Set in a whimsical town much similar to London, Paris, and Prague, the film “Wonka” begins with a boy, and a dream.
Young Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet) wishes to follow his dream and own a chocolate shop in the town known best for its chocolate. Once he arrives, however, a jumble of obstacles arrives, including his need for a place to stay and the wrath of the other chocolate makers. Wonka must find a way to sell his chocolate and make his late mother proud.
In my opinion, the very end of the movie is the best part. The end of the film is touching and heartfelt in so many ways. I cannot begin to describe the emotions I felt while watching the end of “Wonka”.
“Wonka” has a large amount of amazing characters to choose from as our personal favorites, though I believe that my favorite character is Noodle (Calah Lane). She holds that spark of childhood innocence and helps the plot move along quite a bit. I absolutely adore her relationship with the main character Willy Wonka himself. Noodle is a young girl who has lived her entire life in the same run-down hotel. She knows all about the scams and tricks that the owners try to pull over on their guests and even tries to warn Wonka. However, she is inevitably too late. Noodle also takes the role of being the brains behind Wonka’s entire operation and even teaches him how to read. I think it’s fantastic how much childlike magic she carried with her during the film.
Many who haven’t even watched the movie believe that “Wonka” is simply another Hollywood remake of a perfectly good movie that nobody asked for, and decide how they feel about the film before even giving it a chance. Though this is in fact, not the case. Yes, the film is a musical, much like the movies released prior, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (Gene Wilder) and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory” (Johnny Depp). However, Wonka serves as more of a prequel than a remake. In the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” Willy Wonka (Gene Wilder) is a lot older and has an entire factory in which he creates new flavors of chocolate. Although in the movie “Wonka,” Willy is still in his early twenties, the film shows some of the many possibilities of what could have taken place in Willy Wonka’s life before he became the Willy Wonka that we all know and love.
Since director Paul King developed “Wonka” to serve as something of an origin story, a prequel, if you will, they want to reprise at least some of the music. One song that made the cut was “Pure Imagination” G.W. Originally sung by Gene Wilder is the first ever Willy Wonka movie made in 1971, now sung by Timothee Chalemet in the latest movie (“Pure Imagination” T.C). “Pure Imagination” is known all over the world for its famous lyrics “Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination! Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination.” The song was even snubbed in Best Original Song for their dazzling piece of musical magic.
On that note, I found the acting in this film rather phenomenal. The casting of Timothee Chalamet as Willy Wonka was an appreciable addition to the movie itself. It was revealed that Chalamet would be playing the role of Willy Wonka in May of 2021. When I heard I thought that he was the perfect choice for the role based on his previous performances in movies he has acted in prior, such as his role as Laurie in “Little Women” (2019) and Kyle in “Lady Bird” (2017). As far as I can see, Timothee and everybody else who acted in this movie lived up to the expectations that I, and many others, had for them.
Diving deeper into the making of “Wonka”, Costume designer Lindy Hemming has outdone herself with the costumes she delivered for this film. From Willy’s maroon cloak to his crazy scarves and dress shirts, Hemming designed them all. I feel as if she really captured the beauty of Willy Wonka’s character with a simple article of clothing. The myriad of colors used on his outfits were able to give us subtle hints about his outgoing and eccentric personality.
With bright, beautifully written characters, extraordinary costumes, and dazzling musical qualities, the film “Wonka” was certainly not a disappointment to those who looked forward to seeing it from relationship developments to the insane amount of candy, “Wonka” really was an extraordinary experience.
