---
title: "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"
year: 2005
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory"
fi1m_id: "charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory"
imdb_id: "tt0367594"
tmdb_id: 118
wikidata_id: "Q218235"
fi1m_score: 64
critics_score: 68
critics_reviews: 20
published: "2026-09-23T14:39:38.724022+00:00"
updated: "2026-09-23T14:39:39.189481+00:00"
region: "SE"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Directed by Tim Burton · 1h 55m · Statens medieråd Btl · Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy

## Identity

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory
- **IMDb ID:** tt0367594
- **TMDB ID:** 118
- **Wikidata ID:** Q218235
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367594/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/118, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q218235

**Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 68 from 20 reviews

*In a sentence:* Johnny Depp plays Wonka as a man who has never met a child and would rather not start now

> Tim Burton’s second run at Roald Dahl’s book is faithful, handsome and often funny, and it never warms up. The Bucket household is lovely; the factory is a marvel to look at; the man who owns it keeps the whole film at arm’s length.

## Synopsis

Charlie Bucket (Freddie Highmore) lives with his parents and four bedridden grandparents in a crooked wooden house in the shadow of the Wonka chocolate factory. Mr. Bucket (Noah Taylor) screws caps onto toothpaste tubes; Mrs. Bucket (Helena Bonham Carter) serves cabbage soup; Grandpa Joe (David Kelly) once worked inside the factory and has not seen its gates open in years. Then Willy Wonka (Johnny Depp) announces five golden tickets hidden in Wonka bars, each good for a factory tour and a lifetime supply of chocolate. Four go quickly: to a German boy who never stops eating, a rich girl whose father (James Fox) buys bars by the crate, gum-chewer Violet Beauregarde (AnnaSophia Robb), and a boy who prefers television. Charlie gets one bar a year, on his birthday.

## Review

Tim Burton goes back to Roald Dahl’s book rather than to the 1971 film, and John August’s screenplay keeps the book’s shape: Charlie at the centre, four dreadful children taken into the factory with him, an Oompa Loompa song after each misfortune. Burton adds one thing of his own, a father for Willy Wonka. The result is a faithful, sumptuous, frequently funny 115 minutes that we admired throughout and liked in patches. Adults may find themselves waiting for a warmth that arrives only when Wonka is off screen.

The warmth is all in the Bucket house. Alex McDowell builds it as a shack leaning at forty-five degrees, with the four grandparents sharing a single bed in the middle of it. Philippe Rousselot shoots the town in the colours of slush and lights the house with one weak bulb. Noah Taylor plays Mr. Bucket as a man quietly ashamed of the toothpaste caps, Helena Bonham Carter ladles out cabbage soup as if it were a treat, and David Kelly’s Grandpa Joe leaps out of bed with a joy that has been waiting decades. We were moved by these scenes more than we expected, and by Freddie Highmore most of all, who plays Charlie’s goodness without a trace of smugness. When he offers to sell his ticket to feed the family, we believed him.

Then the gates open and the film changes palette. McDowell’s chocolate room is a green valley with a brown river running through it and a waterfall churning at one end; there is a boat made of boiled sweet, a glass lift that goes sideways, a white room where a television waits. Rousselot saturates every one so hard that, after the grey outside, the eye needs a moment to adjust. Gabriella Pescucci dresses Wonka in a plum frock coat, a top hat and goggles, and the four other children in the exact clothes their parents would choose for them. Chris Lebenzon moves briskly between rooms and never lets a set piece outstay itself. It is a factory we wanted to walk round.

The trouble is the man giving the tour. Depp plays Wonka with a pale face, a bob, a set of large false teeth and the bright, careful voice of a children’s television presenter who does not care for children. Some of this is funny, and Depp’s timing is good; we laughed at the burning welcome-puppets and at Wonka’s small delight in them. But we also spent long stretches watching him through our fingers, not because he was frightening but because he was so plainly uncomfortable in his own film. Gene Wilder’s Wonka kept you guessing whether he liked you. Depp’s does not, and once that is settled there is nothing left to wonder about him.

