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.
First and foremost, I do not like musicals. I can watch and enjoy animated musicals because they’re animated, but with live-action films, when people are talking and suddenly burst out into song, that has never worked with me, no matter how much I try to suspend my disbelief. I knew that “Wonka” was a musical, as was the original movie, but I had grown up watching “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” so I was curious to see where “Wonka” would go. And lo and behold, I had great fun with it. The film is so fantastical that it is just one step away from being animated, so the songs throughout actually worked.
The story takes place in an unnamed European city sometime during the first half of the 20th century, where Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) has just arrived by boat. He dreams of setting up the biggest chocolate shop in the city but quickly realizes he has competition alongside three other chocolatiers: Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber. Because Wonka is a magician, inventor, and chocolatier, he carries a suitcase bursting at the seams with magic that allows him to make the best-tasting chocolate in the world.
He meets up with a young orphan called Noodle (Calah Lane), with whom he bonds, and shows her what he can do. Along with her help, he opens up his own chocolate shop, but it is quickly burned to the ground, thanks to his three competitors, who work synchronously with each other to prevent any other chocolatiers from setting up shop in the city. The fact that they have the Chief of Police in their pocket doesn’t help, but Wonka is determined to fulfill his dream and become the world’s best chocolatier.
It was strange hearing the Oompa Loompa and “Pure Imagination” songs again after all this time. Having grown up with Gene Wilder’s rendition, I honestly didn’t know if the new versions would be cringeworthy, but Timothée Chalamet manages to pull it off, and Hugh Grant, as Lofty, an Oompa-Loompa, gives the film some much-needed humor and comic relief. Both he and Chalamet share their scenes with great aplomb.
Calah Lane, as Noodle, imbues the film with a wide-eyed innocence, much like Willy, and when he feels like giving up, she is the only one who can inspire him again with her unaffected naivete. He even tells her that he has continuously operated off the kindness of strangers, but this new town introduces him to some despicable and vindictive people who would much rather see him dead than be on a par with them. While the movie is magical at its heart, there are also some dark overtones that I was surprised to discover.
Olivia Colman and Tom Davis play two manipulative and immoral characters who operate a laundromat and take in strangers, including Willy, seemingly out of the kindness of their hearts, only to add excessive charges to their stay, knowing they won’t ever be able to repay the debt, and are put to work in the laundromat’s basement for all eternity. Colman and Davis chew up the scenery and are wickedly entertaining.
Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Sally Hawkins, and Jim Carter fill out the rest of the cast, and director Paul King drops slight, subtle hints at what is yet to come. The sets are magnificent, and the songs are vibrant and animated, while the last scene in the film shows the transformation of an old abandoned castle that Wonka bought into the chocolate factory recognizable in “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” I know some people may not like this version, but as someone ready to pounce all over it, I say give it a chance; while it’s completely different, tonally, to the original 1971 film, it does manage to stand on its own two feet. Just sit back and have a little imagination.
Now available on 4K Ultra HD™, Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital
