Danny Elfman’s quirky, melodic score and songs for Tim Burton’s adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s book, and is a return to the composer’s “vintage” sound from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The first five tracks feature the outstanding and much loved songs from the film all featuring differing distinctive, pop styles...

If you saw and loved Tim Burton's reworking of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, then you'll know what you're getting with this soundtrack. If you're just a Danny Elfman fan who has not seen the movie you might be in for a bit of a surprise.

The soundtrack opens with the quirky 'Wonka's Welcome Song'. It's fun and childlike - the sort of track that will instantly get preschoolers bouncing around. This is followed by four tracks which act as the themes for the four other children in Charlie's factory tour party. Here four very different music styles are used to represent each of the kids - each song is a cliche, and very well realised.

We are then into the soundtrack proper, with Elfman's dark score which has a ring of Edward Scissorhands about it. But don't worry, there are no themes here that sound like he's reworked then - it's just an overall feeling of his earlier work.

If you're a fan of classically scored soundtracks you can always skip the first five tracks, but personally I'm glad they were included.

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Darren Rea