Wonka (2023) Review

A young and rather poor Willy Wonka dreams of opening a shop, to feel close to his mother. Given his incredible skills with chocolate he believes in himself, but a cartel of greedy chocolatiers will do everything possible to stop him! Come with me …

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Everything about Wonka is deliciously wonderful from the opening scene and then throughout, the mixture of the muscial numbers and dramatic colour on the screen really did make it such a joyfilled adventure.

We are about to enter a world we have not seen Wonka in before and head back to how it all started and his dream of having a chocolate shop and maybe a factory! His first day and night don’t go to plan when he ends up being too generious with his money and is found by Bleacher who he believes is trying to help him with kindness and a place to stay.

Enter Mrs.Scrubbit who owns the laundromat and despite the best efforts from Noodle telling Wonka to read the small print he signs and the following day is told that he owes a lot more than one piece of silver and must work for them until his debt is paid, this is when he meets more people who fell for the same trick. He quickly is educated about the Chocolate Cartel in Slugworth, Prodnose and Fickelgruber to work together to elimate any competition, with a corrupt police chief on their side.

Wonka grows rather concerned about a small orange man with green hair who has been stalking him for many years keeps stealing his chocolate, something Noodles and the rest of the gang to do believe at all! I mean everything else about Wonka is creating the impossible. This is showcased with many of the different chocolates and I couldn’t help but think what a wonderful marketing tool it could have been in cinemas to be selling some exclusive chocolate to enjoy while watching the film! I mean we had Freddo’s which a top tier, right?

I thought everything about the film flowed in the best possible manner, being entertaining and wonderful with the mixture of the songs and you can still feel the links to Roald Dahl and the original Gene Wilder film, which actually made it even better for me personally.

I thought Timothee Chalamet was excellent as Willy Wonka, a young man with so much hope and wanting to achieve his dreams. What’s not to love about a character like that, who only wants to see the best in everyone and everything? A positive character and so much development. Calah Lane works so effortlessly alongside him and it is a fantastic first staring role for the young actress. Olivia Colman was born to play a Roald Dahl character wasn’t she! The same being said for Jim Carter who was great as well in support. Hugh Grant continuing his remarkable career shift since Paddington 2 and going all on as an Oompah Lompah and quite frankly it is well worth the hour wait for his first appearance.