“Wonka,” the movie musical starring Timothée Chalamet, was released on Dec. 15 and has earned $507.8 million at the box office. The star-studded cast included Olivia Wilde, Hugh Grant, and Keegan Micheal-Key. “Wonka” is a charming prequel that serves as an origin story for Willy Wonka, a popular character from two movies (starring Jean Wilder as Wonka in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005) and a book by Ronald Dahl published in 1964. I think that “Wonka” is the prequel to the Jean Wilder movie (the better “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” interpretation, in my opinion). When going into “Wonka,” it is important to remember that it is a PG-rated kids’ movie that waters down the darker elements of the book and mostly has humor directed toward children.
The movie had a lot of great aspects that I enjoyed, such as portraying Wonka as an innocent young man before he went mad, but also had hints referring to potential madness. The prequel helps the audience connect Wonka to Charlie, as Wonka begins as a poor and wide-eyed innocent character. A character that reminds me of Charlie as well is Noodle. Noodle is a cute young girl character who hopes to find a loving family and becomes Wonka’s friend throughout the movie. The film had a sweet underlying message of dreams being able to become a reality, which is seen through Wonka eventually creating a chocolate empire.
While Chalamet is no doubt an amazing actor (and a great singer, surprisingly), my favorite actor in this movie was undoubtedly Hugh Grant. Grant played a sassy and lovely Oompa Loompa. Oompa Loompas are short creatures with orange skin and green hair that eventually become workers in Wonka’s factory. The movie gave the Oompa Loompas a backstory. In the book, Charlie’s Grandpa Joe tells him that Wonka shut down his factory because rival confectioners sent spies to steal his recipes (could those rival confectioners be the main antagonists in this movie?). Grandpa Joe tells Charlie that although Wonka continued chocolate production afterward, the factory remained closed to the public and the original workers were replaced. The movie can explain how Wonka knows the Oompa Loompas and his connection to them as they later become his little minions.
I will say, though, that the Oompa Loompas showed up halfway through the film, and Hugh Grant was only in around four scenes. I would have loved more Oompa Loompa screen time and to meet other Oompa Loompas besides Hugh Grant.
The costumes for the movie are honestly fantastic and creative. I loved Wonka’s main look with the purple jacket. They did a great job juxtaposing the poor people with the rich by choosing when to add or take away colors.. I also loved seeing the beginnings of Wonka’s chocolate creation journey. Wonka would have people try his creations (all of them looked mouth-watering) and break down everything in them, including their magical effects.They really portrayed Wonka as an outsider from normal society as he grew up on a boat, dressed differently, was FAR too trusting of other people, and had a very bright, sunny presence.
The movie was almost 2 hours long; Warner Bros could have been condensed into a much shorter version. It was a good plot, but it dragged on or got too slow in certain moments. I feel like they did a really great job at developing the side characters except for one: the plumber. The plumber is one of Wonka’s friends he met after being scammed, and he helps him make his dreams of sharing his chocolate with the world a reality. She was the only side character who I felt was just there and did not have a backstory or plot to accompany her like all the others did.
One of my pet peeves in the movie was the accents. Wonka goes to this city that is purposely multicultural and a blend, but I swear there was not one specific main dialect in this made-up region. People had all sorts of different accents that sort of bothered me; regionally, it seemed all over the place.
Besides the chocolate, my favorite part of the film was the music. All the songs were excellent and moved the plot forward. I think there are only a couple I would go back and purposely listen to, as some were pretty bland, but there were a few I really enjoyed. The movie had little dance choreography, but the choreography it did have was stunning and fun to watch play out on screen.
Overall, the good aspects in this movie outweighed the bad ones. I recommend seeing “Wonka” if you want a feel-good, slightly silly musical that will make you crave chocolate by the end of it.
