Prequel Depicts Young Willy Wonka Using Rich Father’s Investment To Buy Already-Successful Chocolate Factory

BURBANK, CA—Delving into the eccentric character’s backstory to explain how he became so famous, a new prequel from Warner Bros. tells the tale of a young Willy Wonka using his rich father’s money to purchase an already-successful chocolate factory, which he renames after himself. “Wonka is the origin story of the world’s most beloved chocolatier, whose billionaire dad gives him $50 million to buy a controlling stake in a highly profitable company, allowing the twentysomething to become a major player in the confectionery industry without paying any dues,” New York Times critic Eric Beaumann writes of the film, in which an inexperienced Wonka displays no business acumen and repeatedly ignores the advice of his oil tycoon father, who points out the investment would turn a much higher profit if they simply put it in an index fund. “The movie gives us plenty of the iconic character’s trademark eccentricities, especially when he lays off the Wonka Chocolate Factory’s experienced workers and replaces them with Oompa Loompas, whom he can pay less. When this results in low-quality candy that is unpopular with the public, Willy’s company seems to be in trouble. But in a memorable and poignant scene, his dad agrees to save the factory from ruin, keeping it afloat with periodic infusions of capital and using it as a tax write-off.” Beaumann went on to praise the film’s dramatic climax, in which Wonka and his father must attend a Federal Trade Commission hearing.