Candy. Divine when consumed in just the right amount, for a satisfying sensation. But sugar overdoses are another story - why did I eat all that? So which way am I going with this as it applies to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Can I sit on the candy fence and say a little of both?

The original film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), is a cult classic, a children's classic. So of course, as with all the remakes Hollywood puts out, we can't help but compare remakes with originals.

In some ways, the new film adds little - it felt repetitious at various points. I found myself wondering how this updated version was adding anything to the original and why a director like Tim Burton hadn't spun things in some truly unexpected ways.

Having said all that, it is the case that Burton does add things not found in the first version. Most obviously there are the special effects - not that the original didn't have special effects of the day, but the new film can make use of computer effects. And it seems like this was the primary appeal in revisiting this story.

So, for example, the oompa loompas become one actor (Deep Roy) multiplied many times over and many times shrunk - shades of Peter Jackson's Hobbits. The "ethnic" other transformed from island "primitiveness" (in a flashback sequence) to child-like industrial conformity can be read in many different ways.

I'll add here that none of the five children nor five parents who win the special factory tour is of any racial identity other than white.

The name-that-movie popular culture reference game is one of the fun and deliberately over-the-top aspects of the movie. One can find shades of Busby Berkeley, Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, the Beatles, Gulliver's Travels, and other references.

The other distinct difference between the two film versions is the inclusion of paternal pathology to account for Willy Wonka's fixation on candy and, by extension, his rather anti-social qualities and the homosexual overtones to the character. Johnny Depp has made a career out of portraying cast-out, oddball characters, and this one is no exception.

Depp's portrayal seems on a par with Gene Wilder's performance in the first movie. (By the way, I was hoping for a cameo from Wilder but nada.) Both performances showcase the quirkiness we associate with each of these actors' onscreen personae, and I would not choose one over the other for portraying Mr. Wonka.

The little boy, Charlie Bucket, is well played by Freddie Highmore, who also played opposite Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland. Unlike my reaction to some child actors, who can come across as too cutesy in an unrealistic way in roles like this, Freddie Highmore is endearing in both of these films.