$2.149

This afternoon, Beck, Sio and I piled in the car to go see a film I’ve mentioned here before: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I’d seen the previews, and really was expecting quite a film — Johnny Depp and Tim Burton I was sure would wow me. And they did.

Now, this version was nothing like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory — Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp portrayed the goofy chocolate-maker completely differently. Not sure which I like better, as they were both terrific. While Wilder’s was more scatterbrained, Depp’s was much darker, and the film did a great job of explaining how he got that way.

The oompa loompas really stole the show for me with huge production numbers, and a great job of showing off their diminutive size. And, of course, all oompa loompas have the same face and build, something that only added to my enjoyment of them.

One very cool thing that this version did was show the bad kids leaving the factory, some with a few modifications as a result of their mishaps. Unbelievable, yes, but at least you know what happened to Augustus, Veruca, Mike and Violet.

I thought the sets were great, and the music fantastic. There were a few too many lines lifted from the original film, but that could’ve been the way the book was written. I’ve not read it, although Sio tells me this version was quite close to the novel.

It was well worth the “heat advisory” prices that Wehrenberg charges when the temperature is so high (near 100 today, heat index over 110), and would’ve easily been worth full price.