Wonka, the latest film from director Paul King, takes us on a journey into the fantastical world of Willy Wonka's early life. While the film is visually delightful and boasts a strong performance from Timothée Chalamet, its chaotic story and forgettable music leave it feeling bittersweet.
As long as you go in ready to take it on its own terms, Wonka is a funny, heartwarming musical that dreams up a new origin story for a classic character.
WONKA is a delicious and delightful confection from start to finish. Full of music, wonder, and questioning of the social order, it doesn't preach so much that it forgets to entertain. Paul King delivers yet another whimsical and innocent family fun tale.
“Wonka,” the prequel to “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory,” is a surprisingly heartwarming musical that is great as a standalone film, but is too sweet to capture the original movie's essence.
Children will love it, and adults will enjoy being with them. Chalamet is a charming, slightly daffy, even somewhat magical Wonka. I have seen him be brilliant in different types of films (he is the lead actor in Dune 2 coming in a few months) and always seems charming.
Despite many opportunities to insert “woke” storylines into Wonka, its writers and producers resisted. There isn't any same sex attracted characters. Any romance is heterosexual.
While Wonka is definitely appropriate for tweens and teens, ages 13 and up. Parents of younger kids need to know that it has a PG rating due to some mild violence, mild language, and some thematic elements.
The smell of popcorn and candy really improved the movie-watching experience, and the taste was even better. Other than being a good movie that engages all five senses, Wonka shows an important lesson of loyalty and perseverance—in the chocolate-making business and in the real world.
Is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a good movie?
The film is so, so great with Burton's storytelling finesse up until they enter the Chocolate Factory. The grandpa's connection to the factory was great. Depp's Wonka is a whole different character than Wilder's but just the change wasn't the problem.
Overall, if you are a fan of Willy Wonka, and even if not, you will love this movie. It easily deserves a 10/10 and I think Gene Wilder and Ronald Dahl would both be proud, probably my second favorite movie from last year. Nothing can compare to pure imagination indeed.
The answer is yes; audiences will want to stay seated in their chairs because Wonka does have one post-credits scene. Rather than setting up for a future film (like how Marvel has done with its movies), this post-credit scene reveals the fate of the film's secondary characters that were locked away in Mrs.
That's what Wonka director Paul King and his Paddington 2 writing partner Simon Farnaby want, too: to conjure the magic of Dahl's children's book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and perhaps more so, the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, the most beloved adaptation of the book so far.
Wonka still isn't in my wheelhouse and if you don't enjoy musicals, I'm hesitant to recommend it. But if you're attached to the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory story or if you're in the mood to be swept away into a fantastical world of imagination, I think you'll enjoy Wonka wholeheartedly.
In 1988, the Wonka brand was sold to Nestlé. In 2005, when Charlie and the Chocolate Factory premiered, demand for the bars were again high, but the bars became discontinued once the demand died off, in January 2010.
Another resounding success for director Paul King, who has here further established his reputation as the leader of family friendly cinematic adventures, Wonka is a charming and enjoyable big screen ride that deserves to be this years most resounding holiday hit. 4 unsolved murders out of 5.
One of the film's most exciting sequences features a giraffe in the London Zoo, which was created by photographing a real one named Molly. The footage was then copied, scanned and used as an entirely digital actor.
Overall, the main message of this movie is to never give up, no matter how hard it gets. When Wonka's dream business gets destroyed, he's down in the dumps for a bit.
Charlie's drinking of the Fizzy Lifting Drinks amounted to theft, so he violated the contract and gets nothing. Wonka then dismisses them with a furious, "Good day, sir!" Grandpa Joe angrily berates him for destroying his grandson's hopes, but Wonka is unmoved and angrily dismisses him again.
We didn't see any rules, did we, Charlie?” Wonka then laces into him, citing rule 37B of the contract Charlie signed. “You stole Fizzy Lifting Drinks!” he screams. “You bumped into the ceiling, which now has to be washed and sterilized. So, you get nothing!!.
Something particularly endearing is yes, Wonka is great fun for kids, but it's hugely healing for adults. It is a way to take adults back to the innocent fun of being a child.
"Wonka" is not only unapologetic in its contrivances, manipulations, and absurdist embellishments, it lets its goodhearted trickster hero and a few other characters comment upon them—not as blatantly as a Bugs Bunny or Deadpool might, but practically.
