When I was in the second grade or thereabouts, the teacher read us “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl in installments after lunch. I loved the book, and was delighted by the first film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. I’ve read the book and watched the film many times.
When I first heard that there was to be a remake of the film, I was skeptical. But upon finding out that Tim Burton was directing, and Johnny Depp starring as WW, I knew it would be great. In fact, I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory three times in the theatre, both because I enjoyed it so much, and because I wanted to take various friends to see it. The casting, acting and special effects were all superb. I’d be hard-pressed to come up with a single criticism of the film.
The new film is more faithful to the book in many ways, but it also introduces some significant new concepts not present in the book, especially regarding Willy Wonka and his past.
I purchased the special two-disc DVD edition a few days ago. I haven’t watched the movie again, but I watched all of the extras on the second disc. There are great “making of” features on the casting, sets, special effects, etc. I am somewhat astonished that they actually used live squirrels for much of the nut sorting room scenes, though they did use some animatronic and some CGI squirrels as well.
Now I’ll have to watch the DVD of “Willy Wonka and…” again for comparison.