Tonight I went with my wife and son and some friends from church to go see Wonka, a PG movie that was a thinly-veiled re-imagination of the drug wars of the 1980s. Young and idealistic Wonka comes to town to move his product, a drug that is far better than anything anyone has ever seen, causing people to get high in a delirious kind of way. But the drug cartels that exist plot to have Wonka put out of business, robbing him of his initial profits and confiscating what remains of his stock. They did this because they know his product is far superior and fear what might happen if Wonka is allowed to push in their territories. Eventually, Wonka finds himself destitute and working in a sweatshop under the cruel terrors of local profiteers.
Yet Wonka won't give up, and with the aid of a young girl and others who have been imprisoned, he finds a way to get his product out on the street, once again driving its consumers to ecstasy, so good is his drug. Eventually through various slights of hand, he becomes a 'legitimate' dealer alongside the more established pushers in town, but seeing how their profits have gone down, the cartel seeks to have Wonka decimated. They utilize Wonka's former sweatshop masters to poison his product, and bribe various corrupted police and religious entities to do their bidding. Eventually Wonka himself gets discouraged, and having won the release of his fellow prisoners (or so he thinks), he leaves town. But the cartel owners know that Wonka will eventually return, so they plot to kill him by blowing up his boat.
Wonka discovers in a nick of time the plot, and miraculously survives the assassination attempt. As he makes his way back to the city, he plots his revenge. With the help of his former fellow prisoners, he exposes the corruption of the cartel and the police. His plan works at first, as he is on the verge of finding their secret records. But the cartel leaders quickly discover the plan, and Wonka is captured and left to die a terrible death of drowning in the drug mixture. Fortunately once again Wonka is saved by somebody he had once thought to be his blood enemy and he escapes.
Finally out in the town square Wonka confronts the cartel leaders and corrupted authorities. The drug bosses think they have the upper hand, but soon are hoisted upon their own petard because they had so enjoyed Wonka's product. Wonka is now free to be the sole drug kingpin in his new adopted city, and everybody lives happily ever after.
Oh, and there's a giraffe and an orange midget and a lot of great song and dance numbers along the way.
7/10
