Mikes Film Talk

Wonka 2023 starts off by blending Little Orphan Annie with Willy Wonka. This falls under the ‘what the hell were they thinking’ box. It was bad enough that some severe sacrilege occured with the Johnny Depp version; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Throwing canon to the winds and for the first time, they had one chap play all the oompa loompas.

After avoiding this latest attempt at re-working a classic, yes Gene Wilder’s presentation of Willy was classic, I finally gave in and started to watch this, this, abomination.

Apparently, someone thought it would be a good idea to put Wonka in a poor house. It also seemed to be a good idea to have a Wonka version of “It’s a Hard Knock Life” musical number.

And why not?

Other films have taken the musical number and made it their own:

Some folks seem to like it

I am not ashamed to relate that Wonka was turned off after the “Scrub” musical number and the follow up scene where we learn that Wonka is illiterate. He has, he admits, been too busy working on the perfect chocolate.

That musical number and the filmmakers deciding to poop on Roald Dahl’s legacy completely destroyed this one. Some folks, however, seem to like it. Rotten Tomatoes gave this mess a score of 82% with audience scores of 91 %.

What the fudge?

The Gene Wilder Wonka was so much more than this pale version of the maestro of sweets. Wilder’s Willy Wonka was eccentric, mysterious and, at times, not very nice. Of course it helped immensely that Wilder was a master at playing this character.

Stop bleeding this story dry

Look at the following clip from the original and tell me that you do not break out into goosebumps. Go ahead.

Then look at the Depp debacle:

And now we have the latest iteration:

(Granted Chalamet has a good voice and the number sounds great, but the big thing missing is Wilder’s melancholic, whimsical delivery.) The scene is left wanting because of the poor house storyline and , heaven forbid, Hugh Grant as an Oompa Loompa.

Verdict

As I could not even make it past the Scrub song, it is hard to give this one a ranking. I did make use of YouTube to hear the Pure Imagination song and, despite the fact that Chalamat sounds pretty good, the Oompa Loompa killed it, not in a good way.

I’ll give this one 2 stars. Mainly because someone somewhere must have felt strongly about this one. But Wonka was a remake too far. And I thought no one could destroy Wonka more than Johnny Depp.

What do you think? Is this a good remake, as if there is such a thing, and if you think so, let us know. Until I hear from you, I’ll watch the original and get lost in a superb and magical film.

Michael Knox-Smith

June 29, 2024

USA