Paul King, the director who turned a bear’s marmalade obsession into two of the warmest family films of the past decade, has done it again. His latest confection, Wonka, is a musical prequel charting the early life of Willy Wonka long before he became the enigmatic chocolatier of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The film opened in the United Kingdom on 8 December 2023 and in the United States on 15 December. According to Box Office Mojo, Wonka has grossed $634.5 million worldwide against a production budget of $125 million, making it the eighth-highest-grossing film of 2023. Deadline Hollywood calculated the net profit at $182 million after accounting for marketing, talent participations, and other costs – a result that places it sixth on their list of the year’s most valuable blockbusters.
Timothée Chalamet, whose work in Call Me by Your Name, Lady Bird, and Dune established him as his generation’s most versatile leading man, was King’s first and only choice. King told Entertainment Weekly he “didn’t want to reinvent” the iconography of Mel Stuart’s 1971 adaptation starring Gene Wilder. Instead, he conceived Wonka as a companion piece, imagining the character 25 years before the original film. Chalamet was paid $9 million for the role and his performance marks his first major foray into musical cinema. He sings seven original songs written by Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy, recorded at Abbey Road Studios. The score was composed by Joby Talbot.
The plot follows a young, destitute Wonka arriving in a European city with dreams of opening a chocolate shop, only to discover that the industry is controlled by a cartel of three greedy chocolatiers: Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas), and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton). The trio is a deliberate nod to the Boggis, Bunce, and Bean characters from Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox. Wonka is imprisoned in a laundrette run by the villainous Mrs Scrubitt (Olivia Colman) and forced into indentured labour alongside fellow captives including the accountant Abacus Crunch (Jim Carter) and a bookish orphan named Noodle (Calah Lane), who becomes his closest friend. The emotional core centres on Wonka’s promise to help Noodle find her family, transforming his ambition into something more generous.
Hugh Grant plays Lofty, a seven-inch-tall Oompa Loompa with a personal grudge against Wonka. Unlike the 1971 and 2005 adaptations, which cast dwarf actors as the Oompa Loompas, King’s film was the first to break from that tradition – a decision that generated backlash from the disability community. Grant’s Oompa Loompa sings a reprise of the classic “Oompa Loompa” song, originally written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley for the 1971 film. The soundtrack also features a new arrangement of “Pure Imagination,” the Bricusse-Newley standard that has become inseparable from the Wonka character. The full original soundtrack, released by WaterTower Music on 8 December 2023, contains 24 tracks with a total running time of 56 minutes and 31 seconds.
Critical reception has been largely positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, Wonka holds an 82% approval rating from 329 critics, with an average score of 7.2 out of 10. The site’s critical consensus describes the film as “warmly old-fashioned” and notes that King leaves “room for the source material’s darker undertones.” Metacritic assigned a score of 66 out of 100 based on 64 critics. Audiences have been more enthusiastic: the CinemaScore grade was A–, while PostTrak recorded an 85% overall positive score, with 64% saying they would definitely recommend the film. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 90% surpasses both the 87% rating of the 1971 Gene Wilder version and the 51% of Tim Burton’s 2005 adaptation – a result suggesting King’s more traditionally whimsical approach has resonated with contemporary viewers.
The film received a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding British Film, and Chalamet was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Critics’ Choice nominated Calah Lane for Best Young Actor/Actress and costume designer Lindy Hemming. A sequel is now in development, though Warner Bros has not confirmed a release date.
King has spoken openly about his reverence for the 1971 film, describing it as the version that “felt like what a Willy Wonka movie should be.” He told NPR that he worked closely with the Roald Dahl Story Company – led by Dahl’s grandson Luke Kelly – and explored the author’s archives, discovering that Dahl himself had attempted several unfinished Wonka stories. “It felt like he felt there was a life to Willy Wonka beyond Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Great Glass Elevator,” King said. The film incorporates numerous callbacks to the 1971 adaptation: Wonka’s catchphrase “Scratch that, reverse it,” the specific movements of Gene Wilder’s physical performance, and the somersault that Wilder himself conceived for his famous entrance. Roger Ebert’s review noted that Chalamet, “in moments of quiet contemplation and madcap inspiration,” could be “Gene Wilder’s long-lost grandchild.”
The question that hangs over any prequel is whether it earns its existence. Wonka does, primarily because it refuses to treat the 1971 film as sacred text. King’s approach – warmer, more generous, more emotionally direct than Burton’s 2005 version – creates a film that stands on its own while enriching the mythology it draws from. Chalamet brings an almost Chaplinesque innocence to the role, and the decision to make the story fundamentally about friendship and loyalty – rather than just chocolate – gives the film a moral spine that Dahl, for all his genius, did not always provide. Wonka is not the definitive Wonka film, but it is a genuinely delightful one, and at Christmas, that may be more than enough.
