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"There is no place I know to compare with pure imagination." Gene Wilder sang that dreamy refrain when he played Willy Wonka, the candy-making madman in the beloved but creepy 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, based on Roald Dahl's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

That famous song would fit in beautifully with director Tim Burton's "take two" of Dahl's whimsical adventure. Burton turns the story into an explosion of "pure imagination." In fact, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is so alive with visual invention that some critics are saying there's too much imagination on screen.

Fans will come away with mixed reactions. Burton's version sticks closer to the original narrative, and young Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) is brilliant as Charlie. No one denies that Burton still has a knack for opulent spectacle. But the candy man has suffered yet another extreme makeover. In the 1971 film, director Mel Stuart transformed Dahl's jumpy genius of junk food into a warm and endearing figure … and then put Wonka's name in the title in place of Charlie's. Johnny Depp, Tim Burton's favorite leading man (Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood), plays Wonka as a somewhat-androgynous oddball with a much more elaborate back story than Dahl ever delineated.

Christian press critics have varying opinions, but most of them find the film a worthwhile confection with some substantial lessons.

Todd Hertz (Christianity Today Movies) says Burton and Depp have "succeeded in creating a fable that is not creepy or trippy, but just possessing a gentle weirdness … that is completely appropriate to Dahl's original book. In fact, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a charming, engrossing, and often laugh-out-loud funny fairy tale that captures the book's spirit while still marking its own territory."

Harry Forbes (Catholic News Service) calls it a "hugely inventive rethinking of writer Roald Dahl's original work. Overall, director Burton's take on the Dahl tale is predictably darker than the last version, and combines Dickensian atmospherics (though the setting is contemporary) with mordant wit."

Steven D. Greydanus (Decent Films) says viewers will cry "with delight at all the film gets so magically right, and with frustration that in spite of that, the film is still nearly ruined by Burton's obsessions and a spectacularly miscalculated performance by star Johnny Depp. No one but Burton could possibly have so perfectly nailed Dahl's blend of whimsical fantasy and withering comeuppance, or the Dickensian glee and extravagance of its morality-play tableau, with abject poverty and decency lavishly rewarded while excess and surfeit and decadence are mercilessly punished."

Steven Isaac (Plugged In) says, "The tone of the script owes more than a little to Wilder's 1971 movie. … And it burrows deeper into the book and the stage play while it's at it. An added bonus is that the special effects are super-cool, kid-friendly and positively hunger-inducing, and the Oompa-Loompas' song-and-dance routines are a riot. All told, I'm sure author Roald Dahl, were he still with us, would be pleased. His playful morality tale is respected here, and the lessons he sought to teach arrive alive and kicking."

Andrew Coffin (World) says the film's "strong points mostly overcome the film's weaknesses. One is Charlie himself—British actor Freddie Highmore, one of the best things about last year's very good Finding Neverland. Another is Mr. Burton's emphasis on the familial aspects of the story, staging wonderful scenes in Charlie's poor but happy home. … This Charlie is a worthy improvement [on] the original film and a decent companion to Dahl's book."

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July (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49