Tim Burton must have known he was biting off a LOT when he decided to remake this classic. And early signs (like the return to the original books title) pointed to a movie that would remain true to the book, whilst having a Burtonesque spin on them.

The story remains the same as the original: Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp), global tycoon and chocolatier opens the doors to his factory for the first time in years. Originally firing all his employees, and locking the factory up due to other chocolate makers stealing his recipes, he remains beloved by all, even after almost singlehandedly sending a large portion of the factory town broke.

The story, for those who mysteriously don’t know, centers on Charlie (Freddie Highmore), a child raised post-factory close, whose working class family worked hard at menial jobs that paid hardly enough to keep a roof over their heads. After his discovery of a one-in-a-million golden ticket, Charlie gets to see the inside of the factory, meets the infamous Willy Wonka, and eventually wins the grand prize, becoming Wonka’s heir and moving his family into the factory.

With the story pre-written, and so much work already done in the first incarnation, Burton almost could be seen more as a “movie stylist” than a director on this one, and indeed, this movie embodies the hyper-reality and twisted design that we’ve come to expect from a Burton film.

By itself the movie is bright, fun, full of character and still has the flavor from our favorite team (Burton, Depp, Bonham-Carter, Elfman) that we’ve come to expect. Unfortunately this movie was ALWAYS going to be compared to the first version. Which is where it falls down.

We do get a background and motivation for Willy Wonka, after we see his childhood and his father an obsessive dentist that fuelled Wonka’s love for all things sugary. He’s the kid that never grew up. In the original adaptation, Gene Wilder’s Wonka seems like a slightly unhinged adult wanting to teach the kids a lesson, whereas Depp’s, unfazed by the same moral compass, seems to almost delight in their torture. The remake removes the deliberate tests that Wonka thrusts upon the children, replacing them with what seems to be more like a fascination and willingness to experiment on them.

While this version does show the desperate plight of Charlie’s family, it does it in an almost comical way. And don’t expect too many nightmares from this movie. (Unlike the previous one -- that boat ride still gives me the sweats). It pays all the right things lip service, but without the gravity previously seen. Disappointingly, it almost Disney-fies the story.

The iconic soundtrack from the original movie is gone, with Danny Elfman tasked with creating a unique Oompa Loompa sound. Again, without comparing, the songs are varied, fun, and stay true to the original lyrics, but side by side, they don’t get stuck in your head for days on end like the songs from the first movie did. Oompa, Loompa Doompity Doo, I’ve got another puzzle for you...

In the end, what we’re left with is a workable movie, and a visual feast courtesy of Tim Burton’s imagination, and it might be fairer to call it a far different adaption of the book, rather than a remake of the earlier movie. Worth watching? Definitely, especially if you’re a fan of Burton’s work, but don’t watch it and the original back to back. Treat it as its own movie, rather than a remake of a classic, and you’ll less likely to feel as if you’ve been kicked in the stomach. If you like shiny things, bright colors, and are happy to take it at face value, this one’s for you.

  -- Jason Murdoch