He-he, ha-ha, ho-ho-ho! Willy Wonka (Depp)! Willy Wonka! The amazing chocolatier has sent out golden tickets in five randomly selected chocolate bars. The ticket ensures five lucky children admittance into his chocolate factory, which has—until now—been strictly closed to the public. Humble Charlie Bucket (Highmore) is lucky enough to obtain one of the tickets And—along with his Grandpa Joe (Kelly)—enters The Chocolate Factory with bratty fellow winners; Mike Teavee (Jordan Fry), Veruca Salt (Julia Winter), Augustus Gloop (Philip Wiegratz), and Violet Beauregarde (AnnaSophia Robb). Difficult lessons are in store for the children and only one—the least rotten one—will go on to win the most something something of any something that's ever been. Based on the book by Roald Dahl. (Suzanne Hodges)
Special features include the optional In-Movie Experience and two audio tracks: commentary with Director Tim Burton, and a music-only track. Under Behind The Scenes, you will find 10 featurettes: Charlie And The Chocolate Factory: Chocolate Dreams (7 minutes), Different Faces, Different Flavors (11 minutes), Designer Chocolate (10 minutes), Under The Wrapper (7 minutes), Charlie And The Chocolate Factory: Sweet Sounds (7 minutes), Becoming An Oompa-Loomp (7 minutes), Attack Of The Squirrels (10 minutes), Fantastic Mr. Dalhl (18 minutes), Pre-Vis Augustus Gloop Dance (2 minutes), and Pre-Vis Mike Teavee Dance (2 minutes). There is also a three-minute Club Reel under Fun & Games, and the theatrical trailer.
It's a tale of two worlds in this VC-1-encoded 1.78:1 HD DVD picture, with colors looking dull and arid outside of the factory, but bright and vibrant inside. Details are incredibly well resolved and shadow delineation is superb. This is a very good high-definition image. (Danny Richelieu)
The Dolby® Digital Plus 5.1-channel soundtrack features very good dynamic range and well-recorded dialogue and effects. Fidelity is improved ever so slightly over the DVD, but the mix can still be very biased towards the front channels. (Danny Richelieu)