Wonka (2023) review

The origin story for Roald Dahl's (illiterate) master confectioner Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) has him penniless in Europe and forced into slavery by the crooked Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman) and her henchman Bleacher (Tom Davis) but gains a valuable accomplice in orphan Noodle (Calah Lane) ... and then he faces difficulties opening up his own shoppe because a trio of businessmen, Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton) and Prodnose (Matt Lucas), hold a monopoly on the manufacturing of chocolate.  I confess to not enjoying the 1971 adaptation with Gene Wilder the first time I saw it (and I'm not too keen on cocoa, either) but I feel this is actually a fine movie for Gen Z kids with a hankering for sweets: there are plenty of song-and-dance numbers to keep them occupied, and the sappiness (Willy dreams of seeing his mother again, Noodle desperately wants to know who her birth parents were), although a tad over-the-top, tries to give it an emotional dimension (in an attempt to off-set the cartoonish fantasy aspects).  I really do think Chalamet does a nice job as the lead - he's determined but naïve - and Hugh Grant as tenacious Oompa-Loompa Lofty adds chuckles as an addict in complete denial.