A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I thought it was a prime candidate to pull the movie industry out of an epic box office slump and lure people back to the theatres.

At the time, I wasn?t ready to pass judgment on the movie; from the trailer I was unsure whether it would be a gem or a bomb.

However, I was fairly certain that with a director like Tim Burton, a star like Johnny Depp, and the sort of hype it was getting, a lot of people would end up seeing it.

To be honest, after seeing it, I?m no closer to deciding whether it?s a gem or a bomb.

The film is based on a children?s novel by Roald Dahl, and also a remake of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a 1971 adaptation starring Gene Wilder.

The story is that Willy Wonka, a reclusive candy maker, invites five children to come on a tour of his factory, which has been shut off to the public for more than a decade.

Charlie, a bright-eyed youngster with a dirt poor family joins four spoiled children, who win the contest, and get taken on a fantastic tour of Willy Wonka?s chocolate factory.

Depp stars as the loopy Willy Wonka. Charlie is played by Freddie Highmore, who also starred opposite Depp in last year?s Finding Neverland.

It would be unfair to try to compare the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, to this new version.

Willy Wonka was one of Gene Wilder?s most beloved roles, and while critics slammed it when it first came out, it is now considered to be a children?s classic.

When the 1971 version was made, Dahl himself hated it. The novel was somewhat darker than the movie, and he felt that it was a generally unfaithful adaptation.

Dahl even refused to let the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, ever get made.

With that kind of history, both Depp and Burton have big shoes to fill, and audiences, especially those adults who already have a warm place for Wilder as Wonka, will not be forgiving of anything less than brilliance.

As such, most adults will probably not like Burton?s offering, despite its many merits.

For one thing, Burton puts his own style to the story, making it darker and more faithful to the novel.

He also changes the centre of attention from Charlie to Willy Wonka, who turns out to be the only character worth watching.

What is absolutely certain is that like Dahl?s books, this movie was meant for children, not adults.

The jokes include Wonka walking into a glass wall, and Wonka shouting, ?Don?t grab that squirrel?s nuts!?

To be honest, I didn?t enjoy Charlie and the Chocolate Factory nearly as much as I liked the Gene Wilder version.

I liked Wilder?s mysterious subtlety and Oompa Loompas (the factory?s fantastical workers) singing about poetic justice.

Depp on the other hand plays Wonka as borderline insane, and the Oompa Loompas look like a scary relic of the disco era.

But that really says more about me than it does about the movie.

Dahl always made parents a bit nervous.

His novels often deal with bad children getting punished, and mean parents getting their comeuppances.

Ugly people were usually villains, and there?s plenty of toilet humour.

Dahl himself was a bit of an eccentric in the mould of Willy Wonka, and reportedly kept a piece of his spine that was removed in an operation in a jar on his desk.

All told, I don?t think this will be remembered as Burton?s best work. I also don?t think it will have the same timeless quality that the original has.

Nevertheless, it is a great movie for kids to see; everyone in the theatre under the age of 12 seemed to love it.

Just try not to draw any parallels between Willy Wonka and Michael Jackson, because everyone else has already had the same thought, and it doesn?t help to dwell on it much.






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