How ‘Wonka’’s Design Compares to Its Wacky Predecessors
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Finally, for those longing to be beckoned into a world of imagination, Paul King’s Wonka has hit theaters. Starring Timothée Chalamet, the origin story shows how Willy Wonka became the factory-dwelling eccentric previously seen on screen in director Mel Stuart’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005). Because many of our favorite elements of the 1971 and 2005 movies come from the imaginative design of Wonka’s factory, we were curious to see how Paul King’s Wonka would match up to the pair of beloved films.
Wonka is a prequel while Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory both loosely follow the same story, so some of the most memorable design elements shared in common between the first two movies are entirely absent from the 2023 film. Sets like the futuristic all-white Wonkavision room, where Wonka displays his ability to place a chocolate bar inside a TV for viewers to take out and consume, or the Wonkavator, which allows Wonka, Charlie, and his grandfather to soar atop the village at the end of both films, may have no place within the story of Wonka, but the many innovations add so much to the texture of the pair of older movies that they’re missed in the newest film. With its many tiny drawers and illuminated vials, the chocolate-making case that Wonka uses in the 2023 movie to create his chocolates is a fun predecessor to the expansive invention rooms, but it may leave fans of the other films wanting more.
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