Wonka

Paul King and Simon Farnaby, the team behind the excellent Paddington films, created an origin story for Roald Dahl’s chocolate making genius Willy Wonka. We find Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) returning from 7 years of voyaging around the world and heading for the home of the world’s finest chocolatiers to introduce his chocolates and make his fortune. When the public love his incredible sweets he finds himself in the sights of the chocolate cartel of Slugworth, Fickelgruber and Prodnose and imprisoned in the laundry of Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and Bleacher (Tom Davis). But with the help of a young girl Noodle (Calah Lane), the other laundry prisoners and his orange Oompa Lumpa nemesis (Hugh Grant), Wonka develops a plan to end the cartel and bring his fantastic chocolate to the world.

Wonka has things to enjoy. It’s colorful, fun, has a dark Dickensian feel with snappy song and dance numbers. But, I wanted to love it much more than I did.

It’s by no means terrible, Colman and Davis are excellent as the Dickensian laundry owners as is Grant’s Oompa Lumpa. Paterson Joseph. Matt Lucas and Matthew Baynton are great as the suitably Dahlesque chocolate cartel and Keegan-Micheal Key’s police chief is equally classic Dahl. Chalamet and Calah Lane are the heart of the film and it is often at its best when they are together. There are lovely links to Gene Wilder’s 1972 classic, with nods to his future factory, his cane that stands on its own and a beautiful use of the classic Pure Imagination. All of this in a story that feels like Dahl and does not feel out of place in the world of Wonka.

All of that said, it doesn’t all quite work. It doesn’t quite engage as you’d hope and lacks the charm of the 1972 version. It also lacks the heart of the makers Paddington films.

Wonka feels like Dahl, the story, the characters and the world it exists in. The Songs are fun and performances are solid with lovely nods to the 1972 Gene Wilder film. But it didn’t engage me as much as I’d hoped and lacked a little bit of heart. Wonka is enjoyable enough, but I wish I’d liked it more.