By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
Sometimes, a prequel for a beloved franchise gets announced that leaves old-school fans asking a simple question: “Who the heck asked for this?” And one of the most cherished film franchises of all is Willy Wonka, which began with the classic Gene Wilder literary adaptation that was later remade into a soulless bit of expired chocolate starring Johnny Depp. The most recent entry in the franchise is the prequel Wonka, and while its initial announcement ruffled more than a few feathers, you can stream this surprisingly successful film for free on Tubi.
The Origin Of Willy Wonka
When you watch Wonka on Tubi (just think of the platform as streaming’s own creepy boat ride!), you’ll discover a surprisingly complex plot about our title character beginning his career as an illiterate dreamer. He has an innate skill with all things chocolate, but he can’t make his dreams into reality unless he can overcome the combined forces of a slaver and a Chocolate Cartel (no, really). Wonka is great at making both comrades and confections, but that may not be enough to overcome the powerful forces who will stop at nothing to crush his delicious dreams.
If you’re like many Willy Wonka fans and hesitant to stream the new film on Tubi, you should know this prequel has an awesome cast, including Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean himself) as a quirky cleric. Other cast members include Love Actually icon Hugh Grant as an Oompa-Loompa and Key & Peele star Keegan-Michael Key as a Chief of Police with a major sweet tooth. But the biggest star of the show is Timothée Chalamet, playing a Wonka as sugary sweet as his Dune: Part Two character was calculatingly cold.
As mentioned before, many fans of the original film were skeptical of Wonka, but before the prequel landed on Tubi, it brought in a box office that practically soared (and all without fizzy lifting drinks). Against a budget of $125 million, it earned $634.4 million, proving that audiences really were ready for another cinematic serving of this classic Roald Dahl character. Thanks to these sweet, sweet profits, director Paul King confirmed that development of a sequel was now underway, meaning we could be dangerously close to a Wonka cinematic universe.
Wonka On Tubi
In the meantime, Wonka stands alone as a surprisingly engaging story despite all of its complex moving parts. Critics certainly thought so: on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critical score of 82 percent. If that’s not a compelling reason to stream Wonka on Tubi, it received a whopping audience score of 90 percent, meaning that the prequel everyone trashed when it was first announced managed to do the impossible: win critics and audiences alike over in a powerful way.
Will you find Wonka as much of a sweet treat as critics and audiences did when you stream it on Tubi, or will you think this is the most unnecessary prequel since The Phantom Menace? Like determining whether Wonka’s chocolate factory is as magical as people claim, the only way to be sure is check it out for yourself. Fortunately, no golden ticket is necessary…this movie is streaming completely for free, and it may be the one film that finally makes you embrace the necessary evil of Hollywood’s prequel priorities.