I was morbidly curious about this re-imagining by Tim Burton, considering I can't get certain songs from the original out of my head no matter how much I try. "Cheer Up Charlie", "The Candyman Can" and "Pure Imagination" are the highpoints to the original film, along with the first glimpse of the chocolate room we get. Willy Wonka is not a family film; it's dark, it's potentially scary, it promotes bad behavior. But it is a staple of television.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory still isn't a family material. It's supposedly closer to the novel, but in this case, I don't think it's better. To be sure, I think the original movie has zero flaws, no reason to remake it. This seems like Burton threw everything in the same pot just because he could with little regard as to whether he should. Johnny Depp, one of the truly great actors of our time, plays the candy maker so completely over the top that everyone else has to run to keep up. Not just the actors, but also the set designers, the costumers, the visuals...it's like a race. Depp keeps going above and beyond just to see what he can get away with. Frankly, and bluntly, he's a complete freak, from the way he mumbles almost everything, his aversion to children (see the first time they step into the factory) and his general creepiness factor.
I kept hoping and praying he would break out of "icky" mode at some point; he doesn't. I was hoping we'd get a spiffed up rendition of "Pure Imagination" or something to liven up the entire flick; we don't. Even bringing vibrant colors to the screen after a half hour of depressing gray doesn't help. It's a visual explosion, but like an overdose of candy, it becomes too much for far too long. The major problem is that the entire film wants to say something about father/son relationships. Put bluntly, the storyline doesn't work. It's much more effective as a story about Willy and Charlie (or Wonka and the other children...his punishment of them as a means to changing their behavior). I just don't buy Wonka wants his father's approval that badly or his need for a family. Take out the flashbacks, Christopher Lee's Wonka Sr. and the STUPIDLY insipid ending where the family moves their shack into the factory and there's a good movie there. As is, aggrevatingly below par.