Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Bucket family are in awe of Wonka wonderland in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Herald rating: ****

First Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's black and cautionary tale for children. Then Drew Barrymore's romantic comedy with sports overtones for grown-ups.

These are big-budget, big-studio US flicks that return to the source material - novels that inspired dumbed-down movies a few years back - and remake them into much better movies.

Gene Wilder's 1971 version of Roald Dahl's story changed the lead character and title to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and turned it into a milk chocolate-coated whimsy.

The new flick is darker. Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) comes from an eccentric, poor family. Charlie's room is an attic that's open to the skies. His four grandparents sleep in the same bed.

His mother (Helena Bonham Carter) is calmness personified; his father (Noah Taylor) is looking for work, while Grandpa Joe (David Kelly) remembers when he and the whole village worked in Willie Wonka's chocolate factory.

Fifteen years back Wonka sacked them all and locked the doors, although his chocolate keeps on coming. How is a mystery, until Wonka announces five lucky children will find golden tickets in their Wonka Bars and go on a tour through the factory. One will win a special surprise.

When the five kids and their guardians get inside, they find a landscape of chocolate rivers and gumdrop trees. Wonka's workers are Oompa Loompas, a magical group of dedicated creatures.

But this is a cautionary tale, so four bad children will have to learn life-lessons: Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), the spoiled brat; Violet Beauregarde (Annasophia Robb), the uptight perfectionist; Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), the video-game bore; Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz), the glutton. And Charlie and his grandfather? That'd be telling.

Amid all this whirls Wonka, played by Depp in a style that recalls Michael Jackson in Neverland. It's the black suits, the pale face, the pancake makeup, the lipstick, the hat and the giggle.

The deluxe edition DVD, on two disks, has eight features. Burton backgrounds his affection for Dahl and credits him as "one of the first writers to capture the light and the dark". Different Faces, Different Flavours spotlights key players.

Deep Roy, who plays all the Oompa-Loompas, gets his own spot, while composer Danny Elfman talks about writing "psychedelic Mamas & the Papas" songs. Designer Chocolate unwraps the set and costume design, Under The Wrapper shows the chocolate river and Violet's unfortunate encounter with blueberries. There's Oompa-Loompa musical out-takes, the Golden Ticket game and a tribute to Dahl.

* DVD, Video rental out today