Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

2005 • 114 minutes

About this movie

Director Tim Burton brings his unique vision and sensibility to Roald Dahl's classic children's story in this lavish screen interpretation. Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) is the secretive and wildly imaginative man behind the world's most celebrated candy company, and while the Wonka factory is famously closed to visitors, the reclusive candy man decides to give five lucky children a chance to see the inside of his operation by placing "golden tickets" in five randomly selected chocolate bars. Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore), whose poor but loving family lives literally in the shadow of the Wonka factory, is lucky enough to obtain one of the tickets, and Charlie, escorted by his Grandpa Joe (David Kelly), is in for the ride of a lifetime as he tours the strange and remarkable world of Wonka with fellow winners, media-obsessed Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), harsh and greedy Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), gluttonous Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz), and ultra-competitive Violet Beauregarde (AnnaSophia Robb). Over the course of the day, some of the children will learn difficult lessons about themselves, and one will go on to become Wonka's new right hand. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory also stars Christopher Lee, James Fox, and Noah Taylor; the book was famously adapted to the screen before in 1971 under the title Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Gene Wilder as the eccentric candy tycoon.

Ratings and reviews

While Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005 is more accurate to the book (such as squirrels, smaller oompa loompas, and overall has a darker tone), it falls short for multiple reasons. 1. Some actors were poorly choosen and couldn't act. They tried, but some didn't feel right. 2. The pacing can get really slow sometimes, making some scenes boring. 3. The over-reliance on CGI didn't make the chocolate factory believable then the 1970s version.

Worth to me: ~$10 HD purchase or ~$2 rental. If you're just willing to hear me out on this, I'll explain why I think this version is just slightly overall better than the original and eventually became one of my guiltiest of pleasures (FYI, Gene Wilder will always be my Willy Wonka). But first, I'm with all of the other reviewers when it comes to how jarring the Oompa Loompas are in this film verses the original. It took me A LOT of repeat viewings to get over them, but after getting past my initial repulsiveness I can see why they did what they did. Also, that stuff between Willy Wonka and his dad always felt kind of shoehorned in to me and I still feel like the ending of this movie just feels off and doesn't really contribute to much in the end. Now with these complaints out of the way, let me tell you where this movie shines. First, the visuals in this movie are butter. I realize that some parts can feel a bit over CGI'd (the song for Violet being the worst offender), but (for instance) those almost Wes Anderson like moments where you're super zoomed into the kids/parents faces as you're being introduced to them are just visual candy. Seriously, watch Augusta's face as he's eating his next candy bar, watch Veruca's parents faces as they hand her the ticket; they're brilliant. The other thing going for this movie is that the casting is incredibly on-point. Outside of the Oopma Loompas and a few Johnny Depp mannerisms showing up in Willy Wonka, I have a hard time not believing that the rest of the cast is not these same characters when they're not being filmed; it's practically seamless to me. And finally, I'm so glad that they really pushed these bad kids to their nastiest limits. Every character feels distinct and is just begging for you to relish in their eventual punishments. There is nothing redeeming about any of the bad children which only makes you root for Charlie more. Veruca's ungratefulness after getting her golden ticket being the most satisfying. If you're the kind of person like myself that just loves savoring all the little details of a movie (even if it has a few glaring problems), I couldn't recommend this movie enough. It's a repeat viewing in my collection along with The Producer's (the newer one) and The Big Lebowski.

Johnny Depp is a great actor for odd r oles such as this. I watched with my children and it was enjoyable though a tad bizarre. I watched the Gene Wilder version about 6 weeks later on TV. My kids actually found it creepy and said that the man looked as if he were not being funny but actually trying to hide his true self in that movie. They said if the met Mr Wilder on the street they would cross to th e's other side. I never noticed it as a child but some of the things in the old version were truly creepy.