Danny Elfman sets Dahl’s own verses to music, and Deep Roy, multiplied by computer into every Oompa Loompa in the building, performs them as a chorus line. Each number is in a different borrowed style, and the choreography is inventive, but the arrangements are loud and the words often go under them, which is a pity when the words are the joke.

The father is a worse idea. Christopher Lee plays Dr. Wonka, a dentist who forbade his son sweets and clamped his head in braces, and the film cuts back to him in flashback whenever Wonka is asked a question he would rather not answer. The problem is that Wonka was a man who did not need explaining, and every minute spent explaining him is a minute taken from Charlie.

Burton has done this pale outsider before, with Depp, in [*Edward Scissorhands*](https://film.one/film/edward-scissorhands) (1990), and that film ached where this one only twitches. He did the difficult father in [*Big Fish*](https://film.one/film/big-fish) (2003) and did it better. Here he has a marvellous factory and a Charlie worth the ticket, and he has left them with a host who wishes they would all go home. See it with a child of eight or so, who will not mind, and watch the Bucket scenes for yourself. It carries a PG and opened in British cinemas on 29 July 2005.

*Fi1m score 64, published 23 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics are warm but not won over. The reviews lean positive, with almost as many mixed verdicts as favourable ones, and the praise clusters firmly on the look of the thing: the factory design, the colour, the invention in the set pieces. Several find it closer to Dahl’s book than the 1971 version, and Freddie Highmore’s Charlie is admired where he is mentioned. Johnny Depp’s Wonka draws the sharpest reactions in both directions, described as creepy and terrific by some and one-note by others.

The reservations gather around the added backstory for Wonka, which many of the mixed reviews call unnecessary and soppy, and around a tone some find darker than the material can bear. The spread is fairly wide. Den of Geek sits lowest, arguing Depp gives the wrong performance entirely, while later reappraisals from Polygon and Collider are among the kindest, suggesting the film has aged better than its first notices.

## Straight answers

**Is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory worth watching?**

*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* is worth watching for families with a child of eight or so, and we scored it 64. The Bucket household scenes are lovely and Freddie Highmore's Charlie is worth the ticket, but Johnny Depp's Wonka keeps the film at arm's length and the added father subplot takes minutes from the boy it should be about.

**How long is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and what is it rated?**

*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* runs 1h 55m and is rated Btl by the Statens medieråd in Sweden. It is an adventure and comedy film.

**Where can I watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in Sweden?**

*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in Sweden, and it is also available to rent from Apple TV from kr 39.00. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory compare to The City of Lost Children?**

*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* is the brighter and more child-friendly of the two, while [*The City of Lost Children*](https://film.one/film/the-city-of-lost-children) is darker, stranger and more crowded in its storytelling. Jeunet and Caro's film is the more inventive and the more touching, and its central partnership warms up in a way Burton's factory never does. Burton's is the safer choice for younger viewers; the French film rewards adults who can tolerate some confusion.

**Is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory based on a true story or a book?**

*Charlie and the Chocolate Factory* is based on Roald Dahl's novel, not on a true story. John August's screenplay keeps the book's shape closely, with Charlie at the centre, four dreadful children and an Oompa Loompa song after each misfortune, and sets Dahl's own verses to music. Burton adds one thing the book does not have, a father for Willy Wonka; knowing the novel is not needed to follow it.

**What should I watch after Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?**

After *Charlie and the Chocolate Factory*, try [*The City of Lost Children*](https://film.one/film/the-city-of-lost-children) (1995, Fi1m 78): A French fairground of stolen children and mad science, darker and stranger than this. Then [*Edward Scissorhands*](https://film.one/film/edward-scissorhands) (1990, Fi1m 83): Burton and Depp’s first pale outsider, and the one with a heart; and [*Fantastic Mr Fox*](https://film.one/film/fantastic-mr-fox) (2009, Fi1m 84): Wes Anderson’s Dahl, dry as a biscuit and twice as funny as it needs to be.

