THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
Believe it or not, adapting Roald Dahl books are far from easy because you want to keep the same youthful energy they’re all about. And when it comes to being generational of an iconic status, the decision to have a do-over puts it all at risk. It then becomes more of a statement than an argument saying Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is the most iconic of Dahl’s bibliography due to being adapted three different times in the big screen. The third of which, 2023’s Wonka, definitely stood out in all the right ways as it took different turns to do so.
PLOT
The film follows Willy as an aspiring magician who travels to Europe intending to establish his own chocolate shop at the Galèries Gourmet. When quickly spending his savings, he is coerced by Mr. Bleacher and Mrs. Scrubitt in their boarding house and sign a contract he can’t read because of being illiterate. His first attempt the following day would almost come off when displaying creative candy such as ‘hoverchocs' that can make people fly. It would all backfire when rival chocolatiers (Arthur Slugworth, Felix Fickelgruber [Matthew Baynton] & Gerald Prodnose [Matt Lucas]) call the Chief of Police to confiscate his earnings for selling without a store. Unable to pay for unfairly expensive fees, Willy is forced to work in Scrubitt’s laundromat alongside the orphaned Noodle and five other adults that were tricked like him: Lottie Bell [Rakhee Thakrar], Piper Benz [Natasha Rothwell], Larry Chucklesworth [Rich Fulcher] and Abacus Crunch. Due to used to being an accountant for Slugworth, the latter reveals he and the other chocolatiers are part of a ‘Chocolate Cartel’ where they collaborate with the church’s Father Julius and have the Chief on payroll due to using his love for chocolate as a weakness. To Noodle, Willy would share that his love for chocolate originates from his mother, Mrs. Wonka (Sally Hawkins), who was a cook before she died of an illness. Together, he and Noodle would go to a nearby zoo to milk a female giraffe, for the sake of using said milk for an ingredient of one of his candies. Shortly after this, the Chief assaults Wonka as ordered by the Cartel, demanding him to stop selling candy and leave town. The young Candyman refuses and convinces the other workers to help him sell candy in which all of their debts from Scrubbit & Bleacher would be alleviated. They pull it off by using tunnels to evade the police. During this escapade, Willy finally catches a small orange man with green hair, whose been stealing past ingredients. The said man is named Lofty whose race is an Oompa Loompa from Loompaland. He explains that he was guarding cocoa beans for his island in which Wonka took at the time and was exiled for punishment; He has been stealing in return ever since to pay off debt and come back home. Rather than negotiate, he takes more chocolate and disappears to continue paying his debt. With enough money to pay all funds needed, Willy gets the chocolate store on the ground with his friends. With the Cartel realizing he’s gone legit, Slugworth exposes him to Scrubitt & Bleacher. They retaliate by contaminating the candy with yeti sweat, which causes physical alterations to the customers. Upon realization, customers would riot by trashing Willy’s store. Feeling no other choice, Wonka agrees to leave town via ship and in return, Slugworth pays off his friends’ debts. However, he singles out Noodle by paying Scrubitt to keep her with her indefinitely. With Lofty boarding the same ship, Willy deduces Noodle and Arthur are related based on wearing similar rings, resulting in them leaving the ship before it would be rigged to explode. Returning to town, Wonka frees Noodle and orchestrates with the rest of his friends to obtain the Cartel’s incriminating account book. Using the same zoo giraffe Abigail as a distraction, Wonka & Noodle are able to infiltrate the bank only to be confronted by the opposing chocolatiers. Arthur would confess Noodle is in fact his niece and reported her dead to her mother Dorothy Smith (Tracy Ifeachor) to eliminate her claim to his fortune, hence leaving her to Scrubitt all along. He tries to drown them in a vat of chocolate, but are saved by Lofty in the process. Once free, Willy exposes the Cartel’s misdeeds to the non-corrupt officers in which all are arrested including the Chief. Willy would then celebrate by releasing the Cartel’s chocolate through the reserve a public fountain, laced with his ingredients. He would also eat his last chocolate bar made by his mother and share with his friends, reading a golden paper with a message left by Mrs. Wonka: “The secret is it’s not the chocolate that matters, but the people you share it with”. After he reunites Noodle with her mother, he is able to convince Lofty to go into business with him and make a new chocolate factory out of an abandoned castle. The film would end in an epilogue revealing that while Willy’s friends would resume their old lives, Scrubitt and Bleacher are arrested for sabotaging Wonka’s first shop and their complicity with the cartel.
