Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

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

AMG Reveiw:
Charismatic and visually stunning, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an off-beat, comedic, and sometimes psychedelic take on the well-known and well-loved morality tale. It may be an adaptation of the book by Roald Dahl, but it remains difficult not to compare it first to the 1971 film by Mel Stuart, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. This more recent adaptation was not meant to be connected to the earlier film, though, and owes its inspiration mainly to the book, to the imagination of Tim Burton, and to the interpretation of Johnny Depp. Fans of the first film adaptation, however, may still be looking for thematic elements from Gene Wilder's interpretation of the eccentric candy man that are simply not there. This Willy Wonka is not merely a brilliant eccentric but a true-to-life shut-in: a man with more than just a good-natured plan to teach a lesson to naughty children, he is someone who is genuinely shocked and disgusted by the behavior of greedy youngsters and their maligned parents. Johnny Depp plays this role with fantastic characterization and charm. This film's Charlie (Freddie Highmore), however, remains good-hearted, resilient, and sweet in a way that remains admirable and relatable, rather than saccharine. The result is a compelling story that balances the viewer's need both for dry, unforgiving humor and for childish wonder and hope. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is not nearly as suitable for children as its predecessor; for instance, Veruca Salt's attack by trained squirrels who pin her down and eventually toss her down an old incinerator shaft, having found that she is a "bad nut," is brilliant and funny but would probably be terrifying to children under seven. This level of content renders the film not so much a children's movie that is enjoyable to adults, as the Mel Stuart film could be described, but rather an adult film that could be loved by many children. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in many ways achieves the bizarre, otherworldly quality of Roald Dahl's book better than it does anything else: through seemingly alien people and ideas, the most heartwarming and sweet tropes of storytelling can hit home with the self-parody to make them believable even to jaded and corrupt grown-ups. — Cammila Albertson