Lukas Sawyers – Google

Not a single thing wrong with this show. Such an original concept, executed beautifully with a wonderful cast of characters. It shows a totally foreign world and somehow makes it familiar, masterfully navigating complex problems we face in our own lives and our society at large. And at the end of it all, it really makes you feel like there is good in this world. By far the best show to ever come out of Nickelodeon and possibly, the best animated series to ever come from the US.

I'll give it props for being an original take, but that's also part of what ruined it for me. Prequels are supposed to be backstories, and if you're going to make a backstory, it needs to line up with the original, which is something this movie completely ignored for some reason. I also took issue with the quality of the movie on the whole as well. The music was totally hollow and entirely superfluous, the script was simplistic and lacked any sense of sincerity or realistic conversation, and the acting suffered immensely because of it. It was clear that the director tried to make it goofy and fun, but missed the mark entirely and just wound up making the whole thing distastefully cheap and pointless. What makes Willy Wonka and his story so good is the percect balance of nonsensical, dream-like whimsy (sometimes nightmarish) paired with grounding poignancy-something this movie neglected entirely, rather leaning toward a disney-like high production value cookie cutter reboot cash grab that probably would have been better off never having been attempted in the first place. All in all, this movie is extrememly disappointing and I wish Hollywood would just leave good movies alone.