Susan Granger’s review of “Wonka” (Warner Bros.)
If you’ve read Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” perhaps you’ve wondered where Willy Wonka came from. Obviously, filmmaker Paul King (“Paddington”) did because he’s devised inscrutable Willy’s origin story – tracing how he became a famous chocolatier.
In this prequel, impish young Willy Wonka (Timothy Chalamet) is first seen perched atop a ship’s mast, sailing into London harbor. Looking for somewhere to sleep, Willy is lured by conniving Bleacher (Tom Davis) into renting a room from Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman), who swindles him into indentured servitude.
That’s how Willy winds up confined in her basement laundry workhouse where he befriends a resourceful urchin named Noodle (Calah Lane). Together, they devise not only an escape route but also a plan to enable Willy to sell the amazing array of delectable confections that he magically concocts from his tiny travel kit.
But first, they must overcome the evil machinations of the Chocolate Cartel, a trio of greedy merchants (Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas and Mathew Baynton) who bribe the corrupt, gluttonous Chief of Police (Keegan-Michael Key) to thwart all Galleries Gourmet competitors.
(FYI: As a teenager, Roald Dahl attended the prestigious Repton School in Devonshire which was located near a Cadbury’s chocolate factory. Occasionally, new chocolate bars would be sent to the boys for taste-testing.)
Scriptwriting with Simon Farnaby, Paul King sugar-coats every candy-colored scene. Enchantment reigns as exuberantly upbeat Willy relentlessly transforms a decrepit emporium into a whimsical wonderland, musically heralded by Leslie Bricusse &Anthony Newley’s “Pure Imagination,” evoking memories of Gene Wilder’s classic “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971).
British musician Joby Talbot’s score contains many playful new songs by Neil Hannon; the most memorable is “A World of Your Own,” appealingly sung by Timothy Chalamet.
Depictions of the diminutive Oompa Loompas have always caused controversy. While posthumous changes have been made to his most offensive portrayals, Roald Dahl himself revised these characters, which were originally depicted as black pygmies from “the deepest and darkest part of the African jungle.”
This film’s Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant) is a tiny, cruel creature with orange skin and green hair. Curmudgeonly Grant has been outspoken in his ire directed at the use of motion-capture technology, a CGI process that he loathed. And British actor George Coppen, who has dwarfism, has criticized the casting, insisting that the miniaturized role should have gone to someone from his short-statured community.
On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Wonka” seduces audiences with a sweetly scrumptious 7, playing in theaters.