WONKA - Mark Reviews Movies

Wonka, Warner Bros. Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 14, 2023

We didn't need a story explaining how Willy Wonka, the mischievous chocolatier whose confectionary inventions seem as much a form of punishment as of delight, got his start. If we have to be on the receiving end of one, though, let's be glad it's as fun, imaginative, and heartfelt as co-writer/director Paul King's Wonka. It's good enough to distract from the fact that it's mostly pointless on a narrative level.

The point, then, becomes the distraction, and the filmmakers have a good amount of entertaining distractions in store. First off, it's a musical, just as the 1971 film, based on Roald Dahl's book, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory—which this one uses as the foundation for its main character, world, and tone—was.

The songs here are fine, although—as with every comparison that could be made between this prequel and its originator—the inclusion of two of the most famous and beloved songs from the original film only makes one certain the new tunes won't have such a lasting effect. Indeed, a character here refers to one of those older songs as "ruinously catchy," and his statement that it'll never leave the listener's mind is accurate. Most will be humming the first bar before he starts singing it.

What matters here is that, in spite of the challenges of inevitable and direct comparison, this film goes for it anyway. The filmmakers clearly believe that there could be more to this material than just a cynical ploy to exploit some well-known, beloved intellectual property to make some money. It's sincere about the character, the fanciful world he makes fancier with his chocolate innovations, and the particular tone of the 1971 film, which married sentimentality and wickedly oddball humor to such great effect.

Above everything else, King knows his effort needs to get that tonal mixture right if the film is going to have any chance. He does, and the result is admirably genuine in its emotions and, probably worthy of a bit more praise, goofy in every other way.

We're first introduced to Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in an unspecified European city that is or basically is Paris with only a handful of coins. They barely last a day, with a needy mother asking for some generosity and a police officer fining our chocolatier for daring to daydream in public. Willy's only dream is to make chocolates from only the finest and most exotic ingredients, open a shop, and share his love of sweet treats with the world.

The problems, of course, are many. For one, that industry is controlled by a trio referred to as the Chocolate Cartel, and they don't appreciate any competition—especially from one as talented as Willy—moving in on their racket. The head of the cartel is the appropriately named Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), whose compatriots include Fickelgruber (Matthew Baynton), who wretches at the sound of the word "poor," and Prodnose (Matt Lucas), who feels the need to make any innuendo clearly literal.

Another pair of complications are laundry owners Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and Bleacher (Tom Davis), who rent rooms to desperate people like Willy and entrap them into years-long stints of forced employment. Willy has to find a way to sneak out of the workhouse to sell his confections, and for that, he enlists the aid of the orphaned Noodle (Calah Lane), whose resignation to her fate is given a boost of optimism from her first bite of chocolate.

Anyway, the plot's just an excuse for Willy to be odd, show off his skills and their results (which often have intentional or accidental side effects, such as levitation and hair growth), explore and cause some good-natured chaos in this corner of the world, sing and dance his way through various schemes, and form a little band of fellow outcasts to challenge the dominance and corruption of the Chocolate Cartel. Chalamet's at the core of most of this, and while his performance is sure to be compared—and unfavorably, as unfair as that inevitable conclusion may be—to Gene Wilder's uniquely impish portrayal of Wonka in the '71 film, he displays a fine flair for the goofy in his own spin on the character.

It helps that he's accompanied by a lengthy list of actors who understand the particular tone of the material, too. In addition to the aforementioned ones, we also have Keegan-Michael Key as a chocolate-addicted police chief (whose waistline, jowls, and everything else expand to prove it), Rowan Atkinson as a cathedral priest whose one temptation is chocolate (and whose other is taking bribes of it), a digitally miniaturized but naturally droll Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa collecting on a debt Willy didn't know he incurred, and, in flashbacks, Sally Hawkins as Willy's saintly mother, who taught him everything he knows about chocolate and generosity.

What more can be said beyond the obvious? The film is colorful, if a bit garish at times in its obvious visual effects, and features a few scenes of notable flights of imagination, including a literal flight above the streets and atop a domed, glass roof via a bunch of balloons, a tour of Willy's first shop that's filled with and structurally incorporates candy, and the affecting payoffs to the deepest desires of Noodle and Willy's hearts. The way this story recontextualizes that famous golden ticket is so lovely that it's difficult to imagine watching the original film without considering it.

Few family movies match—or even come close to approaching—the particular delights of the '71 film. Wonka, then, has a difficult challenge in front of it from the start, so its success as bright, cheery, and silly entertainment is a welcome surprise.

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