### Reviews we read (20)

- **Empire**, William Thomas (87/100, inferred): The critic praises Tim Burton's version for its rich sweetness and acidic wit, visually jubilant factory design, and strong performances, especially Freddie Highmore's emotive Charlie and Johnny Depp's eccentric Wonka, delivering a witty, imaginative family film. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/charlie-chocolate-factory-review/)
- **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The critic finds Tim Burton's film a highly enjoyable and authentic Dahl adaptation that mixes sentimentality with satirical gross-out, marking his best work in years. Depp's Wonka is terrific casting as a dysfunctional dandy, though the film is quite scary and darker than the 1971 version. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2005/jul/29/2)
- **Evening Standard**, Derek Malcolm (78/100, inferred): The critic calls it splendid filmmaking that kids will love, highlighting Burton's visual feast, imaginative factory, and Depp's mysterious Wonka, while noting a certain shallowness of focus and overly feelgood ending. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/sweet-smell-of-success-7385402.html)
- **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (77/100, inferred): The critic calls Burton's adaptation wondrous and flawed, praising its success at feeding the youthful appetite for aesthetic surprise through its sumptuous, eerie look and inventive set pieces despite some lapses. The one thing singled out is the way pleasure mixes with a shadow of menace in the film's visual and tonal mood. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/arts/a-sugary-delight-with-a-hint-of-menace.html)
- **Time Out**, DC (77/100, inferred): Burton delivers a charming children’s film with imaginative production design and a wonderfully creepy Depp performance as Wonka, though an unnecessary father-son subplot feels soppy and recalls the weaker elements of Big Fish. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (72/100, inferred): Burton's version is visionary and phantasmagorical but more Burton than Dahl, relentlessly strange and dark with breathtaking visual imagination that makes even chocolate seem evil; it works overtime to warm up the chilly material but the darker tone dominates. The critic singles out the breathtaking visual imagination and precise images as the standout element. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-jul-15-et-charlie15-story.html)
- **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (69/100, inferred): Entertaining and fabulously imaginative in many ways with wondrous surfaces and a riotous explosion of color, the film sports its own excesses and goes from delectable to curdled as Depp's performance shrinks to one-note and vaguely creepy. The critic singles out the dazzling opening credits and first 35 minutes plus the visual invention in every corner. [Read](https://variety.com/2005/film/awards/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-2-1200524655/)
- **Screen Daily** (67/100, inferred): Burton delivers glorious visuals, quirky characters and mordantly deadpan humour but falls short on simple storytelling values and character relationships, resulting in a detached, eccentric work that may not fully satisfy despite strong commercial potential. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory/4023711.article)
- **Sight and Sound**, Ryan Gilbey (66/100, inferred): The film is a less druggy, straighter adaptation than the 1971 version, with strong flashbacks and Depp's damaged Wonka providing the richest moments, but the factory scenes feel dulled by familiar production design and an unnecessary father-son reconciliation subplot weighs it down. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/2502)
- **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (62/100, inferred): The film is often astounding with perfectly rendered luxuries and added strange toppings, but it becomes jaded and semi-sickening as the eye acclimatizes to the constant treats, ending as a slightly costive parable of family values rather than a pure sticky-fingered feast. The critic singles out the superfluous backstory and pedophobic creepiness as drawbacks. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/07/25/making-mischief)
- **The AV Club**, Scott Tobias (60/100, inferred): The film is an improvement over the 1971 version in many respects but feels like it moves a beat behind Dahl's novel, with Depp's Wonka as a frightened man-child. It lacks the Burton of old to fully animate its candy-colored universe with mischief and awe. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-1798200899)
- **The Times**, Cosmo Landesman (★★★): The film looks tasty but smacks of stale ideas, with Depp's performance a reworking of earlier roles and the Oompa-Loompas a disappointment. It mixes sentimentality and sadism in a kiddie form of payback, and Burton needs to change his tune. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/article/film-originality-has-gone-for-a-burton-mbtskz9kjlz)
- **Slant Magazine** (54/100, inferred): Burton's lavish adaptation is a disappointingly tame acid trip—more polished and sinister than the 1971 version but undermined by saccharine timidity and a docility that makes it sickly sweet rather than scary. It is superior in some ways, with strong production design and musical numbers, but ultimately lacks the menacing nastiness central to Dahl's tale. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory/)
- **Polygon**, Jesse Hassenger (83/100, inferred): The critic contends Burton's version best captures the material and character of Wonka among the major adaptations by emphasizing the creator's self-regard and prickly vision over sentimentality. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/24011109/willy-wonka-movie-comparison-johnny-depp-gene-wilder-timothee-chalamet/)
- **Collider**, Ron Evangelista (78/100, inferred): The critic argues the film deserves re-evaluation on its own merits rather than constant comparison to the 1971 version, calling it enjoyable and charming despite imperfections. [Read](https://collider.com/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-good-tim-burton/)
- **Digital Spy**, Daniel Saney (70/100, inferred): Burton delivers a fresh, visually enchanting take faithful to Dahl with strong performances from Depp and Highmore, though it loses some mystery around Wonka and leans toward style over substance. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a23149/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory/)
- **Consequence**, Matt Melis (67/100, inferred): The piece examines whether the film has improved with time, praising its visual style and closer fidelity to the book's darker tone and focus on Charlie while criticizing Depp's Wonka and the added origin story as distracting. [Read](https://consequence.net/2016/07/has-charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-sweetened-with-age/)
- **Eye for Film**, Scott Macdonald (61/100, inferred): The critic finds the film imaginative with strong visual delights and production design but criticizes the choppy delivery, added sentimental backstory for Wonka, and preference for the 1971 version over this one. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-film-review-by-scott-macdonald)
- **The Ringer**, Julianna Ress (52/100, inferred): The article discusses how Burton's film, like later attempts, undermines Wonka's mystery with an unnecessary backstory and origin story for the character. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2023/12/20/movies/willy-wonka-movie-prequel-timothee-chalamet-review-analysis)
- **Den of Geek**, Simon Brew (2/5): The film never really gelled despite strong visuals and production design; Depp's Wonka feels like the wrong performance, lacking the curiosity or intimidation of the role, making it a missed opportunity overall. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-blu-ray-review/)

