Elijah Wood Slams Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

If you were handed the power to erase a single film from the annals of cinema, which would you choose? For some, the temptation might be to target Michael Bay’s entire output, or perhaps the seemingly endless parade of Exorcist reboots. There’s no shortage of contenders, and plenty of actors have quietly wished they could scrub a title or two from their own CVs. Hugh Jackman, for instance, might well regret his turn in Movie 43, where he sported a rather unfortunate prosthetic, but even he can’t compete with the likes of Steven Seagal when it comes to cinematic missteps.

Elijah Wood, whose own filmography includes a few questionable choices—think the 2015 fantasy misfire The Last Witch Hunter or the oddly lifeless Flipper remake from the nineties—was once asked which film he’d most like to see vanish. His answer, given in 2017, was unexpected: Tim Burton’s 2005 reimagining of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Wood had no involvement in the project, but his feelings were clear.

Remakes and Lost Magic

Wood’s criticism of remakes was pointed. He remarked,

“Most remakes inherently don’t justify their existence,”

and went on to argue that if a new version is to be made, it ought to surpass the original or at least offer something genuinely different. In his view, Burton’s film did neither.

“That film did none of that,”

he said.

“If anything, it destroyed the book, and it destroyed the film. It contained no magic.”

It’s a bold claim, especially when levelled at a director so often associated with a sense of wonder and dark whimsy. Burton’s style, for all its quirks, is rarely accused of lacking imagination. Yet, in this case, Wood felt the adaptation did a disservice to Roald Dahl’s beloved tale, draining it of the very qualities that made it special.

Johnny Depp’s Divisive Performance

Much of the blame, in Wood’s eyes, lay with Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Willy Wonka. Depp, deep into his post-Pirates of the Caribbean phase, seemed determined to dominate every scene. Wood didn’t mince words, describing Depp’s take as

“heinous and terrifying and molest-y and strange,”

and lamenting its absence of beauty or innocence.

Gene Wilder’s original performance, Wood noted, had its own edge—Wilder’s Wonka was a bit of a trickster, but still managed to inspire awe by the film’s end. Depp, on the other hand, appeared to be performing for the adults in the audience, those who’d been dragged along by their children, rather than for the story itself. The result, according to Wood, was a film that left little to admire and much to recoil from.

Audience Reactions and Legacy

While some viewers found something to enjoy in Burton’s version, Wood suggested these were likely the same people who turned up for the later Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, eager for another dose of Depp’s eccentricity. For those who cherished the original book or film, however, the remake offered scant comfort.

It’s not the lowest point in Depp’s career—Wood reserved that distinction for Mortdecai, released a decade later—but as a reinterpretation of a cherished story, it fell flat. The sense of enchantment and delight that defined earlier versions was, in Wood’s estimation, nowhere to be found.