Musical comedy
Bathing in chocolate – Timothée Chalamet is “Wonka”
Timothee Chalamet (l) as Willy Wonka and Hugh Grant as Oompa Loompa in a scene from the film “Wonka”. photo
© Warner Bros. Picture/dpa
Timothée Chalamet follows in the footsteps of Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp in “Wonka.” The film tells the story of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”.
Almost 60 years after its publication, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl is still one of the best-known and most popular children’s books in the world. It was first made into a film in 1971 with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. In 2005, Tim Burton adapted the material again with Johnny Depp in the leading role. Now a new film is coming to cinemas that tells the story behind it. Timothée plays in “Wonka”. Chalamet the idiosyncratic chocolate manufacturer.
The musical comedy by “Paddington” director Paul King is set around 25 years before the events of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” and is conceived as a prequel to the 1971 film, which was released in cinemas under the title “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”. The young, good-natured Wonka (Chalamet) has the dream of making people happy with his homemade sweets. However, his attempts to open his own shop are sabotaged by three established chocolate manufacturers who resort to nasty measures.
Willy is a warm, somewhat naive guy
Chalamet plays Wonka charmingly and not as quirkily as his predecessors. “I’m a big fan of both films,” says the 27-year-old in an interview with the German Press Agency in London. “In our film, Willy Wonka is not the broken, crazy, wonderfully complicated, mysterious character that Gene Wilder played. This is more of an ambitious, warm, somewhat naive, young Willy.”
Because of his careless signing of a contract for an overnight stay, Wonka falls into the clutches of the nasty Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and has to work in her laundry from then on. Together with the orphan girl Noodle (Calah Lane), the accountant Abacus (Jim Carter) and other forced laborers, the inventive Wonka comes up with a plan. A certain Oompa-Loompa (Hugh Grant) from his past could also help him.
A cross-generational cult film
Director and screenplay co-writer Paul King has based his work heavily on the 70s classic. Roald Dahl distanced himself from the film at the time because he did not agree with changes to his script and deviations from the book. But “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” became a cult film across generations. “I grew up with it and it’s very close to my heart,” King said in the dpa interview.
“It was important to me to make a film that didn’t in any way diminish or detract from the enjoyment of the old work,” says the British filmmaker. “I hope we succeeded.” In fact, his entertaining musical comedy works so well because it is visually, tonally and atmospherically close to the old film from which, among other things, the classic song “The Candy Man” comes. Already during the opening credits of “Wonka” you can hear the melody of “Pure Imagination”, the musical theme from 1971.
The new songs come from Neil Hannon, the frontman of the British band The Divine Comedy, and fit perfectly with the old songs by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley. Chalamet took long singing lessons for his role. “I learned a lot and it helped enormously,” says the actor. In his next role as Bob Dylan, his vocal qualities will be in demand again. “The Willy Wonka voice couldn’t be further from that,” he says with a laugh.
Hugh Grant as green-haired Grantler
Of course, the iconic Oompa Loompa song cannot be missing from “Wonka”. The fact that Hugh Grant was cast in the role by an actor who is not short in stature caused criticism in advance. Sure it can be debated, but in terms of acting it was a stroke of genius. Because Grant is simply delicious as a green-haired little Grantler who sings and dances. He gets the biggest laughs in the film.
In addition to Oscar winner Colman as the nasty Mrs. Scrubbit, Paterson Joseph (as Mr. Slugworth), Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton and “Mr. Bean” Rowan Atkinson amuse as comic-like villains. US comedian Keegan-Michael Key (“Key & Peele”) plays a corrupt police chief who allows himself to be bribed with chocolate and becomes increasingly bulky as the film progresses. The characters fit wonderfully into the tradition of Roald Dahl’s many original characters.
The imaginative world of Willie Wonka was created primarily using real backdrops, with only the bare essentials coming from the computer. For one particular scene, Chalamet and Calah Lane even had to – or were allowed – to swim in real chocolate, which the teenager said was “great fun.” That’s what “Wonka” is for the audience too. Paul King and his team have created a warm-hearted and funny film that does justice to its popular original and also fits perfectly into the Christmas season. But be careful, a catchy tune remains: “Oompa loompa doompety doo…”
Wonka, USA/UK 2023, 116 min., FSK 6, by Paul King, with Timothée Chalamet, Hugh Grant, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Colman