Johnny Depp's Creepy Wonka Earns Chocolate Factory 2.5 Stars

There is really no point in remaking 1971's Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory because there will never be a better Wonka than Gene Wilder. He blended weird with a generally bright and very funny side.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory from 2005 employs Johnny Depp in Wilder's role, and Depp takes it in a weird, creepy, and fairly dark direction. The more technologically advanced versions of the factory are interesting, and Freddie Highmore as Charlie (he later goes on to star as Norman Bates in one of my favorite current shows, Bates Motel) is cute.

But the Oompa-Loompas are no improvement upon the originals and the hiring of Depp and director Tim Burton is just all wrong. I bet casting Jack Black as Wonka would have been truly inspired. Before Burton was hired, some potential choices apparently included Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, Michael Keaton, Brad Pitt, Will Smith, and Adam Sandler.

Even Wilder agreed that something was off. He refused to see the film and said Depp is a great actor (I agree) but that he didn't like the direction Depp was taking Wonka in some early clips he saw of the film.

This is still a good film for kids, but please don't deny them a chance to see the original version as well.

**1/2 out of ***** stars

Willy Wonka Would Be Proud of Our Chocolate Tour Today

Jackson doesn't watch a lot of TV, but when he does, the thing he requests most often for the past few months has been Willy Wonka. And why wouldn't he? A four-and-a-half-year-old's obsession probably should be chocolate. And nobody could play understated and outrageous like Gene Wilder.

So it was an easy call to make a little boy happy today with a Saturday trip to Hershey, Pennsylvania, which is a little more than two hours away from DC. It's clearly not as cool as the tour Charlie, Veruca Salt, and the others got in Wonkaland, but it was a pretty decent blowing-of-$80 for the whole family.

For that total, we took a 15-minute tram ride through the story of chocolate, a 45-minute trolley ride through the town of Hershey (which included some history and group singalongs), and a 45-minute lab experience creating our own chocolate bars.

It was well worth the trip, making for a pretty long day. We'll definitely head back in a couple of years when Jackson is old enough to hit the amusement park part of Hershey, which is said to include more than 100 rides, a dozen or so rollercoaters, and a several water rides.

And, just for the record, people truly need to be able to visit an exact replica of the Wonka chocolate factory set from 1971. This trip would have been perfect with a river of chocolate.