Today 19 January 2006 the DVD went on sale, I bought it and watched it. It's a very pleasurable film, full of Tim Burton flavor, but it doesn't match Mel Stuart's 1971 classic Willy Wonka with Gene Wilder. The surrealistic is simply replaced by kitsch, and the incredible musical scores are replaced by nice but tame new songs.
Especially dissapointing is the Oompa-Loompa. After the shocking visual presence of the 1971 version, well, nobody can win. The ending is rather preaching (this, according to my son, is not even in the original novel). The world of pure imagination is rendered into a world of morality. Jonny Depp is a sane schoolboy compared to Gene Wilder's wild, lunatic, extravagant Wonka.
I mean, this is a good film in itself. And yet, the 1971 Wonka is simply unbeatable. I'd watch the Wonka over and over again. Charlie? Well, maybe in five years.