THOUGHTS
Although I grew up reading Roald Dahl books as a kid, I never anticipated them being made into movies. Yet when each one comes out, I enjoy them dearly. Making a third Willy Wonka adaptation is indeed ambitious because the goal is to maintain the heart that’s been placed before, especially when this one was not about the original book. I wasn’t sure what I wanted out of this film because I never asked for it. But with Paul King attached, who made wonderful outings with the first two Paddington movies, I had to give it a chance as it helped me expect a good amount of joy. Thankfully, that is just what I got here. The whole time, I was genuinely smiling because I was feeing the same spark I felt from the 1971 version. In just a simple setting, everything about it was so alive thanks to the combo of Chung Chung-hoon’s cinematography & Nathan Crowley’s production design. The visual effects do their part in creating the hysterical yet bizarre forms of chocolate we get to see, whether it’s a simple fountain or the awkward facial changes. Now people can pick their favorite portrayal of the iconic protagonist between Gene Wilder & Johnny Depp as both give an iconic go in their own way. It should be a safe environment when I say Timothée Chalamet belongs in the conversation as well due to also making the character his own like past actors. Despite being mostly naive, there is no doubt his heart is in the right place. It is a surprise that he originally wanted to be a magician before becoming chocolatier but little would we expect this paves the way for the creativity he’s known for. When getting to hear perform lovely songs such as 'A Hatful of Dreams', "Youve Never Had Chocolate Like This", 'A World of Your Own' or his sweet cover of 'Pure Imagination', you pick up on the theme each share with the whole movie as this is a story of how all it takes is passion to fuel innovation needed to succeed and if your passion is limitless, so will success. That is what happened to Willy because he has this determination to spread the happiness to others similar to what he had when first trying chocolate because it is a platform for him to give back while others take. Of course, you get some laughs with Keegan Michael Key’s Chief of Police overeating chocolate to the point he goes overweight or Rowan Atkison’s Father Julius expressing unlikely gluttony over chocolate, but there’s no doubt Slugworth was the real villain here, a first for this particular franchise. In the 70s version, he comes off as mysterious as Wonka himself but here, he’s straight up sadistic to the point he’d kill his niece to stay at the top. Did not expect that from a family flick but thankfully, he and the Cartel go down before they could even know it. With that being said, it’s a relief such a form of selfishness didn’t run in the family as Noodle was far different from him. Breakout Calah Lane was great in making her one self aware yet quite optimistic despite her conditions. She and the adults get along with Willy so well because they admire his natural bravery and feel inspired to do the same, which helps them out in the long run. Slugworth and the Cartel may have been a high threat, but it was a shame for Willy to encounter trouble everywhere he went. Olivia Colman & Tom Savis were quite a pair as Scrubitt & Bleacher respectively for giving their own flair in being cruel individuals by ripping people off for personal gain that is free labor. The only good thing that came their way was realizing how much they loved each other, which was far from enough to undo the damage they’ve done. There is no way you can do a Wonka adaptation without the distinguishable Oompa Loompas and that statement couldn’t be any clearer when casting a talented figure like Hugh Grant to play Lofty. He was a treat to watch in this unlikely motion capture performance because he's someone who is trying to redeem himself yet is hard to take serious due to his size. He's committed to the goal and you respect him for it. He helps out Willy in the end and chooses to stay by his side for the foreseeable future because he knows he never intended to cause trouble. So for him to see things in another perspective is another thing you gotta admire, even though he doesn't intend to. This would of course be a blessing in disguise as it would pave the way for Willy's factory to be the business juggernaut wouldn't be ready for yet. And let's be honest, it's hard to not get jiggy when he does the Oompa Loompa song and dance. This one was pretty fun to watch, but the joy doesn't completely excuse some things that bothered me story wise. Like we get in a good mood once Willy starts the opening song 'A Hatful of Dreams', but why did he leave his coat in the engine room? The fact one of the guys puts it on him on cue throws me off immediately because we don't know why he would leave it there. It is hilarious how the Chief has to order fellow officers to hook people down due to the candy making them float, but I'm thrown off knowing they had enough for each cop. If this happened before, Imma have a hard time believing that. The whole scenario is more trippy than the continuity error where they all the hooks after the Chief says to hook them. And how is it for Willy to study chocolate and not know how to read? It can't be like there weren't books about chocolate and it would be ridiculous for it not be so. He should also not be realized for Slugworth to rough up the competition that is Willy. I mean when you're corrupt, you gotta prepare to do stuff like that. I thought it was cute for Willy to float on a batch of balloons with Noodle, but it's so dumb for the zoo balloon merchant to leave it there before closing time. And let's be honest, is it really normal to cut a chandelier from the ceiling because your daughter got a moustache from poisoned/altered candy? Moustaches ain't for everyone, but I wouldn't kill over it. If we gotta talk about stretching things out, y'all gotta be on my side when noticing Slugworth's ring is nowhere the hand palm to leave a ring impression on Willy. It wouldn't be a bad thing to say the mark was on the side where the ring was. I don't even understand why Oompa Loompas don't negotiate according to Lofty. I mean there is no way their society is perfect to the point of not ever having the need because at least one is gonna complain about something. I know it's common for villains make some kind of mistake for the protagonist to take advantage of and wrap up the plot, but it was so stupid of Slugworth to reveal his backstory to Willy when he didn't have to. If you really want to be ahead of the curve, just leave him to die and don't say anything. Other than that, I still enjoyed this movie for what it is. In short, Wonka is another successful family film for just finding the right spark for us to enjoy throughout. Whichever fan you are of previous Willy Wonka adaptations, I hope you consider this as a companion film to enjoy as well.
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