Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released on 2005, based on the 1964 Roald Dahl children's fantasy novel. The film was directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket, and is the second film adaptation of the book. Through the setting of the film, it appeared to fit perfectly into the fantasy and perhaps comedy genre. All the magical events and fully imaginative characters throughout the film reinforced its fantasy perspective. Dahl’s touch on several humorous scenes, such as the whipping of cows to produce whipped cream and the television teleport with the oversized chocolate in that the chocolate teleported would turn out small, all added in the comedy aspects.

The movie started out with Willy Wonka, the owner of the Chocolate Factory, laying five Golden Tickets on chocolate bars, which are wrapped with other bars and sent out by trucks across the world. With the possession the Golden Tickets, five children could visit the Chocolate Factory, and in addition to that, one of them would receive a mystery price from Wonka at the end of the tour. The Chocolate Factory was closed down with all its workers fired because of the spies who infiltrated the factory years ago. Then, one day it mysteriously re-opened, though no new workers had been hired.

Soon, through the news, Charlie found out about the four children who found the Golden Tickets as he failed to obtain one through the chocolate bar he received from on his birthday and the one he purchased with Grandpa’s hidden gold coins. At last, Charlie found the last Golden Ticket through the chocolate he purchased with the 10 dollars he found on the floor. Although Charlie initially offered to sell the ticket for money in helping out his family’s financial situation, after Grandpa’s comment on "only a dummy would sell the ticket for something as common as money,” Charlie kept the ticket and chose to have Grandpa go on the factory tour with him.

The next day, the group of children with the Golden Ticket arrived at the Chocolate Factory for the tour and was greeted by a creepy-looking puppet show which later on blew up into flames. But that wasn’t the only catastrophe. Throughout the tour, the four other children were eliminated one by one as they incur a variety of “accidents”. Starting with Augustus who drank and fell into the chocolate river then sucked away by the pipe, Violet was then turned into a blueberry as she ignored Wonka’s warning and continued chewing the experimental gum, Veruca was attacked by squirrels as she tried to capture one from the Nut Sorting Room, and finally Mike was shrank into miniature size as he teleported himself over the television. Each time an accident took place, the Oompa-Loompas would perform a song.

After the elimination of Mike, with Charlie as the only child left, he became the winner and was entitled to receive the mystery prize of the inherence to the Chocolate Factory. Yet, as attractive as the offer sounds, Charlie turned it down because he would not leave his family behind. With that, Charlie and Grandpa went back to their house and continued their usual life. One day, as Charlie encountered Wonka again at the shoe-shinning booth, Charlie urged Wonka to face his past and revisit Wonka’s dentist father. With that visit, Wonka was finally able to overcome his childhood struggle, rebuild the relationship between him and his father, and realize the value of family hood. The movie ended with Charlie's house and family relocated to the Chocolate Factory with Wonka, living happily ever after.

Critics claim for the movie as an “eye candy” of the sweetest sort that attempts to hide its shortcomings with fancy effects. They were disappointed at Burton’s adaption on surrealism into the movie’s setting, eliminating the movie’s intended world of pure imagination, and result of an abundance of irrationality. With acknowledgement of Dahl’s disguised subversion and mocking reflection on modern parenting made his novel all the more potent and surprising, when comparing the two versions of the movie produced, the critics found Burton’s inclusion of the delightful misanthrope to have better captured the original theme of the book than Mel Stuart’s 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Yet, they were disappointed at the happy ending created by Burton, as it forced this sarcasm apart. As their final suggestion, they declared Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as worth seeing for only once in credit to its phenomenal special effects.

I personally found the movie to be very entertaining and greatly admired the amazing special effects and fabulous acting of Jonny Depp. Having read the book or the original story during middle school, I had my mind set up with an expectation of the movie before I walked into the theater. Through the movie previews and advertisements, I was expecting the movie to be aimed for children. It was really shocking to me when Willy Wonka first appeared with his frightening custom and when the puppets blew up and half melt from the heat. I was also shaken by the terrifying songs put together by the Oompa-Loompas after each accident. Despite these surprises, I still consider this movie to be very compelling and worthwhile, just that perhaps its advertisements were aimed toward a wrong group of audience.