Barnes & Noble

There was trepidation in cinema circles when quirky filmmaker Tim Burton announced that he intended to adapt Roald Dahl’s charming children’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, especially among fans of Mel Stuart’s 1971 take on the text, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. But that trepidation turned to intense, even feverish anticipation once it was revealed that longtime Burton collaborator Johnny Depp would play the eccentric chocolatier. Happily, the resulting film is an absolute joy from first frame to last. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has its dark moments, just as one would expect in a Burton adaptation of Dahl; yet the movie’s brilliant design and execution grounds it much more in the fantasy realm than within black comedy. Depp’s characterization of Wonka as socially maladjusted and delightfully daft accounts for much of Charlie's effectiveness, and he gets solid support from a well-chosen supporting cast. His youthful costar from Finding Neverland, Freddie Highmore, is letter-perfect as Charlie, the impoverished but good-hearted lad who wins a tour of Wonka’s fabled factory after finding one of five golden tickets packaged in candy bars. The boy brings along his aged but excited grandfather (David Kelly) and experiences all the technological marvels Willy Wonka has developed over the years. Burton presents those marvels with the visual flourish we’ve come to expect: He is a gifted artist whose technicians bring his designs to life with uncanny skill and coordination. The factory is a child’s paradise, a cornucopia of confectionary delights manufactured in a manner so complex as to make Rube Goldberg blush. The film’s episodic plot structure allows for frequent musical transitions: Working, as usual, with composer Danny Elfman, Burton stages these in the fashion of Busby Berkeley production numbers peopled by Wonka’s diminutive employees, the Oompa-Loompas (all played by Indian actor Deep Roy, whose countenance and movements are multiplied a hundredfold by computer animation). Although Burton has rarely exhibited much grasp of simple, sincere human emotions, he invests Charlie with genuine feeling and powerfully conveys a pro-family message that makes this movie one that can -- and should -- be enjoyed by parents and children together. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

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. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 012569593374
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound
• Language: Français
• Editions: Subtitled, Dubbed
• Time: 1:55:00
• Sales Rank: 8,699

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