Quiet up, and listen down. No, scratch that, reverse it.
“Wonka”, the prequel to “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, hits theaters today.This musical-fantasy film will serve as an origin story for Willy Wonka as he sets out to turn his dreams of being a confectioner into reality.
Timothee Chalamet, a young upcoming actor who starred as Paul Atreides in “Dune”, portrays the titular character Willy Wonka as he advances from small-time candymaker to world-class magician, inventor and of course, chocolatier.
Hugh Grant, star of “Love, Actually” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, joins Chalamet as an iconic Oompa Loompa, the very same creatures who later work in Wonka’s factory.
Grant’s character is the first Oompa Loompa Willy meets, marking the start of a lifelong friendship.
Alongside Chalamet and Grant is Calah Lane, portraying the film’s secondary protagonist, Noodle, a child employee of cutthroat businessman Bleacher.
Noodle is drawn in by Willy’s optimism and befriends him, helping him become the Wonka audiences know and love.
The prequel follows a young Willy Wonka as he hopes to open his own candy shop after having traveled the world to perfect his art of chocolate making.
Upon arriving in an uptight city known as the “home of chocolate,” Willy’s natural candy making talent impresses the locals as he sends them spinning through the air with his magical creation, the “hover-choc”.
The evil “Chocolate Cartel’’, however, is dead set on stopping our young confectioner.
They’re a group of high-class individuals – Slugworth, Fickelgruber, and Prodnose – with a complete monopoly on the world’s chocolate. They deliberately keep it out of the hands of anyone who isn’t filthy rich, setting prices so high you’d think they were made of hover-choc.
Willy’s cheap and delicious candy is a threat to the Cartel’s kingdom.
“Wonka” also hints at a tragic backstory for Willy involving his mother. As suggested in the trailer, Willy’s mother seems to be his inspiration for chocolate making, and her presumed loss makes it all the more tragic that she never got to see her son’s candy empire grow.
Willy’s character has appeared in two films already, portrayed by Gene Wilder in 1971 and most recently by Johnny Depp in 2005
But the newest movie “Wonka” deviates from the source material: “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl.
Very little about Willy’s history is known (except for the strange dentist backstory in the 2005 version), so this film has a chance to surprise audiences with a fresh new take on the character.
Paul King, director of “Paddington”, directed and co-wrote “Wonka”, while composer Joby Talbot is the musical talent behind the film. Talbot is most well known for his compositions in “Sing” and its sequel, as well as “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.
Whether it’s as magical as Wilder’s version or as traumatizing as Depp’s creepy portrayal, “Wonka” is sure to be a sweet ride.
