Timothée Chalamet will play the lead role. Photo: press material
The chocolate wizard-fanatic Wonkas musical film is not directly about Christmas or any Christmas miracles, there is also only one man kneeling, not really an elf, but in terms of atmosphere and design, this film is perfectly suitable for a Christmas trip to the cinema.
Margit Adorf
In the Rakvere cinema the film is shown in English and it goes well. If I had to choose between a session in Estonian and one in English, for a feature film like this I would recommend watching it in the original language. If in the case of animated films it doesn’t bother you at all that the bear has the voice of, for example, Mait Malmsten and the mouse has the voice of Evelin Voigemast, in the case of a feature film it would still be quite distracting if the character Hugh Grant spoke like Ott Sepp or Olivia Colman’s voice came out of Merle Palmiste’s mouth.
In fact, I don’t know who among the Estonian actors dubbed this film, because in the case of a feature film I avoid listening to the script with the reading in Estonian. It would be so distracting that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the movie for even a second.
Furthermore, this particular film is not at all intended for viewing by such young children who cannot yet read the subtitles fast enough. However, it is more of a film for teenagers and adults, not a so-called titeka. Very young children may not understand even a quarter of the content and the topic may remain unfamiliar. There are many colorful filming locations, there is a lot of dancing and singing, but this alone does not make a film a children’s film.
Yes, it’s true that the character Wonka was originally written by British children’s author Roald Dahl and first appeared in the children’s novel Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in 1964. Eight years later, in 1971, it was published the first film version of the novel of the same name, starring Wonka. Of course, I watched it on Finnish (color) TV as a child and didn’t like it. It was somehow too artificial and frenetic, overly bloated, like a three-hour circus show, which makes you feel nauseous after the first ten minutes. At the same time, I especially liked Hollywood movie musicals, for example “Mary Poppins”, “Alice in Wonderland” or “The Ringing Music”.
Yes, Wonka was not my favorite at all with subsequent film versions. I also didn’t like 2005’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp at all. And after all, I didn’t really like Timothée Chalamet, who plays the main role in this Wonka film, either. But since you still have to give people a chance, I gave a chance of rehabilitation to a character from a fairy tale that I didn’t like until now, played by an actor I didn’t like, and I was pleasantly surprised. This time “Wonka” is pleasantly moderate, that is, for those who are already inveterate music viewers and are used to the characters still singing and dancing in the meantime. He doesn’t get too colorful, except for a few scenes at the end of the film.
To a large extent, the film is like a recorded musical production, which means that the locations of the action are artistically designed more like a stage, rather than trying to create the most realistic fairy-tale world possible (as, for example, in the case of “Harry Potter” saga). In “Wonkas” the viewer can clearly understand that this is a play, and this shot is suitable for a specific film, it adds a certain vintage feeling. The music from the first Willy Wonka film and the development of visual solutions were also partially used (for example, the location of the chocolate factory visible at the end of the film).
Chalamet is very suitable to play Wonka, he is definitely the best and most suitable for this role among the three Wonka in the films so far (Gene Wilder, Johnny Depp).
I’d like to give a special shout-out to Hugh Grant, who plays the little orange man from Oompa-Loompa Island here and also sings the tune made famous in the first film. He was also given the role, although Grant admitted in interviews that he did not approach the issue with great enthusiasm and felt terribly uncomfortable. But this feeling of unease was good for his character, it was more in his element, because the orange man was not at all enthusiastic about having to take the chocolate from behind Wonka as a baking tray.
In terms of content, to the point that the film tells how the young Willy Wonka arrives in a big city to realize his dream of creating a chocolate shop there. Previously he traveled all over the world and acquired various magic and chocolate making tricks everywhere. Unfortunately, the city is under the reign of terror of three chocolate barons, as one misfortune follows another, and Wonka is trapped by an evil washerwoman who enslaves him as a maid in her basement laundromat. This is where a very Dickensian feel to the film comes into play, which is not at all recommended for young children. Furthermore, younger people are still unable to understand what a cartel and evil tycoons mean.
As befits a fairy tale, goodness obviously wins and Wonka and the other laundry slaves escape from captivity. The main message of the film is that the most important thing in the world is friendship, companions on the path of life, with whom shared joy becomes happier and shared difficulties become easier.
Finally, it must be said that the current script is not Roald Dahl’s work at all, apart from the fact that the character is based on him. The book with this story of the film has not been published yet, based on the screenplay, the novelization (or writing the film into a novel) is still being completed. The screenplay is written by Simon Farnaby and Paul King, the latter is also the director. Paul King is also the director of the hit Paddinton films, so if you enjoyed these stories of friendly bears, Wonka should also be a must-see. I recommend the film to children from elementary school age and to all music lovers up to adults.
2023-12-22 15:17:02
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