The beloved characters of Roald Dahl’s seminal books have long been a favourite for big screen adaptations. Naturally, as the years have passed, we have had the definitive versions of practically all of his most notable works – with 1971’s ‘Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory’ easily standing head and shoulders above the rest. Personally, I wasn’t a fan of the 2005 Tim Burton effort ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, so when news of a prequel hit, proposing an origin story (of sorts) for Willy Wonka, I was a tad worried. But when the talented ‘Paddington’ duo of Paul King and Simon Farnaby took the reins, I had hope. ‘Wonka’ is a beautifully constructed family movie that looks as sumptuous as the sweet treats featured onscreen, with a solid cast and some charming musical numbers. However, there’s something distinctly lacking in the story that keeps this from being a complete success.
The plot involves a young man named Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) who comes to the big city with glorious ambitions to make amazing chocolate for the masses. However, this doesn’t go down well with the confectionary cartel who run the city – Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) and Prodnose (Matt Lucas), who also have the corrupt police chief (Keegan-Michael Key) in their back pocket. So after a cunning ruse that causes Willy Wonka to owe local business woman Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) a large sum of money, Willy is banished to the laundry rooms and supposedly out of the cartel’s sight. But once down there, Willy befriends Noodle (Calah Lane), a young girl who helps him to temporarily escape his new captors and sell magical chocolate to the locals on the side.
With money being raised from the sales of his delicious sweet treats, Willy hopes to buy his new friends – including Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter), Lottie Bell (Rakhee Thakrar), Larry Chucklesworth (Rich Fulcher) and Piper Benz (Natasha Rothwell) – out of their debts with Mrs. Scubbit, whilst opening a fantastical new shop, and thus living up to a cherished promise he made to his mother (Sally Hawkins) many years ago. But when the cartel get wind of his plan, they do whatever it takes to put Willy Wonka out of business once and for all.
Paul King, who did such a wonderful job with the magical ‘Paddington’ movies, really was the perfect director to take on such a mammoth task in creating a viable origin story for such an iconic character. Along with his writing partner Simon Farnaby (fresh from his outstanding work co-creating, co-writing and co-starring in the beloved BBC sitcom ‘Ghosts’), the two have done almost everything right in terms of presenting ‘Wonka’ in the right way. But there’s something distinctly lacking in the story department which in my opinion, really affects the success of the film. The story just feels too pedestrian and uneventful. When you see some of the large musical numbers and set-pieces, you’ll think that ‘uneventful’ seems a ridiculous thing to say, but when you take away all the aesthetic greatness, there’s actually very little substance to the origin story. ‘Paddington’ never had this problem, but having seen what can be done in those films, to what the end product is of ‘Wonka’, it’s noticeably disappointing.
As mentioned before, the cast are all superb. Timothée Chalamet is a wonderful Willy Wonka, giving the role a charismatic touch, with the sweetness of… well, a peach. He also channels Gene Wilder really well, especially towards the end of the film. The supporting cast are all brilliant, with particular mention to ‘Peep Show’ alumni Paterson Joseph and Olivia Colman. Tom Davis is funny as the brutish Bleacher, Calah Lane makes for a good supporting character in Noodle, and the peerless Hugh Grant steals every single scene he’s in as an Oompa-Loompa.
It’s not the visual style of the film or the flourishes of panache that are to blame either. ‘Wonka’ looks amazing throughout, with a beautifully realised world built with a near-perfect mix of fairytale, fact and whimsy. The musical numbers are all very entertaining too, the set-pieces are a joy and the songs themselves all land where they should. But it’s telling that the only time I really felt my heart properly lift up whilst watching the film was when Timothée Chalamet started signing the iconic ‘Pure Imagination’. Until that point it felt like ‘Wonka’ was just a collections of spectacular events, rather than an actual narrative journey. It was a big surprise, and one that certainly hampered my enjoyment of the overall film.
Doing almost everything right, ‘Wonka’ still delivers a brilliant Christmas treat for the whole family, and I’m sure younger audiences will really enjoy this. But in creating a new world for one of his best characters, there’s a distinct lack of narrative magic here – something that Roald Dahl would have absolutely brought to this story had he still been with us. So it’s unfortunately not the big win I was hoping for, but ‘Wonka’ is still a pleasant family adventure that offers fun and frivolity to its audience.
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Olivia Colman, Hugh Grant, Sally Hawkins, Paterson Joseph, Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Simon Farnaby, Mathew Baynton, Matt Lucas, Sophie Winkleman, Jim Carter, Tom Davis, Rakhee Thakrar, Natasha Rothwell, Rich Fulcher Director: Paul King Writer: Simon Farnaby, Paul King Certificate: PG Duration: 116 mins Released by: Warner Bros Release date: 8th December 2023
