October 24, 2023 (ShowEast)
December 8, 2023 (United Kingdom)
December 15, 2023 (United States)
Wonka is a 2023 musical fantasy film directed by Paul King, who co-wrote the screenplay with Simon Farnaby, based on a story by King. It is a spiritual successor, specifically a prequel that tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in the 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, featuring his early days as a chocolatier. The film stars Timothée Chalamet in the title role and an ensemble cast including Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Natasha Rothwell, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Grant. It is the third live-action film based on Dahl's novel, following Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005).
Development began after Warner Bros. Pictures reacquired the rights to the character in October 2016 and announced that the film would serve as an origin story for the character. King developed Wonka to exist as a "companion piece" to the 1971 film, and therefore reprised some of the music, thematic elements, and visual design of the Oompa Loompas. In May 2021, Chalamet was confirmed to be playing Wonka and the supporting cast were announced in September of that year. Principal photography began in the United Kingdom in September 2021. Filming took place in Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden in Watford, as well as Oxford, Lyme Regis, Bath, St Albans and at the Rivoli Ballroom in Crofton Park, London. The original songs for the film were contributed by Neil Hannon, while its original score was provided by Joby Talbot.
Wonka had its world premiere in London at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, on November 28, 2023. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 8 and in the United States on December 15 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film has grossed $272 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. For his performance, Chalamet was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.
Storyline
Aspiring magician, inventor and chocolatier Willy Wonka arrives at a European city to fulfill his dream of opening his chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet. While quickly burning through his meager savings, he decides to stay at a laundry/boarding house owned by the devious Mrs. Scrubitt and her henchman Bleacher. Despite Noodle, an orphan who stays at the house, warning him to read the fine print, the illiterate Wonka signs the contract, which forces him to pay excessive charges during his stay. A confident Wonka goes to the Galeries Gourmet to sell his "hoverchocs", which make those who eat them fly. The Galeries' three main chocolatiers – Mr. Arthur Slugworth, Mr. Prodnose, and Mr. Fickelgruber – mock Wonka's chocolates and call the Chief of Police to confiscate his earnings.
Unable to pay his fees, Scrubitt forces Wonka to the launderette to work for 10,000 days to repay his debt. He works with others trapped by Scrubitt, including Noodle, accountant Abacus, plumber Piper, comedian Larry, and telephone operator Lottie. Abacus informs him that Slugworth, Prodnose, and Fickelgruber are known as the "Chocolate Cartel" and are scheming to eliminate their competition. Their base of operations is located under a cathedral, which is run by the corrupt Father Julius and his "chocoholic" monks and is where they store a large reserve of chocolate. Wonka hatches a plan to manipulate Bleacher and Scrubitt into falling in love with each other, enabling him and Noodle to secretly leave the laundromat and begin selling his chocolates. The Chocolate Cartel exploits the Chief's love of chocolates to threaten Wonka into leaving town. Wonka tells Noodle that his love of chocolate came from his deceased mother, who made him one last chocolate bar before her passing, and she teaches him how to read.
During one run, Wonka realizes that his chocolates have been stolen by a mysterious orange man who had been stalking him for years, and he and Noodle travel to the local zoo to milk its giraffe, Abigail, as Wonka creates his signature chocolate using giraffe milk. Wonka and Noodle recruit Abacus, Piper, Larry, and Lottie to help him sell chocolates to pay their debts while evading Scrubitt and the Chief. Meanwhile, Wonka catches the man who had been stealing his chocolates, who is revealed to be an Oompa Loompa named Lofty. Years ago, Wonka took precious cocoa beans from the Oompa Loompas under Lofty's watch, who is now hunting down Wonka to repay his debts. Lofty fools Wonka into escaping.
Wonka's group earns enough money to open his dream chocolate store, to the excitement of a crowd. However, the Chief and the Chocolate Cartel, who learned of Wonka's operations, rat them out to Scrubitt. She taints his chocolates with yeti sweat, causing the customers' hair to grow excessively and their skin to become discolored. The angry crowd ransacks and destroys Wonka's store in retaliation. As the team returns to the launderette, the Cartel reveals themselves as the masterminds to Wonka and offers to pay off everyone's debts if he leaves town and stops making chocolate. Wonka reluctantly accepts the offer and leaves by boat that night, with Lofty joining him. He motivates him to return and fight back against the Cartel before the two abandon ship after realizing it is set to explode.
With their debts paid, Abacus, Piper, Larry, and Lottie are released from the launderette, but Slugworth pays Scrubitt to refrain from releasing Noodle. Wonka and the group rescue Noodle, and Wonka tells her he deduced she is the daughter of Slugworth's deceased brother. After Noodle's birth mother left her to Slugworth, he realized she could challenge his claim to the family fortune. Slugworth disposed of his niece to Scrubitt and lied to her mother that she had died. Wonka and the group form a plan to expose the Cartel through an accounts book Abacus had previously spotted while working for Slugworth.
Using a distraction caused by Abigail, Wonka and Noodle enter the base, but are cornered by the Cartel, who attempt to drown them in their reserves of chocolate. Wonka tells them to give a jar of hover chocs to Lofty to repay his debts, but the Cartel and Julius eat the chocolates, making Lofty knock out Father Julius and rescue the two. Upon confronting the Cartel and the Chief, Wonka and Noodle expose their actions to the police and the public through their account book, and release their chocolate reserve laced with Wonka's true ingredients through a fountain, ruining their business. The Cartel uncontrollably levitates due to the hover chocs, while the Chief of Police is arrested. The crowd celebrates by tasting Wonka's chocolate fountain as Wonka unwraps his mother's chocolate bar. Inside, he finds a Golden Ticket with a message from his mother telling him that chocolate is best shared. Wonka shares his mother's chocolate with his friends.
Wonka helps Noodle meet her birth mother, then pays off his debt to Lofty. He and Lofty purchase an abandoned castle and begin building a factory, while Scrubitt and Bleacher are arrested after their attempt to eliminate evidence of sabotaging Wonka's shop backfires.
Also See
- Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
- Wonka (2023) (Trailers)
- Wonka (2023) (TV Spots)
Sound Effects Used
- Hollywoodedge, Elevator Bell DingsL PE192801
- Hollywoodedge, Whistles Hollow Airy TE049501 (Heard in the song "You've Never Had Chocolate Like This".)
- Hollywoodedge, Wind Whistle Bell CRT059101 (Used once for Larry Chucklesworth's bow tie.)
- Hollywoodedge, Wood Door OCSqueak PE180401
- SKYWALKER, ANIMAL - GIRAFFE SNORT
- Sound Ideas, BIRD, PIGEON - FLAPPING WINGS, CLOSE UP, ANIMAL
- Sound Ideas, CREAK, WOOD - LARGE WOODEN DOOR CREAK 01 (Used for a door before a hideous tiger charges right at Wonka.)
- Sound Ideas, HUMAN, BABY - CRYING, WHINING (Used once for a homeless mother's baby crying during the opening song "A Hatful of Dreams".)
- Sound Ideas, TELEPHONE, DOMESTIC - OLD DIAL PHONE: BELL RINGING (Also used for the zoo security guard's telephone.)
- Sound Ideas, TOY - SQUEEZE TOY, SQUEAKING 01 (Heard once during the song "A World of Your Own".)
- Sound Ideas, WHISTLE, BOSON - BOSON PIPE: LONG CALL (Heard twice and heard once in the song "Scrub Scrub" and on the roll call scene.)