These are two movies you perhaps wouldn't consider comparing. I thought the same. However, after watching Wonka, I found myself subconsciously comparing it to the previously released Journey to Bethlehem. Both movies are musicals, both were released at the end of 2023; what more do I need to be able to compare them?

I didn't particularly have high expectations for either of these films. I was looking forward to seeing them but I didn't get my hopes up because honestly, I thought they both sounded pretty ridiculous. Firstly, Journey to Bethlehem: the story of the birth of Jesus but as a musical. And then Wonka: the origin story of the crazy Willy Wonka but as a musical starring Timothée Chandelier. Don't get me wrong, I love musicals. However, some things should not be turned into musicals. Nevertheless, I should not have been too quick to judge as one of my favourite musicals is about the American founding father that everyone cares little for, and the other is literally about the death of Jesus. So maybe anything can be turned into a musical.

Either way, with both of these movies, I was expecting them to turn out amazing or be total flops. They were both trying to do something that hadn't been attempted. I don't know anyone brave enough to try and explain the thoughts behind that crazy man from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. And then making a musical about Jesus? I mean, come on.

Ok, but were they any good? Well, there's a fine line between good and entertaining. Neither of these movies nor their creators took themselves seriously. They knew that what they were making was truly absurd. And fortunately, this resulted in two hilarious movies. Were they good? Not really, but they were so entertaining. Would I nominate them for an Oscar? Aside from Timothée Champagne as Wonka himself, no. But you should so go and see these movies. You will not regret it; just don't take it too seriously. It's just like High School Musical. Is the movie good? No, it's awful. But I would not hesitate to watch it at any time.

One massive point of difference between these two films is the amount of money that went into each film. The budget for Wonka was 125 million USD, whereas Journey to Bethlehem sat at around 6 million USD. Let's just take a moment to appreciate that Journey to Bethlehem's budget was 6 million USD, whereas the average Hollywood film requires 65 million USD. That says a lot about the film on its own. But was it very noticeable that Wonka had a higher budget? Yes. Very much so. This mostly came down to the number of big names in Wonka. Of course, we have Timothée Chamaeléonidé in the lead role. But there were so many celebrity cameo appearances. (Also sidenote: I didn't know that I needed Hugh Grant playing an Oompa Loompa in my life until the day I saw this movie and ever since I have wanted more.) Journey to Bethlehem on the other hand had very few recognisable names. The only one I recognised was Antonio Banderas. However, did this impact the movie? Not in the slightest. Both of these movies had quite a lot of overacting as is the norm for a musical. This may be jarring in any other context but worked perfectly in these films. This meant that the more famous actors in Wonka were in no way superior to those in Journey to Bethlehem.

The next point of comparison is the songs. Although the Oompa Loompa song will never leave your head, I would say that the songs in Journey to Bethlehem were better than those in Wonka. I mainly say this because I've gone back and listened to the songs of Journey to Bethlehem and I've loved them (well, in the same way I love High School Musical songs). This hasn't happened with Wonka (apart from Hugh Grant's Oompa Loompa song of course). I was going to say that both of these movies utilised my good old friend autotune. However, listening more closely to the soundtracks, I think that Wonka was the only one to actually use autotune. That's an extra point for Journey to Bethlehem. The production quality of Journey to Bethlehem isn't quite as good as Wonka, but again this would be expected due to the large difference in budget. The musical numbers of Journey to Bethlehem were certainly a highlight of the movie, whereas the musical moments of Wonka caused you to roll your eyes a bit.

Scoring these kinds of movies can be hard. Again, I wouldn't call either of the movies good by this world's standards. But they are so entertaining. And maybe that's all that matters. I enjoyed Journey to Bethlehem ever so slightly more than Wonka, but I think this comes down to personal preference. I don't think it's any surprise that Wonka has performed better at the Box Office. But I would highly recommend both of these movies and you can let me know which you like more!

JOURNEY TO BETHLEHEM (PG)

Director: Adam Anders

Starring: Fiona Palamo, Milo Manheim, Antonio Banderas

Year released: 2023

My rating: 7.75/10

Compared with…

WONKA (PG)

Director: Paul King

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Hugh Grant

Year released: 2023

My rating: 7.5/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 04/02/2024