Directed by Paul King, Wonka tells the origin story of Willy Wonka, a character in Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, portraying his early days as an eccentric chocolatier. Timothée Chalamet plays the titular character. The cast includes Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Jim Carter, Tom Davis, Hugh Grant, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, and Olivia Colman. The film had its world premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on November 28, 2023. Wonka will be out in the UK on December 8 and in the United States on December 15, 2023.
Wonka (2023) Reviews – Critics Call It A Treat!
Wonka out of all all the coming December releases promises a full family experience which is perfect for the Christmas holiday spirit. As it happens, the first Wonka reviews are now out and are pretty decent. Here, check for yourself.
Nicholas Barber (BBC.com) – Dahl’s novel bristled with the author’s annoyance at the nuisances of contemporary life… [but] the film ignores the gravitational pull of reality. Relentlessly wacky and over-the-top, everything in it is too contrived to care about.
Richard Lawson (Vanity Fair) – Wonka is, in fact, a lively, winsome pleasure, a film decidedly aimed at children that nonetheless incorporates some dark matter.
Kevin Maher (Times UK) – But scrape away the candy-coated layer (the production design, admittedly, is gorgeous), and shake off the sugar-rush fillers (see: the pointless zoo sequence), and the entire experience is as hollow as an Easter egg.
David Rooney (Hollywood Reporter) – Even if it’s plausible that the young Wonka might not have developed the arrogant authoritarian side of the character as conceived by Dahl, Willy feels neutered here, stripped of any edge that might have made him interesting.
Robbie Collin (Daily Telegraph UK) – Like any good chocolatier, King has obsessively focused on texture and flavor. And it’s those qualities – tuned to mass-market tastes, yet held in connoisseurish balance – that give his film its irresistible velvety sweetness.
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