## Details

- **Director:** Tim Burton
- **Director:** Tim Burton
- **Screenplay:** John August
- **Novel:** Roald Dahl
- **Cinematography:** Philippe Rousselot
- **Editor:** Chris Lebenzon
- **Music:** Danny Elfman
- **Production design:** Alex McDowell
- **Costume design:** Gabriella Pescucci
- **Producer:** Brad Grey, Richard D. Zanuck, Lorne Orleans
- **Cast:** Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka; Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket; David Kelly as Grandpa Joe; Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Bucket; Noah Taylor as Mr. Bucket; Missi Pyle as Mrs. Beauregarde; James Fox as Mr. Salt; Deep Roy as Oompa Loompa
- **Runtime:** 1h 55m
- **Certificate (Statens medieråd):** Btl
- **Release (Sweden):** 16 September 2005
- **Genres:** Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
- **Budget:** $150 million
- **Box office:** $475 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6JAQ2aoXm0

## Where to watch in Sweden

- Amazon Prime Video: streaming
- Apple TV: rent kr 39.00, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy kr 79.00, hd
- Apple TV: buy kr 99.00, hd

*Checked 2026-09-23.*

Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Academy Awards 2006: Best Costume Design (nominated)
- Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie 2006: Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Movie (nominated)
- BAFTA Film Awards 2005: BAFTA's Children & Young People Award - Feature Film (nominated)
- Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Family Film 2005: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Family Film (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory* (1971): Gene Wilder’s Wonka might actually like you, which is far more unsettling
- *Matilda* (1996): Danny DeVito’s Dahl, with the cruelty intact and the child properly in charge
- *The City of Lost Children* (1995), Fi1m 78: A French fairground of stolen children and mad science, darker and stranger than this — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-city-of-lost-children.md)
- *Edward Scissorhands* (1990), Fi1m 83: Burton and Depp’s first pale outsider, and the one with a heart — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/edward-scissorhands.md)
- *Fantastic Mr Fox* (2009), Fi1m 84: Wes Anderson’s Dahl, dry as a biscuit and twice as funny as it needs to be — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/fantastic-mr-fox.md)

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© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory