Roald Dahl is said to have hated the movie adaptation of his creepy children’s story so much that he refused to permit the book’s sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, to be filmed. It’s too bad he didn’t live to see Tim Burton’s mind-bending remake, which takes the director’s eye-popping style to soaring new levels of delicious excess. Johnny Depp, always an avid collaborator with Burton, adopts a ripped-from-the-headlines, Michael Jackson-like appearance for his role as Willy Wonka, topping even his flayboyant Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. He makes Wonka’s dislike for the children he leads through his candy factory more evident than Gene Wilder did, and for good reason—snotty Veruca Salt and her companions sport even uglier personalities than in the old film. It’s a terrifying pleasure to watch them meet their just deserts.
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