Terrific movie.
Spotting the people who've influenced Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka is becoming something of a parlor game at the moment. I see equal parts Liza Minnelli, Michael Jackson, and Carol Channing, for starters. Whoever he's been influenced by, he's created a character even creepier, in a very different way, than Gene Wilder's classic Wonka.
Depp's Wonka is utterly disinterested in the children who've come to visit his factory -- "Don't you want to know our names?" asks Augustus Gloop as they enter the factory; "I can't think how that could possibly help," chirps Wonka -- and doesn't seem at all concerned as they meet their horrible fates, each a victim of his or her own particular brand of gluttony.
Freddie Highmore is ideal as Charlie; he's adorable without ever wallowing in his own cuteness, and his decency never becomes precious or sanctimonious. Of the other kids, Annasophia Robb stands out as Violet, the world-champion gum chewer; as Violet's mother, Missi Pyle displays a very funny rigid perkiness.
The movie looks spectacular (art direction is by Alex McDowell), from the run-down shack in which Charlie and his family live to the magnificent and inventive rooms of the Wonka factory. The meadow the group first enters is an especially enchanting creation, with candy trees and grass. ("Everything in here is eatable," says Wonka. "Even I am eatable. But that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and it is frowned on by most cultures.")
Tim Burton's score is effective, and the production numbers for his Oompa-Loompa songs, in a wide range of musical styles, are lots of fun (though the lyrics are occasionally a bit hard to understand). Deep Roy plays all of the Oompa-Loompas, and for those production numbers, filmed each Oompa-Loompa separately in multiple takes, rather than create the multitude through digital effects; he's the hardest working actor in the movie.
The backstory about Willy Wonka's childhood, not part of Roald Dahl's novel, was an unnecessary addition, and doesn't add much to the movie. Part of what makes Wonka so weirdly charming is that his oddness is never explained; in trying to explain it, Burton takes a little of the magic away. But there's a very minor quibble about a movie that was wildly entertaining.
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