(I must recant my previous statement of Burton copying the Oompa Loompas of the old movie version of this tale, they were instead true to the book.)

Amongst the attempts to make yet another book into a movie, I was pleasantly surprised at this film. All except one part, but we'll get to that later. I believe Burton accurately portrayed the world Roald Dahl created, from Charlie's rickety old house to the details within the factory. Nevertheless, he still showed his Burtonesque outlook of dark visuals, gothic colors and grim situations. It is by far, not that cheery of a film, and never will be a classic like the Gene Wilder version. Still, I recommend seeing it for anyone who has read the book, or anyone who doesn't mind a little cynicism with your popcorn. It was... really weird.


Okay, my biggest complaint has to be the side story about Willy Wonka's father. Where did they come up with that? To me, it rather spoiled the ending, especially since the ending is the most important part. I could put up with the fact that WW wasn't all that cheery of a fellow and the strange compulsion to make every Brit's teeth horrid in one way or another, but there would have been so much more room for the actual story if they had cut it out. *deep breath*

The Oompa Loompas were brilliant, though some of the song styles creeped me out (namely the hippy song and the 70's rock band one *shudder*). I enjoyed the first song immensely, as it had that tribal rhythm to it. As much as part of me wanted them to wear loin cloths, I decided I didn't want to see them doing some of those dance moves in them. o_O

The boat and tunnel were precut! Definitely something we needed our technology to do right. Same for the elevator, even if part of me wondered how they didn't press a button when they got slammed against it.

I'm stopping now, before I go frame by frame and start analyzing the entire character list. *g*