated a re-make on to the big screen that is worthy of being mentioned as the re-make to the late classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” The new tale comes alive with the heart and soul of the story, Freddie Highmore the young Charlie Bucket and his family are poor, and they live in a small shack near Willy Wonka’s factory.

The dream of Willy Wonka’s factory is much a mystery nowadays to Charlie, his grandpa Joe explains to him how Wonka once fired all of his workers, he felt threatened they were stealing his recipes, how he pushed everything away from him, due to the neglecting he received from his father as a boy. This updated film is more of a character study for the quirky Wonka, since it’s solidly based on Roald Dahl’s book, it explains a lot about Wonka’s past while the audience is enjoying was is shown in his present.

Everyone knows the story; Wonka suddenly decides to open up his factory, but only to 5 young kids, the overweight non-stop chocolate eating Augustus, the spoiled Varuka Salt, the competitive and bratty Violet, the non-believing Mike T.V, and the considerate and lucky Charlie Bucket. Freddie Highmore plays the innocent Charlie well, and is extremely convincing along with the other young actors.

This is a Tim Burton movie, his creation of the new and improved Oompa Loompa’s is also to be noted, they are played by Deep Roy, who surprisingly has a lot of screen time, he plays inside and outside mostly within Wonka’s wacky world. Let’s talk about Johnny Depp in this, it seems like every role he confronts is a unique character that gives him his current reputation in Hollywood. It seems as though Depp can be himself in this role, but then again not. This is a different but similar role for him, it’s hard to describe this, he reaches to further depths with this liberating Wonka character.

This movie still isn’t perfect; I was actually surprised that I even liked it, and at times I appreciated things. The main flaw is that while were watching, we are being entertained with great things to look at and good acting, but we are not sucked in and ultimately intrigued as we wish to be. The funny thing is, while it has it’s flaws, it could be better, but not that much better, I can’t figure out why I think that.

With some of the recent movies out, there is no denying the magic and delightfulness that is on the screen when Depp and Highmore connect, this is there 2nd get-together and it’s the 2nd take on Willy Wonka’s story, and we like it.