Wonka

There have been other renditions of Roald Dahl's beloved Willy Wonka story through the decades: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory 1971, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 2005, and now we have a prequel in how Willy became Wonka in "Wonka", as Willy is just finding his place in the chocolate world.

Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl's most iconic children's book and one of the best-selling children's books of all time, "Wonka" tells the wondrous story of how the world's greatest inventor, magician and chocolate maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today. This comprises a young Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet) attempting to 'fit in' a town where chocolate makers are aplenty. Down on his luck, he decides to stay at Mrs. Scrubitt's  (Olivia Colman) house only to end up trapped there, but ends up befriending Noodle (Calah Lane), Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter), Piper Benz (Natasha Rothwell) and others, only to be pursued by Oompa Loompa (Hugh Grant)

Others to round out the cast are Keenan-Michael Key as chief of police, Paterson Joseph as Slugworth, Matt Lucas as Prodnose, Mathew Baynton as Pickelgruber, Sally Hawkins as Mamma, Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius, Rich Fulcher as Larry Chuckesworth and Tom Davis as Bleacher. This was whimsically directed by Paul King ("Under One Roof"(TV movie) '07, "Bunny and the Bull" '09, "The Pajama Men: Last Stand to Reason" (TV movie) '11, "Paddington" '14, "Paddington 2" '17) plus TV and shorts. This filmmaker simply made these characters come to life by the way they jumped off the page of the story to this screen This director has a plethora of experience and it shows in the quality this film holds. It was written well by Simon Farnaby ("Mindhorn" '16, "Paddington 2"  '17, "The Phantom of the Opera" '21) plus TV and Paul King ("Bunny and the Bull" '09, "Paddington" '14, "Paddington 2" '17) plus TV, based on a story by Paul King, which is based on characters created by Roald Dahl. This was an extremely unique and captivating premise--by Wonka coming from meager beginnings to become the most nortoripus chocolatier in the world. Really, other than a couple of very small places of slowness which occurred around the middle of the film, this story was spot on.

If you're either a Willy Wonka fan or even a Roald Dahl aficionado, this film is for you. While the casting of Wonka was incredible, the rest of the supporting cast was amazingly pivotal in their respective roles as well. Prequels can be tricky in their ability to convince the audience of their validity, but this was expressly conveyed effectively. This is a film for the entire family to enjoy.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                     Rated: PG                                          117mins.