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# ‘Chocolate’ is a treat for kids all ages
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/chocolate-is-a-treat-for-kids-all-ages/
- Published: 2005-07-15T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T07:26:16.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: Entertainment, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Watching the scrumptious trailer for this, the second cinematic adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 kid-lit classic, one had to wonder if the film could be as good as advertised. Boy, is it ever, and then some. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is a momentous achievement for phantasmagoric filmmaker Tim Burton, who ascends to new creative heights with a big boost from frequent collaborator and future Oscar winner Johnny Depp. This fantastic voyage is more vivid, lively and rewarding than the somewhat overrated 1971 “Willy Wonka” film, which dumbed-down and softened much of the sophisticated source material. Burton and screenwriter John August (“Go,” “Big Fish”) remain faithful to Dahl’s edgier instincts and embrace rather than shy away from some of the sourball elements of his tweaked morality tale. Depp’s androgynous reading of Wonka is part vampire, part Michael Jackson, part Edward Scissorhands, and ranks among the kaleidoscopic thesp’s most inspired creations. Decked out like the love spawn of Marilyn Manson and Anna Wintour, Depp-Wonka is an alternately childlike, sinister, semi-psychotic flibbertigibbet living in a vibrant candy-filled wonderland that serves as a Potemkin village for Willy’s dreary childhood (explored here in a series of flashbacks not found in Dahl’s book).

Young Freddie Highmore reteams with Depp, his “Finding Neverland” co-star, and acquits himself quite fabulously as Charlie Buckets, the good-hearted tatterdemalion who is one of five lucky children to gain entry to Wonka’s fabled secret factory. Of the child actors portraying the other four golden ticket winners, each of whom embodies a particularly rotten personality trait, Julia Winter stands out as the spoiled Veruca Salt. Also impressive is the diminutive Deep Roy who, thanks to CGI duplication, weighs in as the entire community of Oompa-Loompas that labor inside the factory. Burton’s resident composer Danny Elfman — this is their 11th film together — provides a typically trippy score, highlighted by several frenetic song-and-dance numbers featuring the Oompa-Loompas.

This one’s not to be missed. (Rated PG for quirky situations, action and mild language. Running time: 115 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 15, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/071505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)