| Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 15, 2023 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
46
Mixed:
15
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews
Dec 7, 2023
In King and company’s capable hands, the care package delivered is a soul-warming cup of cocoa. Sweet yet never saccharine, cute yet never cloying, their hyper-stylized portrait of an iconic literary and cinematic figure is not only powered by the pure imagination that inspires the songs’ spectacle, but it’s also filled with audacious flourishes of charm, whimsy and poignancy.
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IndieWireDec 4, 2023
But it’s the shadow of despair that “Wonka” traces most clearly; the cloud of disenchantment that can hover over every inch of our waking lives when the wrong people are allowed to monopolize our dreams. This may not be Paul King’s most satisfying film, but even at a scale — or at least a budget — several times larger than that of “Paddington 2,” the purity of its imagination remains unquestionable.
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The Observer (UK)Dec 11, 2023
Wonka is an effervescent pleasure – an endlessly, intricately charming treasure trove of a movie. And overall, Timothée Chalamet’s fresh-faced take on the central character – bringing a puckish innocence and spry, light-footed energy to one of the most famously jaded misanthropes in children’s literature – works rather well.
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Dec 4, 2023
Director Paul King brings the same comic sweetness as his acclaimed Paddington pictures, but this delightful, frequently funny musical resides in its own cheeky, bighearted sphere – despite having to adhere to the rules that govern all potential franchises, which treat valuable intellectual property even more preciously than one of Wonka’s prized candies.
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Dec 12, 2023
Admittedly, it won’t likely supplant 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” in many people’s hearts as the definitive cinematic adaptation of Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Still, it is a delight in its own right, a sweet, funny, colorful and suitably wondrous burst of family-friendliness.
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Dec 15, 2023
Dec 14, 2023
There may have been skepticism about “Wonka,” but there’s no need to worry all that much, especially not about Chalamet, who gives himself over fully to the wonderment and vocal demands of the role. See it and enjoy it for what it is: a playful, heart-tugging take on a beloved character that’s smarter than it lets on.
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Dec 14, 2023
Dec 4, 2023
Wonka is a celebration of music makers and the dreamers of dreams, a big, old-fashioned movie musical that uses Roald Dahl’s world just judiciously enough to avoid any serious hits to the author or Gene Wilder’s legacy. Timothée Chalamet’s portrayal of Willy Wonka is most successful in its earnestness, and Chalamet brings the character to life with a gleeful abandon that makes him easy to root for, along with an energetic supporting cast who end up carrying the banner of Wonka’s weirdness more than Wonka himself. Charming and well-staged musical numbers give the movie enough of an identity of its own to make it worthy of a taste – just remember to burp and fart if you start floating toward the ceiling at any time during your screening.
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Dec 12, 2023
Despite the best efforts of the talented director/co-writer Paul King (who gifted us with the “Paddington” movies) and the wonderful ensemble cast, Wonka is like one of those enticing-looking chocolates with a smooth and silky and delicious coating — but inside, you taste dry coconut instead of caramel or a cherry, what a bummer!
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Dec 4, 2023
I’ll admit, the sequel to Wonka looks pretty good! The plot of this movie leaves off exactly where you probably assumed this movie would start, but for some reason didn’t. And like I said earlier, Timothée Chalamet plays Willy Wonka with a lot of charm and I bet it’s not easy to play someone who is all-knowing, possibly supernatural, but is also not very smart at times.
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The Film StageDec 4, 2023
The end result is one of the best-looking blockbusters of recent memory, easy to hold attention while straining and failing to emotionally engage. It’s a forced attempt to recreate Paddington‘s magic without properly grappling with what makes the best Roald Dahl stories work––a film too immaculately crafted to be considered a true disaster, even if the end result is disappointment all the same.
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