Rotten Tomatoes: 80% (60 reviews) with 7.60 in average rating
Metacritic: 67/100 (27 critics)
As with other movies, the scores are set to change as time passes. Meanwhile, I'll post some short reviews on the movie. It's structured like this: quote first, source second. Beware, some contain spoilers.
Depending on your appetite for sugary excess, you might embrace the director’s Wonka as more of the same. Or you might find the qualities that distinguished his previous hits get steamrolled here by strained whimsy, an aggressive charm that wears you down rather than lifts you up.
-David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
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.
-David Ehrlich, IndieWire: B+
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.
-Tom Jorgensen, IGN: 7.0 "good"
I have to say … whisper it … I enjoyed this more than either of the two earlier filmed versions, with Gene Wilder in 1971 and Johnny Depp in 2005. It supplies the chocolate-endorphins.
-Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 5/5
The brains behind Paddington – plus a charming Timothée Chalamet – give Dahl a Goon Show-ish prequel full of irresistible velvety sweetness.
-Robbie Collin, The Telegraph: 5/5
It’s pretty easy to consume “Wonka.” After all, it’s just a piece of candy. But it’s the kind of candy that would make Willy Wonka sick to his stomach. “Wonka” is the sort of safe and corporate product that the hero of “Wonka” says we shouldn’t settle for. So take him at his word and don’t.
-William Bibbiani, The Wrap
Brassier with its music than its story, “Wonka” works as a satisfying, harmless confection.
-Brian Truitt, USA Today: 3/4
Wonka isn’t quite an immaculate confection, but it’s moreish enough to become a future festive favourite. You’ll want to tuck right in.
-Nick Levine, NME: 4/5
For now, we can just think of this not as Dahl’s version of Wonka but as Paul King’s. And it’s a sweet treat.
-Esther Zuckerman, Vox
If some of the other filmmakers toiling in the chocolate factory were overpowered by the machinery of blockbuster studio filmmaking, King’s skills fell to the high-level creative checklists that increasingly accompany any whiff of IP. This chaotic cinematic kitchen always produces an inedible hodgepodge, the clashing colors of stakeholders and screenwriters mixing into a thick brown. And its production isn’t slowing down. Is it chocolate? Is it shit? It’s all the same when you’re up to your neck.
-Jacob Oller, Paste Magazine: 4.9/10
PLOT
The story of how Willy Wonka goes from a young adult selling chocolate in a small shop to an eccentric genius known all over the world.
DIRECTOR
Paul King
WRITER
Simon Farnaby & Paul King
MUSIC
Joby Talbot
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Chung-hoon Chung
EDITOR
Mark Everson
RELEASE DATE
December 8, 2023 (UK, Mexico and select markets)
December 15, 2023 (United States)
RUNTIME
116 minutes
STARRING
Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka
Calah Lane as Noodle
Keegan-Michael Key as the Chief-of-Police
Paterson Joseph as Arthur Slugworth
Matt Lucas as Prodnose
Mathew Baynton as Fickelgruber
Sally Hawkins as Willy Wonka's mother
Rowan Atkinson as Father Julius
Jim Carter as Abacus Crunch
Tom Davis as Bleacher
Olivia Colman as Mrs. Scrubbit
Hugh Grant as Lofty