Isaac Gramse ‘26
EE Staff Writer
We are in the age of sequels, prequels, and remakes. Almost every movie out in theaters is one of the three, and most of them are horrendously bad. When I first heard that a prequel to the 1971 film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was in the works, I was upset. Why would they even think that they could rival the masterclass acting of Gene Wilder and ruin the magic of the original film? But when I saw the first trailer, I was hopeful. It looked like they were actually going to care and make a movie that people would enjoy. But I still thought that the movie was going to be mediocre at best. Then I saw the film. And let me tell you exactly why I loved it. Spoilers ahead.
First of all, it’s a musical. I’m a huge sucker for musicals and I love big musical numbers, and this movie had songs that could rival Broadway productions –every song’s a hit. There is not a single song where I thought, “Ok, this song is weaker than the others,” and it also just felt right. Roald Dahl wanted the original movie to be a musical, but it turned out as a movie that just had songs, however this movie is a musical first and foremost.
There’s a clever little Easter egg in the number “A Hatful of Dreams” where Wonka tosses a sovereign into the air and tries to land it in his pocket, but it ends up falling into a sewer drain. This may seem like nothing and exists merely as a joke, that’s what I originally thought until I realized that it was the same sovereign that Charlie would later find in a sewer drain years later to buy the Wonka bar with the fifth and final Golden Ticket. That realization made me know that I was in for a good movie. I really recommend you give the soundtrack a listen, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Second, the Easter eggs are shockingly clever. Those who have watched the original 1971 film should be familiar with the jingles, contracts, and the shenanigans that occur in the Chocolate Factory. Well those people will love to know that almost every event in this movie pays homage to the original film and some scenes even directly explain why Willy Wonka acted the way he did in the 1971 film. Beside the previously mentioned silver sovereign, an example can be found in the scene where we are introduced to Hugh Grant’s Oompa-Loompa, where there is a faint tune that should sound familiar as it is the song that the Oompa-Loompas sang during the fall of each child. Another scene I considered an Easter Egg was the scene where Wonka’s chocolates are “poisoned”, I saw it as a direct correlation to the Chocolate Room where Augustus Gloop fell into the Chocolate River and the only thing Wonka was concerned about was his chocolate.
Third: Charm. Say what you want about the late Roald Dahl as a person (I won’t stop you, he was pretty bad), but you cannot deny that his writing style had a unique, zany, charm that I feel was hard to imitate fully in both the 1971 and 2005 versions. And yet, I was shocked that this movie felt like it was written entirely by Dahl himself. Almost nothing is serious in the film and gives that sense of joy and warmth that Dahl’s novels gave. Yet, it feels real even though the situations obviously would never happen. Every character is memorable in their own way, it is nice to see Slugworth, Prodnose, and Ficklegruber in person for the first time and get to see how they work together. By the way, their villain song “Sweet Tooth” where they bribe the Chief of the Police is definitely the best song in the soundtrack please check it out.
I don’t usually make movie reviews but I felt that I needed to because I haven’t seen people give this movie the praise that it deserves. Critics hate it (once again proving why you shouldn’t listed to critics) and people call it “hot garbage” and a “mess” but it isn’t. It is merely a film made to please the inner child and it does that perfectly.