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Just got back from this delightful little confection.
Pure enjoyment shot through with that wicked Roald Dahl DNA, not unlike DeVito's Matilda.
Nice prequel story and set-up, quite faithful in that Dahl feel.
Timothy Chalamet was excellent, a delight from start to finish.
Some nice laughs from the script, mostly from the villains of the piece.
Songs (old and new) and score supported things perfectly.
Much, much better than I ever anticipated.
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Posted: |
Jan 19, 2024 - 8:19 AM
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By: |
Kentishsax
(Member)
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God, it looks just like any other generic oddball film. It could be interchangeable with that awful remake a few years ago. A little over halfway in and I couldn't stand it any more -- had to click out.
I rarely go to the cinema these days, I'm in training to be a grumpy old man! But we saw Wonka as a family and loved it! I did a little user review on a family-orientated film review website. There are 'neutral' and 'negative' reviews and mine was the only 'positive' one! Here it is:-
'Our little family had a trip to the cinema to see 'Wonka' and it was enjoyable and fairly inoffensive. As a companion piece/semi-prequel to the wonderful, timeless 1970s 'Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, it was a delightful confection, although Willy was not the slightly sinister, madcap Wonka of the book or Gene Wilder film (luckily, the weak Tim Burton film was not really referenced in any way). There were some delightful callbacks to the Wilder film: At one point, our younger Wonka walks down two steps and back up one, just as Wilder did.
Musically, the songs were quite good and I appreciated the occasional interpolation of Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley’s 'Pure Imagination'* at some points in the story. It’s initially heard in a lovely, semplice but emotional 'one finger piano' rendition in the opening credits and then referenced here and there, before the full blown song at the end, with the lyrics subtly altered. It was great that they made Hugh Grant’s Oompa Loompa look as the little men did in the Wilder film and also retained the Oompa Loompa song structure. It was magical, with great character actors and I single out Paterson Joseph, as he was very debonair—but cunning—as Slugworth. The nefarious double act of Olivia Colman’s Mrs Scrubbit and Tom Davis' Bleacher was quite humorous and the boarding house residents/prisoners in the boarding house added to the wholesomeness of the 'nice character' cast.
Personally, I’d have preferred a larger onscreen credit for Bricusse and Newley than being relegated to way down in the end credits and I’d have also liked to see a title card, 'For Gene Wilder' at the beginning of the end credits roll - Wilder being the chief reason the original film is so beloved and why this film was conceived as a companion piece to that, rather than the Depp version.
*In 2005, I proposed to my now-wife, in song on a beach, singing subtly altered lyrics to the tune of 'Pure Imagination'. We then had saxophonist Richie Cole’s wonderful instrumental version playing as we signed the marriage register in church, in 2008. So as you can tell, we love Pure Imagination and we love the original film.
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For the past few weeks, Amazon said my CD would be arriving today (Friday 7 June).
But now it says it will arrive next Wednesday, like something out of a John Landis film.
"I just wanted you to know that"
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