When it was first announced that Warner Bros were going to be making an origin story film for Willy Wonka, I had absolutely no hopes for it. Given the other studios making Roald Dahl adaptations, mainly Netflix, it felt to me like a cynical cash grab by Warner Bros to retain the rights to the character, in the same vein as Tom and Jerry: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. However, I did start to get some hopes up when it was announced that the film would be directed by Paul King and written by King and Simon Farnaby. With how good the Paddington films were, especially given my low expectations for the first one before it was released, I decided to give this the benefit of the doubt. Watching the film, I think it’s clear that we shouldn’t bet against Paul King. This is an absolute delight.
The film focuses on a young Willy Wonka who, after several years traveling the world to learn the skills to become a chocolatier, goes to a city to make his living selling chocolate. However, the city is controlled by the Chocolate Cartel, run by businessmen Slugworth, Prodnose and Ficklegruber, who make it their business to ensure that there is no-one who can cut into their profits, paying off the police and church to enforce this. Whilst Wonka is trying to sell his chocolates, he ends up being placed into indentured servitude at the laundry of Mrs Scrubbit and Bleacher, becoming friends with the others trapped there, including Noodle, an orphan who soon becomes his closest confidant. Now this could have been a fairly bland and forgettable story about Wonka, taking the vignettes we know about the character from how he was written by Dahl and not really doing anything to flesh out the character, but that’s not what we get here. We get an interesting look at the character, showing how someone who was initially guided by his optimistic spirit can get broken down by the corruption of the world around him, but how that should not be a reason to give up on hopes and idealism. We see how Wonka’s kind heart and the help he gives to everyone around him helps make things better for all of them, and whilst Wonka does get harsher as the film goes on, he never loses his sense of glee and wonder. For me, even though the film clearly started life at Warner Bros cynically, the way King and Farnaby have written it has removed any sense of cynicism from the final product, creating a genuinely charming film.
I also appreciated how the film looks at the corruption the rich perpetuate to remain in power. It shows how the police and church can be easily manipulated to serve the rich, creating a perpetual system where the rich get richer and feel they have no need to do anything for anyone else, unless it serves their bottom line. There’s even some interesting economic ideas at play through false scarcity and creating the illusion of competition and an open marketplace to hide that people are just paying the same people to stay at the top of the chain. Granted, it cannot go all the way with these ideas being a corporate product, but I am impressed with how much corporate criticism King and Farnaby were able to get away with.
The performances are really solid throughout the film. Whilst I don’t think anyone will play Willy Wonka as well as Gene Wilder, Timothee Chalamet does a great job in the role. He plays Wonka as more of a wide eyed dreamer and optimist that Wilder did, creating his own spin on the character which helps make him stand out in the role. You can see hints of him becoming the more madcap and darker version of the character later, but the joy that Chalamet brings to the role makes him a very likable lead. It also helps that, unlike other recent musicals, Chalamet is a talented singer and dancer, helping make the musical numbers pop. Calah Lane as Noodles is another key reason why the film has a good heart. She has the more cynical edge at the start, showing someone worn down by the poor treatment she has experienced all her life, but her interactions with Wonka give her hope for the future, and the chemistry between Lane and Chalamet helps give the film a lot of its charm. There’s solid work from Jim Carter, Rich Fulcher, Rakhee Thakrar and Natasha Rothwell as the others imprisoned by Scrubbit and Bleacher, showing their dispondency at the start of the film grow to a friendship with Wonka and a renewed sense of optimism as the film goes on. For the villains, Olivia Colman and Tom Davis as Srubbit and Bleacher are clearly hamming it up and having a blast playing such evil characters, feeling reminiscent of The Twits in their characterisation and a lot of the best laughs in the film come from them. For the Chocolate Cartel, Patterson Joseph, Mathew Baynton and Matt Lucas are also having a lot of fun, playing up the greedy nature of the characters effectively, with Joseph getting a few sinister moments at the later stages of the film. There’s some funny moments from Keegan Michael-Key as the Police Chief and Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, the blatant corruption they present adding to the themes of the film, although I wasn’t overly fond of the fat jokes directed towards the Police Chief. Sally Hawkins gets some charming moments as Wonka’s mum, although her Irish accent didn’t 100% work for me and there are some fun smaller appearances from figures in the UK comedy TV scene including Farnaby, Phil Wang, Charlotte Ritchie and Isy Suttie. Then we get to Hugh Grant as the Oompa Loompa, Lofty. Now there is a discussion to be had over the ethics of having an actor like Grant be digitally shrunk to play an Oompa Loompa, which people more intelligent and more expertise than me can have. What I will say is that Grant brings a sardonic edge to his performance and, even with his brief screen time, steals the film whenever he appears.
The technical side of the film is also very impressive. Whilst there aren’t any moments that have the same kind of wonder that the Paddington films created, there is still a lot of King’s creativity in storytelling and how he uses different mediums in the film. We see things like a heist being shown through animated blueprints and a projector effect for flashbacks which help give the film a sense of life and show how King’s creativity can still come through with a more corporate work. The cinematography by Chung-hoon Chung is impressive, especially during the musical numbers, having a clear sense of colour and movement that ensures that each of the different environments have their own feel and help evoke different elements of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to make it feel natural as a prequel. The music as well is fun, with the songs by Neil Hannon of The Divine Comedy being really well written. Each of them work in the context of the film and the strong direction, editing and cinematography help make each of the musical numbers pop, with there being a great sense of scale that other recent musicals have not captured, giving this a larger than life feel that works for the story. The production design and costume design have a bit of a timeless feel, taking elements from different European cities to create a distinct style for the world and helping it connect to the original film whilst also having its own feel. The VFX I wasn’t quite as fond of though. There are some moments that work well, such as seeing Wonka visualise his future and some of the animal effects, but there are other effects that didn’t quite look right, the main one being the effects to turn Hugh Grant into an Oompa Loompa, which looked a bit off-putting to me and highlights the issues with having Grant in this role.
Overall, I had a great time with Wonka. What I feared would be a cynical corporate cash grab ended up being a thoroughly charming, heartfelt and joyful experience. Paul King and Simon Farnaby have created a brilliant film that does end up justifying its existence. Whilst there are some issues I had with it and it doesn’t work quite as well as the Paddington films, this is so much better than it had any reason to be and I can see this being a proper crowdpleaser.
My Rating: 4.5/5
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