Ivan Radford | On 23, Jan 2024

Director: Paul King
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Hugh Grant, Paterson Joseph, Olivia Colman, Tom Davis, Mathew Baynton
Certificate: PG
UK digital release date: 22 January 2024

“Come with me and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination…” So sang Gene Wilder in 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, a strange, colourful, melancholic and wondrous adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The idea of a prequel following a young Willy Wonka is enough to set anyone’s teeth on edge, but from the very first frame the opening notes of Pure Imagination are woven into the film’s fabric, leaving you in no doubt that this is a concoction mixed with love.

Timothée Chalamet stars as Willy, who arrives on our screens on a boat headed to the big city to live out his dream of becoming a beloved chocolatier. He immediately finds himself faced with opposition from the chocolate cartel that runs the fabled Galeries Gourmet: the superbly sinister Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), the amusingly smarmy Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and the wonderfully snooty Ficklegruber (Mathew Baynton). By the time he’s stuck in a rip-off B&B, operated by the sneering Mrs Scrubbit (Olivia Colman) and her stern henchman, Bleacher (Tom Davis), his dreams are on the verge of melting away.

Needless to say, Wonka doesn’t give up there – and if his rags-to-fortune tale of overcoming adversity in a strange land bears a faint whiff of Paddington, that’s because it comes from the same creative brains of writer Simon Farnaby and writer-director Paul King. They’ve further perfected their recipe of family-friendly fun here, balancing visual slapstick and verbal gags with a heavy dose of sugar and just a dollop of darkness. The latter doesn’t always come out in the nicest way – a running joke about a corrupt cop (Keegan-Michael Key) who puts on weight due to his chocolate habit feels mean and misjudged – but Roald Dahl would be pleased with the Sweeney Todd-esque cruelty of Mrs Scrubbit’s workhouse and the calculated bribery of Paterson Joseph’s scene-stealing Slugworth. (Rowan Atkinson as a sweet-toothed priest is the icing on the cake.)

Timothée Chalamet is charm personified as the idealistic Wonka, springing about the sets with a disarmingly naive smile. With more depth than Tim Burton’s take on the inventor (whose defining characteristic was being weird), Chalamet’s Willy nails the musical numbers with just enough naturalism to sell his wide-eyed innocence. He has heartwarming chemistry with the excellent Calah Lane as his best friend, Noodle, whose name is rhymed with increasingly elaborate words in the film’s best set piece. He also forms a neat double-act with a brilliantly deadpan Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa on a righteous mission of revenge against the purple-coated magician. Together, they introduce themes of kindness and friendship that establish Wonka’s strong moral compass and help answer the question of how one achieves dreams in the big wide world.

The whole thing is powered along by a collection of inspired songs from Neil Hannon. The Divine Comedy singer-songwriter is in his element here, building on his work for Doctor Who and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to create a mix of diverse yet knowing pop ditties with a jazzy flourish that go together like a witty selection box. It’s a delight to hear a score from Joby Talbot on the big screen, too, as the League of Gentlemen and Hitchhiker’s Guide composer reminds us just how inventive and playful he can be with an orchestra.

They set the tone for a romp that’s endlessly silly and inventive, choreographed with joy by Paul King. Ever since his 2009 debut, The Bunny and the Bull, he’s been a distinctive filmmaker with a treasure trove of practical wizardry and handmade craftiness at his fingertips, like a live-action answer to Aardman – if films came with an Etsy shop attached, his would be the best. After Paddington and Paddington 2, it’s a treat to see him unleashed on another family classic, and he doesn’t disappoint, conjuring up a vivid slice of spectacle that sits just on the cusp of impossibility.

How Willy moves from this childlike state of happiness to Wilder’s more jaded and cynical adult is an intriguing thought for a probably quite heartbreaking sequel – but whatever the future holds for this burgeoning franchise, there’s no doubt that Paul King and Simon Farnaby have earned themselves a golden ticket with this joyous, fizzy lifting ode to the magic of pure imagination.

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