As before, good-natured Charlie Bucket (12-year-old Freddie Highmore, who reunites with his Finding Neverland co-star Depp) and his Grandpa Joe (David Kelly of Waking Ned Devine) win a chance to tour Wonka’s wondrous candy factory.

They are joined by four gluttonous children who suffer sticky comeuppances, thanks to the wily Mr. Wonka. Willy’s dad, Wilbur (Christopher Lee) — a new character — shows up in flashbacks.

•A few more kernels. The pop-art trailer suggests a psychedelic sugar rush is in store. But those salivating to hear The Candy Man, forget about it. “The only music is when the Oompa Loompas (the factory’s tiny handymen) sing chants after each child encounters problems,” says producer Richard Zanuck. As for the 1971 version, he says, “this not a remake. This is Tim’s version of Dahl’s book.”

Burton is doing his best to bring Dahl’s semi-sweet fantasy to high-caloric life, building a candy land on 17 soundstages at London’s Pinewood Studio. Besides a chocolate river with an 80-foot waterfall, “there’s a nut room with 200 squirrels at work,” Zanuck says. Yes, actual rodents. “From birth, we sent them to training school for six months.”

As for Depp’s interpretation of the mysterious Wonka as a Carnaby Street mod hatter with a propensity for saying, “Let’s boogie,” Zanuck notes, “All I can say is that it lives up to his sense of the bizarre.”

•Bonus treat. In the first movie, the Oompa Loompas were played by dwarfs. Now they are all played by the same 42-inch-tall actor, Dee Roy, who is shrunk via camera tricks to a mere 30 inches.