Behind his locked doors, Willy has created this fantastical playground for - himself, apparently. When the five kids and their adult guardians finally get inside, their first sight is a marvel of imagination: A sugary landscape of chocolate rivers, gumdrop trees and (no doubt) rock candy mountains. We see the wondrous workings of the factory in the opening titles, a CGI assembly-line sequence that swoops like a roller-coaster. (How does it happen that each of the other four winners illustrates a naughty childhood trait? Just Willy's good luck, I guess.) Nasty and frightening things happen to the children inside the factory in the book and both movies perhaps Willy is using the tour to punish the behavior of little brats, while rewarding the good, poor and decent Charlie. The story of Willy and his factory has had disturbing undertones ever since it first appeared in Roald Dahl's 1964 book (also named after Charlie, not Willy). The problem is not simply that Willy Wonka looks like Michael Jackson it's that in a creepy way we're not sure of his motives. Depp's Wonka - his dandy's clothes, his unnaturally pale face, his makeup and lipstick, his hat, his manner - reminds me inescapably of Jackson (and, oddly, in a certain use of the teeth, chin and bobbed hairstyle, of Carol Burnett). Johnny Depp may deny that he had Michael Jackson in mind when he created the look and feel of Willy Wonka, but moviegoers trust their eyes, and when they see Willy opening the doors of the factory to welcome the five little winners, they will be relieved that the kids brought along adult guardians. The problem is that this time, he finds Neverland. And young Freddie Highmore, who was so good opposite Depp in " Finding Neverland," is hopeful and brave and always convincing as Charlie. David Kelly, as Grandpa Joe, is a lovable geezer who agrees to accompany Charlie to the factory you may remember him racing off naked on a motorcycle in " Waking Ned Devine" (1998). Tim Burton is cheerfully inventive in imagining the city and the factory, and the film's production design, by Alex McDowell, is a wonder. This stretch of the film has a charm not unlike " Babe" or the undervalued " Babe: Pig in the City." A metropolis is remade to the requirements of fantasy. Of course Charlie wins one of the tickets, not without suspense. A special surprise is promised for one of them. Yet the world still enjoys Wonka products how does Willy produce them? One day, astonishingly, Wonka announces a contest: For the five lucky children who find golden tickets in their Wonka Bars, the long-locked factory gates will open, and Willy will personally escort them through the factory. Grandpa Joe ( David Kelly) remembers the happy decades when he and everyone else in the neighborhood worked in the chocolate factory.Īlas, 15 years before the story begins, Willy Wonka dismissed his employees and locked his factory gates. His mother (Helena Bonham Carter) maintains the serenity of the home, while his father ( Noah Taylor) seeks employment. Charlie sleeps in a garret that is open to the weather, and his four grandparents all sleep (and live, apparently) in the same bed, two at one end, two at the other. The Buckets live in a house that leans crazily in all directions, and seems to have been designed by Dr.