With dreams of opening a shop in a city renowned for its chocolate, a young and poor Willy Wonka discovers that the industry is run by a cartel of greedy chocolatiers.

After reviving an old cartoon bear with their ‘Paddington’ movies, Paul King and Simon Farnaby have turned their attention to another much loved character in Willy Wonka, perhaps Roald Dahl’s most famous creation. Best known on screen as played by Gene Wilder in ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ (less said about Johnny Depp’s version the better….), ‘Wonka’ is an origin story that explores what life was like for Willy Wonka before he opened his famous chocolate factory. Starring Timothée Chalamet as ‘Wonka’ alongside an enjoyable cast of mostly familiar British faces, this has all the ingredients for another family hit.

We first meet Willy Wonka as he arrives in an unknown city in Europe, attempting to fulfil his ambition to open a chocolate shop at the Galeries Gourmet, where there is already much competition from a trio of well established chocolatiers (Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Matthew Baynton). Struggling for money and needing a place to stay, he ends up being tricked into staying at Mrs. Scrubitt’s (Olivia Colman) boarding house, where he is coerced into signing a contract that means he is unable to leave until he has paid off a massive debt. Along his journey to escape this contract and sell his chocolate, Wonka encounters a variety of friends and foes, including Hugh Grant’s Oompa Loompa, while uncovering the corruption that underpins the established chocolatiers continued success.

I have mixed feelings about the movie overall. On the positive side, it has some fun performances and I liked the little homages to things such as ‘Les Miserables’ (Mrs. Scrubitt and her assistant look like they’re never far away from breaking into ‘Master of the House’), but I felt most of the songs were forgettable (besides those taken from the original 70s movie) and I don’t think ‘Wonka’ managed to reach the levels of ‘Paddington’, for an obvious comparison point. ‘Wonka’ is solid family fun and it’ll play well on a lazy Sunday afternoon in festive periods to come, but I was expecting a bit more considering how well King and Farnaby brought ‘Paddington’ to the big screen.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Paul King

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Matthew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Olivia Colman, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Natasha Rothwell, Tom Davis and Hugh Grant

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6166392/