Despite Willy Wonka and his mum being very poor they are happy together, and Willy’s Mum encourages him to be wildly imaginative and to see the wonder in even the smallest everyday things. She also does something special for Willy once a week – putting aside enough money from their meagre existence to buy one cocoa bean.

These weekly purchases are carefully saved to enable her to make Willy a chocolate bar for his birthday. This isn’t just any chocolate however. This is the best chocolate in the world.

Willy grows up on tales of a wonderful place named Gallery Gourmet and its famous chocolatiers, Slugworth, Prodnose and Fickelgruber.  This fuels Willy’s desire to go there and be a chocolatier among them. He grows up and after years of travel out on his own, all the while perfecting his own tasty morsels, his dream doesn’t go to plan at all – at least at first.

But chocolate dreams are strong in Willy Wonka, and despite being cheated out of his savings and locked up doing laundry for a dastardly couple of tricksters, he will not give up. There are others caught up in the same laundry scam, some for years with no hope of escape.

Willy’s imagination, along with a young girl found in a laundry chute as a baby, team up to defeat not only their captors but the three men who were once Willy’s idols.

Adapted from the screenplay of WONKA by Simon Farnaby & Paul King, and based around Roald Dahl’s original classic characters from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

Have you ever wondered how Willy Wonka became the Wonka legend we know and love?

This story keeps to the wacky and wonderful dahlesque style with magic, dreams, colour, and of course chocolate in every possible form. There is wonder, laughter, action and bundles of baddies to boo at.

The humour is often slapstick and silly, but lots of fun. I remember seeing the original Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory starring Gene Wilder when very young, and I can’t wait to see the new movie with a modern star-studded cast. I’ll be sure to add more to this review after I see the movie.

Author – Sibéal Pounder

Based on Screenplay by – Paul King and Simon Farnaby

Based on original characters by – Roald Dahl

Age – 7+

(2023, Roald Dahl, Willy Wonka, Oompa Loompas, Dastardly, Baddies, Funny, Magical, Wonder, Laundry, Tricks, Chocolate, Competition, Chocolatiers, Classic, Prequel, Friendship, Ideas, Imagination, Special Ingredients, Determination, Dreams, Humour, Fantasy, Crime)