Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Where all sweet wishes come true, where a group of little creatures sings mocking songs about your failed candy bars, where the word "family" is a small charm... There awaits a magically mysterious master of sweets who will find you strange no matter how hard you try. But the visit is worth it. So be glad you don't have to search for any coupons and come take a ride on that waterfall too. (26/12/2007)

A breathtaking visual experience. The atmosphere of the entire film is pleasantly "sweet" and the moral messages are not surprisingly intrusive; on the contrary, they need not be restricted to the kids. :) For Burton, for Depp, for Elfman, for the feast for the eyes, and for some really hilarious jokes, 5 stars. (04/05/2009)

For me, watching Tim Burton films means visiting my home in an alternative world. Each of them is like a cozy house with a fireplace and a family of archetypal motifs, characters and techniques that "make" Burton's characteristic poetics. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory presents a work absolutely immersed in the precise visuality and typical plasticity of the fantastic world of the bizarre chocolate magician Willy Wonka. The incredible explosion of colors and sounds is managed with absolute bravura, and in addition to the dynamic ride on the chocolate river, there is, as always, room for drawing characters. True, the middle passage is perhaps too fixed on the image, but the fireworks of the invention and the great melodies of Danny Elfman are so captivating that one forgives the film for this. The highlight is undoubtedly the parody quote from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and also the strange tension between the kindly fairy-tale humor and the suspected edge of black humor, without which one can no longer imagine Tim... But after all this, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory comes out extraordinarily harmoniously and all the supposed sharp edges are ground down with a beautiful finale. The adornment of Burton's delicacy is definitely Johnny Depp, whose Wonka balances somewhere between the fragility of Ichabod Crane (Sleepy Hollow) and the eccentricity of Captain Jack Sparrow. As in Finding Neverland, duet with Freddie Highmore is beautiful, despite the much more limited space. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may not be as exciting in terms of content, yet its visuals, humor, magic and charm create another gem from the workshop of the weirdo Tim. (21/01/2006)

Tim Burton ignores the darkness and goes far beyond the kitsch of opulent color to literally create a breathtaking world made from the sweetest ingredients. He does a great job with the exaggeration, and such an overly pathetic story about family cohesion is in fact not awkward, but rather endearing. Johnny Depp's eccentric acting is just as entertaining as the little Oompa-Loompas, whose songs may be a bit self-indulgent, but what isn't in this film? Burton exaggerated everything so beautifully that I ate it up completely. And I very much enjoyed it. (14/04/2006)

Tim Burton made me very happy this time. The magic of the film lies solely in the stylisation and arrangement of each scene, and it doesn’t deserve to be part of the elite just because it’s divinely scored and looks beautiful, but because of its unadulterated joy of storytelling and visual experimentation simply cannot be resisted. Who else could build such a simple and sentimental story in such an engaging and creative way? Maybe only Jára Cimrman. 80% (05/07/2012)