Photo courtesy of Warner Brothers I just saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Sandhills Cinema 16. I must say that I have seen the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and read the book. This means I have two points of reference for this film.

The new Willy Wonka was fairly accurate to the book but not so much to the original film. In typical Tim Burton fashion, Willy Wonka was a bit quirkier in a creepy sort of way than I remembered from the book or the classic film. Well…what do you expect from the guy who created Nightmare Before Christmas (Which by the way I purely hated.) Despite Johnny Depp’s creepy appearance and strange behavior as Willy Wonka, this turned out to be a pretty good movie.

The special effects, in terms of the Chocolate River and squirrels, were great. The lyrics for some of the Oompa Loompa songs weren’t half bad either.

There were many funny moments in this movie. I especially liked the Oompa Loompa song about the rotten child Mike TV. I was rooting for Charlie and his grandpa all the way, and I enjoyed seeing the bratty kids get their just desserts. (No pun intended.)

This film was definitely aimed at young children with a simple plot and semi–cartoony characters. I actually think it put my mom to sleep a couple of times. It may also appeal more to girls than to boys because my movie buddy is a big Johnny Depp fan and she enjoyed the movie more than I did.

There was one off color crack about not touching the squirrel’s nuts which I could have done without, but aside from that and the fact that Depp reminded me a bit too much of Michael Jackson there wasn’t too much objectionable in this movie. Despite a depressing start, all’s well that ends well in this movie, at least for Charlie. I grudgingly give this movie three stars because Johnny Depp’s Willy Wonka really did creep me out.

John Dixon is a

rising seventh grader at Cardinal Newman Middle School.