The Facts:

Synopsis: 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.
Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Tom Davis, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant
Director: Paul King
Rated: PG
Running Length: 116 minutes
TMMM Score: (8/10)
Review: On special occasions, my elementary school would gather the grades in one of our assembly halls to watch one of the kid-friendly movies they had procured. Remember that this was an actual film they would project from celluloid, and over the years, you would know when certain movies would be making their way back to the reel-to-reel machine. Before Christmas, it was 1972’s Snowball Express; in Spring, it was 1965’s all-time classic The Sound of Music (with an entire reel missing to keep the run time manageable), and right before school let out was the big one we always waited for—the one about candy.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve seen 1971’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, nor could I say how often I read the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory that inspired it, but the memories I have of watching that film year after year growing up are forever etched into my memory. As the years went by and the film got progressively more damaged, you didn’t mind that the slower parts early on (the “Cheer Up Charlie” dirge, for instance) kept you from the wonders inside the titular plant that held fantastic wonders of sugary delights. Looking back, I can’t believe some of the more intense moments weren’t skipped over, and with a sequence devoted to belching and breaking wind, I must applaud our teachers for letting us howl with juvenile laughter.

Attempts to reclaim that magic haven’t been as successful in the ensuing years, with a Tim Burton-directed remake in 2005 giving off an alarmingly creepy vibe the Gene Wilder version always nicely sidestepped. A new musical popped up on stages worldwide, yet when it debuted on Broadway without the same scale as its offshore iterations, it soured its chances of profitability. Rumors swirled for years that another reboot was being discussed, with the potential of adapting the sequel, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, simultaneously for a deluxe two-fer franchise kick-off, but nothing quite got off the ground. Once Warner Brothers officially gained the rights to the character of Willy Wonka, though, the options and opportunities opened up, and another idea started cooking. 

One could look at Wonka, a prequel musical that doesn’t so much tell you how Wonka realized his empire brick by brick but how he came to understand the way to see potential in others, and dismiss it as a glossy melodic bauble of middling returns. The songs are pleasant but mediocre, the musical numbers are staged with grand gusto and captured nicely with appropriate scale but soon start to feel one-note, and everywhere you look, something is created by CGI or an actor with their acting dial turned to “big, broad, and brassy.” Yet it strangely works in harmony, like one of the confections Willy distributes to a crowd of lip-smacking onlookers, to concoct a perfectly satisfying bon-bon of entertainment. If you’ve been nervously tapping your feet waiting to decide what to see with your family for Christmas…Wonka has you covered.

Arriving by boat in a vaguely European city, Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet, Beautiful Boy) dreams of selling his chocolate in a shop at the world-famous Galeries Gourmet. Willy’s unspoiled view of the world is sharply drawn into focus when he is rejected by Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber, a trio of chocolatiers that hold a monopoly over the shoppes and candy business he wants to be a part of. With no money to pay for his lodging at the establishment of Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter), he’s forced into servitude to the crafty schemer and faced with years of work to pay off his debt.

This is Willy Wonka, though; a few setbacks don’t significantly alter his cheery outlook on life. Teaming up with a crew of other poor souls who also fell into debt to Scrubbit and a worldly orphan (Calah Lane), Willy plans a stunning return to the Galeries Gourmet, where he will mold his boldest creation. What secrets do his adversaries have up their sleeves that could hold the key to fantastic success or terrific failure? And who is the little orange man who has been stealing stashes of chocolate as fast as Willy can make them? 

Wonka has become a pleasant treat because many good decisions were made before the cameras started rolling. The first was the studio hiring Paddington and Paddington 2 director Paul King to direct the film. From his history with the films based on a beloved literary character kids grew up with, it was already clear King knew how to be kind to nostalgia without being overly precious with it. Teaming with his Paddington 2 writer Simon Farnaby (who has a fun role here as a lovesick security guard), King creates another easy-going narrative that centers around themes of goodness and (strength of) character being a guiding principle in one’s life. 

The film does leave some blank spaces, though. While we get glimpses of his life before Willy arrives in town (his mother is played by Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water), we never understand where Willy’s talents (in magic and chocolate) come from. I would have liked not to wait for another potential film to discover these answers. While there are attempts to go deeper with the characters he meets, every emotion in the movie feels surface level, and that can often leave the actors with little more to work with than cartoonish sketches of the characters they are playing.

Thankfully, King has cast a cornucopia of comedy stars in various roles, from tiny walk-ons to more significant leads. Colman is having a ball with her Mme. Thénardier-esque scrubwoman/hotelier that charges her guests for everything down to how many steps of the stairs they use. Paterson Joseph’s Slugworth is somewhat hammy as the main villain, but it’s nothing compared to his obnoxious cohorts Matt Lucas and Mathew Baynton.  Lane is a sweet presence with a pleasant singing voice as the orphan with a heart of gold, and though her big number is sung to a giraffe being milked by Chalamet (don’t ask), she’s impressive enough to keep our attention. When Hugh Grant (Cloud Atlas) shows up as a revenge-seeking Oompa-Loompa, kids may be scratching their heads, but adults who have grown up with the Brit will be all in for Grant’s exasperated take…and yes, he does sing.

It’s Chalamet’s film, and the actor continues to show himself as a full-fledged song-and-dance man. I’m not surprised to hear the choice of the role came down to Chalamet and Tom Holland because both actors have that old-school charm about them, but it’s Chalamet who can sell this type of character better. There’s something so winsome and winning about Chalamet’s Wonka, a playfulness that you can see connecting with Wilder’s years down the line. While I question how much the character in Wonka aligns with the one written back in the ’70s, it’s obvious Chalamet has made some effort to tip his top hat to the man who came before him without giving off the whiff of attempting any impression in the process. That allows for a most sincere moment near the end, which gives Wonka a solid center instead of a hollow one.

Where to watch Wonka