Went to see Serenity last night. Enjoyed it but wasn’t overwhelmed. Much as when I tried to watch Firefly, the characters didn’t draw me on.

That’s all the effort I’m going to make, though, as Chris’s review says pretty much everything I was going to write and probably better and more succinctly.

Fire hits Wallace and Gromit sets

Company spokesman: “Everything has gone, from as far back as Morph and all the way through to Chicken Run, including all the Wallace and Gromit films, Creature Comforts, it’s all there. Everyone is devastated.”

Nick Park said: “Even though its precious stuff and nostalgic – and its dreadful news for the company, in the light of other tragedies it’s not a big deal.”

Finally got around at the weekend to seeing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Very much enjoyed it so it’s only fair to start off with the negatives.

Its unfair to compare the film with the very different mis-titled Gene Wilder version – with the notable exception of the Oompa Loompas. Deep Roy works his guts out as one actor playing hundreds and does the job well (“Doris” deserving particular applause) but the lyrics of the songs are often hard to make out and sheer numbers can’t make up for the catchiness of the 1971 songs and the iconic orange faces. A shame as Deep Roy was in the second best Doctor Who story and the second best episode of Blake’s 7.

Where the previous version was particularly criminal and made Charlie and Grandpa Joe as bad as the other children, the new film is thankfully much closer to the book. Where it does stray is the introduction of a backstory for Willy Wonka. Although this makes for a slightly saccharine ending, it helps to break up the factory sequences and is a good excuse to wheel out Christopher Lee, who is terrific as Willy’s dentist father.

Pretty much everything else in the film was great. Tim Burton conjures up a typically idiosyncratic town (full of English voices spending dollars and talking about “candy”) and the factory is full of great visuals. The whole cast is great, from Depp’s Michael Jacksonesque Wonka and Freddie Highmore’s excellent Charlie down to the cameos from Mark Heap and Kevin Eldon.

Best of all, the film is very funny, with some notably post-modern gags (“I keep having flashbacks”). The pop culture references may date it slightly but it was easily the best new film I’ve seen so far this year.

Backstroke of the West, aka Revenge of the Sith translated into Chinese and back again. (Via.)