The minute school let out and finals were over, I was immediately ready to start break. The first thing to finally start the break was watching a movie with my friends. One of my friends was the one who actually suggested seeing the movie. My memory of the Johnny Depp Willy Wonka movie was blurry at best so I hoped that I wouldn’t need too much of it other than bits and pieces like the chocolate and Oompa Loompas. Despite not remembering too much of the Willy Wonka movie, I still enjoyed Timothee Chalamet’s Wonka.  

The movie is a prequel to the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, featuring a young Willy Wonka who has a dream to share his chocolate with the world. However, due to his naivety, he gets himself into a lot of trouble; the world not being as nice as he hoped it would be. Throughout the movie, he gains friends and helps them get out of their own predicaments, while also helping him achieve his dreams. 

One thing I didn’t expect from the movie was for it to be a musical. I was pretty shocked when Timothee Chalamet started to sing and dance but I was pleasantly surprised. The music stuck with me even outside of the theater and into my home. Many of the songs had me tapping my foot and swaying in my seat. Some of the songs were pretty heartwarming and most of them are pretty catchy. The songs are easy to listen to and easy to follow; easy enough to follow that when I heard the ending credits, I was able to sing along despite only hearing it once previously throughout the movie. 

Another thing I really enjoyed was the found family dynamics that were introduced. I’m a huge fan of found family tropes and just good platonic relationships in general (which was a big reason why I enjoyed The Outsiders by S.E Hinton haha). In the movie, Willy Wonka gets into a bit of trouble and finds others who have the same problem as him. They all join together to help Willy and his dream of sharing his chocolate with the world, becoming a close group as they do. While the movie is mainly focused on two characters (Willy and one other character called Noodle), it’s nice to see the relationships between all the protagonist characters grow close and even cool to see the relationships they all have with the antagonists. Willy and the new character, Noodle, have the closest dynamic that really reminded me of siblings. While the typical siblings that you hear of are usually annoying each other and fighting while still being close, these two don’t fight nor annoy each other. But, they do support and help each other, and are always there for each other, only wanting the best for one another.  They had a really cute dynamic that really helped me enjoy the movie more.

Overall, the Wonka movie was really nice and I enjoyed it a lot. The music was so good that even as I write this, I can’t help but hear some of the songs in my head still. I would definitely recommend this to others to see. The plot of the movie is actually really fun and interesting and the characters are well crafted too. Wonka was a very good movie and is one to take a look at!

-Nicole R.