It was a trip to a magical world with the famous chocolatier Willy Wonka at Cineworld as I checked out the new movie that is somewhat of a prequel to the delightful movie from 1971 as we learn more about the origins of Wonka.
Based on the extraordinary, iconic character at the centre of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of the best-selling children’s books of all time, “Wonka” tells the wondrous story of how a young chocolate maker, armed with nothing but a hatful of dreams, manages to change the world, one delectable bite at a time.
The story of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory has delighted children and adults for many years and I fondly look back on seeing Gene Wilder’s turn as the eccentric character when I first saw the 1971 film as a child, but to this day I still wait for a movie adaptation of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator but maybe one day we will have that come along at some point.
This latest movie takes us back to the days well before the 1971 film and brings us a magical story of Wonka’s first steps to becoming the character we know from Road Dahl’s classic book. The film ties into the film with Gene Wilder by bringing us the music that we know from that film and to my surprise Wonka is a musical, something that you don’t pick up on in the trailers.
The film opens with familiar music that we may all know and then goes into the introduction with Timothee Chalamet bursting into song, this is certainly a sign of things to come and the overall tone of the film.
But not everything goes to plan for Wonka to become a famous maker of chocolate as the greedy chocolate cartel run by Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) and Prodnose (Matt Lucas) have other ideas and they don’t want someone coming in and destroying what they have.
There is certainly more than meets the eye with the cartel and as we move through the story we learn a little more about their dastardly dealings and the corruption that they deal to keep themselves as the town’s only chocolate makers.
After Wonka loses all his money he is taken to Mrs Scrubbit who is played by Olivia Colman where he is bamboozled into owing her money for his keep and made to work in the laundry with others who have also been conned to work for her and never to leave again!
Now Wonka has to try to sneak out to sell his chocolate to be able to pay off his debt to Mrs Scrubbit, but with the cartel banning the sale of the chocolate unless it’s theirs it is going to be a challenge for him. But thankfully he has the help of his fellow laundry prisoners Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter), Lottie Bell (Rakhee Thakrar), Piper Benz (Natasha Rothwell), Larry Chucklesworth (Rich Fulcher) and Noodle (Calah Lane).
Now I know what you are thinking, I haven’t mentioned the Oompa Loompa that is played by Hugh Grant. Well, I have to say while the CGI effects did have some faults, I didn’t warm to the character or the performance. It just seemed that the character had been thrown in at the last minute to tie in with the original story from Dahl.
The film is a delightful tale of the Wonka character, it has plenty of musical moments that give you that warm fuzzy feeling and it looks fantastic on the big screen with the set and costume design. The comedy isn’t laugh-out-loud though and I did find myself producing a tiny smile but there was nothing that had me bellowing out a laugh and it didn’t get laughs from the children that were at my screening either.
The 1h 56m runtime did seem to drag along for me, I found myself checking the time several times wondering how much longer the film had to go. Wonka is probably more of a film that you would watch when it is on TV and it’s not one that I would rush to see I’ve only just seen it today as it didn’t grab my attention too much when the trailers were released.
A Musical Prequel
Movie title: Wonka (2023)
Movie description: With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.
Date published: January 2, 2024
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 56m
Director(s): Paul King
Actor(s): Timothée Chalamet, Gustave Die, Murray McArthur
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Family
Summary
A delightful movie that sadly falls short of the magic that the Willy Wonka character has.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
