WONKA

US/UK, 2023, 116 minutes, Colour.

Timothee Chalamet, Calaha Lane, Hugh Grant, Olivia Coleman, Keegan-Michael Key, Jim Carter, Patterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Matthew Baynton, Freya Parker, Rakhee Thakrar, Natasha Rothwell, Rich Fulcher, Colin O'Brien, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Rufus Jones, Tom Davis, Kobna Holdrook-Smith..

Directed by Paul King.

Everyone knows the name, Willy Wonka. He first appeared in Roald Dahl’s story in 1964 and a subsequent story in 1972. Roald Dahl has been one of the most popular storytellers, especially for younger audiences, with such titles as Matilda, The Witches, James and the Giant Peach…

But, Willy Wonka is known far more widely than his readers with the 1971, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with the engaging Gene Wilder, and the popular songs, Pure Imagination, and the Oompa Loompa song (both in this present film but not The Candy Man). Tim Burton did a reinvention of Willy Wonka with Johnny Depp in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Now, here is a prequel. Where did Willy Wonka come from, where did he learn how to make chocolate, his relationship with his mother, his ambitions to open a chocolate store, a nicely naive young man setting out on an adventure. The screenplay actually takes a number of issues from the original story, especially the villainous chocolate cartel entrepreneurs and their opposition to Willy Wonka.

So, quite a lot of plot for a prequel. However, this new film is also designed as a musical, rather reminiscent of the film versions of Broadway musicals (and, most probably, Wonka is destined for Broadway and beyond). The new songs are pleasant even if not so memorable as Pure Imagination, sung nicely by the various characters with lyrics that illustrate their characters and the situations – the most memorable, perhaps, involving the repetition and the beat of the word, Scrub.

The film has been co-written and directed by Paul King who became a great favourite with his very pleasing and entertaining Paddington films. He brings the same sensibility to Wonka.

And, to be the new Willy Wonka, here is Timothee Chalamet who has already proven himself as a substantial actor on screen presence in dramas and comedies but, especially as Paul Atreides in Dune – and Dune 2 scheduled for release in 2024. He is quite small, very young-looking, a blend of the innocent and the ambitious, remembering his mother (a cameo by Sally Hawkins), generous, but shocked to discover the greed of a venal world. And the tag, “the greedy always beat the needy” often repeated throughout the film.

There is something rather Dickensian about the early sequences, Wonka encountering an ultra-Dickensian landlady played by Olivia Coleman. And Wonka is sentenced to a long imprisonment below the boarding house, a workhouse laundry, with a different assortment of penalised characters, especially a young girl, Noodle, who tries to save Wonka. Amongst those down below is the former accountant of the cartel, played by Jim Carter, liberated from Downton Abbey.

Willy Wonka has a chest full of ingredients for chocolate, a magician’s capacity for multiplying chocolates with the most exquisite tastes and physical and psychological effects, leading to a lot of comedy turns. He concocts a plan to escape from the laundry with Noodles’ help, then with the help of the others, to find the cooked books of the cartel and expose them. However, they have their allies, the chief of police, the chocoholic Keegan-Michael Key (and his fat suit, fatter suit, fattest suit after his choc indulgence), and the chocoholic priest, Rowan Atkinson this time with no weddings but one funeral.

The cartel is sinister, led by the aggressive Patterson Joseph, aided by Matt Lucas with an orange wig which falls off, and Matthew Baynton who chokes whenever he tries to say the word “poor” and gags when others see it. They are due for a comeuppance.

And, the Oomps Loompas? Well worth awaiting the arrival of a miniature Hugh Grant as Lofty, resentful that Wonka has stolen his special beans and demanding repayment. Hugh Grant has been sending himself up in recent films and obviously is enjoying this escapade, a heroic rescue for Wonka and Noodles – and a kind of MC entertainment during the final credits!

Roald Dahl is often quite dark in his stories. Even though Wonka is very light, there are the three villains, there is the corrupt chief of police and priest, and a dire attempt on the life of Willy Wonka and Noodle.

This is quite a lavishly produced entertainment, incorporating happy memories of Willy Wonka from the past, drawing us into his extraordinary chocolate world yet again.

1. The popularity of Willy Wonka, Roald Dahl’s stories, 1971 film, 2007 film? Now a musical? Prequel?
2. The production values, fantasy and effects, costumes and decor, locations, the city blend of London/Paris/Berlin?
3. The new songs, the characters singing them, the lyrics illustrating the characters and situations, Scrub, the dance routines, the lavish stagings and sets, choreography – and Broadway musicals?
4. The incorporation of the original song, Pure Imagination, theme for the film? The Oompa Loompa song?
5. Willy Wonka and his origins, with his mother, her care and love for him, the chocolate bar, the message? The dream of opening the chocolate store, the memories of the store in the city? His ambitions? Setting out, his suitcase and its contents, his magic powers? Farewell to his mother? Her reappear at the end and the opening of the store? Being with him?
6. Arrival in the city, his personality, young, enthusiastic, naive, the 10 sovereigns, the demands made on him, a fine for daydreaming… No money, sitting on the bench, Bleacher talking with him, taking him to Mrs Scrubbit? Nice, nasty, demanding the money, his staying the night, with the money, her demanding interest, is relegation to the basement, not reading the fine print, the warning from Noodles?
7. Downstairs, the laundry, hardship, the song, Scrub, Noodles at her place, the other members, the comedian, Abacus and his being an accountant? The plan, Wonka getting out with the laundry, then everybody getting out, working together, the search for the books of the entrepreneurs (and the flashback to Abacus searching and his arrest)?
8. The cartel, the three personalities, the aggressive leader, Matt Lucas and his bad wig and naive utterances, the chocolatier who could not say the word “poor” and choked when he heard it? Their shop, encountering Willy, tasting the chocolate, turning against him? Using the chief of police, his being paid in chocolate to eliminate opposition? The deals, a touch of conscience, taking the chocolate, becoming fatter and fatter? The priest, the Cathedral, the confessional, payment by chocolate, the lift downstairs, the preparation for the funeral, the giraffe, getting the giraffe out, the group getting inside, the chocoholic monks, the funeral?
9. Noodles, the nice orphan, age, mystery of her background, drop-down the shoot, the ring, Willy recognising the link with the chocolatier? Helping, the dangers, the final revelation, the story of her birth, inheritance, disappearance?
10. The scheme for Mrs Scrubbit and Bleacher, pretense that he was Austrian nobility, his dressing up, the flirting, the final expose?
11. The nature of the chocolates, the people in the square, the response? The police? The ingredients of the chocolates, going to the zoo, the episode with the giraffe? In the Cathedral?
12. The arrival of Lofty, the background of the Oompa Loompas, Lofty and his size, dress, Hugh Grant’s manner, vocal style, song, walk, accusations about the stealing of the beans, the flashbacks? His keeping guard? His reclining, Willie and his puzzles? His coming to the rescue when the couple were drowning in chocolate? The origins of the Oompa Loompas and their work in the factory, Lofty being shorter and the truth, becoming the taster?
13. The threat to Willie and Noodles, the cartel and the confrontation, releasing the chocolate, their almost drowning, the rescue? And the transformation of the chocolate into the town square fountain? The chocolates the entrepreneur, their flying, the arrest, the good policeman and the exposure of the overlarge Chief of Police?
14. Noodles, the happy ending, reunited with her mother?
15. The happy ending, and the future for Willy Wonka and his chocolate factory?
16. And Hugh Grant And puzzled but, the MC during the final credits?