Review by John P. Harvey.
For those who have seen, or will see, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and come to wonder how Willy Wonka brought his factory into being, Wonka sets out to explain the origins of that charmingly mysterious maker of chocolates mysteriously charmed.
From its start, Willy Wonka (Timonthée Chalamet) is already a master of rapid invention, unprecedented stage magic (and, apparently, real magic!), and, most impressively, chocolate-making. Willy has always been inspired by his chocolate-making mother (Sally Hawkins) to become the world’s best chocolatier. As he arrives by boat at the city of his dreams, Willy knows that the dozen silver sovereigns in his pocket will let him make a start there, and that his chocolates will be an instant hit.
Despite his talents and hard work, though, Willy’s opportunities are rapidly lost, blocked, and quashed, and, despite a warning from a young girl, Noodle (Calah Lane), he meets his match in the terrible Mrs Scrubitt (Olivia Colman). And that is just the beginning of Willy’s troubles, as a cartel of ruthless chocolatiers — Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber — will do anything at all to crush him.
But Willy is nothing if not resourceful; and together he and Noodle repeatedly find ways to outfox Mrs Scrubitt and the chocolate cartel, and may even convert into an ally yet another, more elusive, enemy: the Oompa-Loompa (Hugh Grant).
Enriched with clever songs; perfect performances by Jim Carter (as the enslaved accountant Abacus Crunch) and Rowan Atkinson (as the corrupt Father Julius); and a host of lively special effects, Wonka makes fine light entertainment and great Christmas fare for anyone from the age of six.
Willy may strike you as surprisingly easy to fool for a practised magician and ingenious inventor; so much so that he must rely heavily on the intelligence, initiative, and courage of his very young friend Noodle. This makes sense in a movie largely aimed at children, and it raises the possibility that the movie might have been even better had it depicted the tale from Noodle’s point of view as its chief protagonist. It’s still great fun and leaves room for the further tale of how young Willy managed to collect his rarest ingredients and develop his inventive magic before this tale’s beginning.