Raquel Ochoa

Wholesome family films are so far and few between these days that when I read the parents' guide to this film, I decided to pay to see it in the theater just to send the message to make more films like this. We went with a group of 10. I absolutely loved the Gene Wilder version from the same source material as a child and just hearing a few notes of pure imagination makes me tear up. Well, this prequel had me in tears. The backstory was so much better than the weird Johnny Depp version's backstory of the Dad/Dentist Evil Count Dooku against all things chocolate. By the end of this movie, I was in tears and felt like my childhood love of Willy Wonka was completely intact and respected by this prequel. I loved the integration of the old music from the original version. Roald Dahl as an author was pretty dark in my opinion, so all of the movies have to have an edge to them to stay true to the book in any sense. The gritty, real life issues brought up (and thankfully resolved) in this movie gives the audience both the grit of the Dahl world, balanced with the joy of resolution and a redemptive story.