What is “Wonka”?

Following the stories of “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Director Paul King made the movie “Wonka” come to life! Starring Timothee Chalamet as Willy Wonka, the movie is a prequel of the 1971 movie; the first Willy Wonka movie to come out. 

This recent musical movie came out December 15, 2023. It tells the origin story of how Willy Wonka started his Chocolate Factory. Featuring his early days as a chocolatier. 

In general, audiences online gave the movie 5 stars! They liked the cinematography and the light-heartedness of the movie. It’s definitely a good family movie to watch during the holidays, or for chocolate lovers.

The Plot

The movie follows Willy Wonka trying to develop his popularity and have everyone in a small, rich town try his unique chocolates. He has traveled for years collecting all of the ingredients to make his “perfect chocolate.” Exploring jungles and other habitats, actually stealing the cocoa beans from the Oompa Loompas, he hitchhikes and rides on a trawler to a whimsical city in London. 

Wonka faces some obstacles when he spends all of his sovereign coins and struggles to find a place to stay. A strange man picks him up off the street and welcomes him to the home he shares with a woman. When Wonka signs the contract given to him, he signs it without reading the entire thing, which puts him in great danger, preventing his journey to have the town try his chocolate. He gets dumped into a laundry room where he meets an orphan named Noodle, along with four other people who were trapped underground doing laundry.

Soon after, Wonka finds a way to escape and goes into the city to the area where everyone runs their businesses. He shows the townspeople his chocolate and the magical effects his candy has. Three of the businessmen didn’t like what he was doing, and wanted to get him to leave so they could run their chocolate business. 

Overall, the movie was great, with a lot of singing and dancing. I highly recommend going to see it in theaters before it’s too late!