The Tao of Willy Wonka

Dearest Reader,

Happy New Year! I was very pensive about what to share in the new year. Ultimately I settled on dreams, play and chocolate with my decision to re-watch Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) starring the late, great Gene Wilder and the latest reimagining of the children’s book “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl now starring Timothée Chalamet playing a young Willy Wonka in Wonka (2023) in theaters. I’ve always had a soft spot for Willy Wonka and his world of pure imagination so I think that’s a great spot to begin the new year.

It took me several days to sit down and re-watch the Gene Wilder version. I was nervous to revisit the 1971 classic because I loved it so much and it had been maybe 10 or more years since I last gave it a viewing. I worried that if I didn’t like it or if the cultural sensitivity was off given so many changes in our societies since the 1970s, that it would ruin my memories of the film. I’ve been rather sentimental about this story since I read the children’s book as a young student in 1990s Kenya. The Gene Wilder version of the movie was the only one I knew for years and I think I only saw it in high school or college for the first time. I’m overjoyed to say that the Wilder original holds up!

Gene Wilder is one of my favorite humans I think because I grew up on so many of his witty comedic portrayals and ultimately volcanic performances from Young Frankenstein and The Producers to his jaunt with Richard Pryor in Silver Streak, Stir Crazy and more. I think for a number black kids born in the mid/late 1970s or early 1980s Wilder was one of those few white actors that seemed comfortable around black people.

But let’s be honest, the 1971 film didn’t have a black person in sight…but I’d like to think that the story was a universal fable about the ultimate test of worthiness through honesty and humility no matter your station in life. The protagonist Charlie won a trip to the factory by pure luck like 4 more privileged children. He was a poor, fatherless boy raised by and financially supporting his family of 2 sets of grandparents and his mother. Though Oompa Loompas don’t exist and flying elevators are probably still in the design phase, even today, the film is about opening yourself up to possibilities no matter your position in society. Like the book, the 1971 film shines a spotlight on imagination plus those of good heart and sound ethics being the beneficiaries of enormous wealth or reward over those who feel entitled.

When I went to the theaters over the holidays for Wonka I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of black actors cast in the film. This time the Charlie character was a black girl named Noodle (Calah Lane). I definitely watched the film more closely this time to see how more diverse casting would affect the storytelling especially with a young Wonka in Chalamet who is bi-cultural as a native New Yorker of French decent.

Ultimately, I think that black children seeing themselves on screen is a good thing. I also think that black actors should have a diversity of roles available to them whether they be virtuous or duplicitous characters. But! I was a little perturbed that the film employed indentured servitude in a kind of 19th century England aesthetic to put a diversity of characters in the same predicament of subjugation including Noodle and Wonka who co-conspire to get free. They along with four adults are trapped in an English boarding house washing sheets after signing a contract with deceptive fine print (one of which is brilliant black comedic actress and writer Natasha Rothwell). I also wasn’t thrilled that the black chief of police (the ever funny Keegan-Michael Key) and a local black chocolate entrepreneur (venerable actor Paterson Joseph) were corrupt, albeit comically so. There was an honest black police officer on the periphery though (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith). On the other hand, however, one could argue that class is more at play in the feature than race, but that’s a bit too fantastical for me.

In this version Willy Wonka doesn’t have a shop, let a alone a factory yet, so he’s more like a benevolent Pied Piper coming to town and entrancing everyone with his otherworldly chocolates and ideas that unlock deep emotional needs or fun reactions in people. I don’t want to wade into the plot of the latest feature too much, but rather examine the broad strokes.

If I were a child today, I think I would appreciate this feature because diversity is very casually woven in and there were a number of modern plot points that I thought were good for modern kids. Even the need to read the fine print before signing a contract or when Noodle is discouraged about how the world works (according to grown ups without imagination) but Wonka says to her “then let’s change the world.” I was so struck by that statement because its so true and so few people say it aloud. Sometimes you just have to (at least try to) change the world and that’s a good message for young people as much as we need to prepare them for harsh realties.

I also appreciated the deeper understanding of who Oompa Loompas are through actor Hugh Grant’s portrayal (though again cringing on the notion that they are indigenous semi-magical beings that Wonka stole cocoa beans from…). But I guess the modern leap was humanizing these little orange creatures and Wonka apologizing for any impropriety. Chalamet’s Wonka is mischievous but unwaveringly kind, even justice-minded. Where mistakes are made he tries to fix them, where there is no hope he tries to inspire, where he feels sorrow within himself he tries to relieve it in others. I suppose it will take more time for popular culture to imagine dreamers, inventors and creative change-makers who aren’t whimsical white men—though history is replete with them. Nevertheless, for the most part Wonka is a smart and more inclusive retelling of the story author Roald Dahl first imagined.

I’ve always quietly seen myself as a kind of Willy Wonka. I even worked at a chocolate factory for some time, which was very interesting! I suppose what I attached to in Wilder’s performance and see joyful dimensions of in Chalamet’s portrayal in that ability to dream the impossible into being. To see things others cannot, but hopefully to find people of good hearts and minds with whom to share an abundant life. Willy Wonka as a character is a dreamer and inventor who despite obvious quirks and a streak of self-righteousness, loves to nurture the inner child in himself and others. I suppose Willy Wonka understood a thing or two about living in harmony with one’s deepest, wildest wishes and inspiring the best in others so that good character continues to be the ultimate benefit of a life well lived.

With Love During End Times,

Agunda