“Purple” and “Wonka” revive musical movies

At times, it seemed like Hollywood had made its last musical.
The genre felt wobbly and weary. And then …
Well, then we got bursts like this, with two big-deal musicals side-by-side in theaters. They are opposites: “Wonka” starts in a place of joy, “The Color Purple” (shown here) in a place of despair. Yet they both stir us, musically and emotionally.
Both are doing fine at the box office. Both have been praised by critics … and, oddly, snubbed by the Golden Globes. In a generally weak category (best comedy or musical), neither drew a best-picture nomination; they had to settle for acting nods – Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks in “Color Purple,” Timothee Chalamet as Wonka.
(The Globes will be Sunday, Jan. 7, on CBS; a week later, the Critics Choice awards on CW have “Purple” with five nominations, including best picture.)
But no matter how that turns out, these are terrific pictures. “Purple” stirs deep emotions, “Wonka” sparks simple joy; both remind us how good a musical can be.
The genre soared in the 1940s and ‘50s. As Jeanine Basinger wrote in “American Cinema” (Rizzoli, 1994), it gave us “Gene Kelly dancing in the rain; Judy Garland, lips trembling as she looked over the rainbow; and a sense that, if a man and a woman truly loved one another the way that Jeanette McDonald and Nelson Eddy did, they would step back and sing at each other with a vengeance.”
Such musicals faded away … until the Julie Andrews surge — “Mary Poppins” for Disney in 1964, “The Sound of Music” for 20th Century Fox in ‘65.
Then things fell apart, Scott Eyman wrote in “20th Century Fox” (Running Press, 2021):
“’The Sound of Music’ was the last hurrah for a certain kind of Hollywood musical. The vast majority of the musicals that followed were financial as well as critical disasters.
“The Fox representative who attended preview screenings of ‘Doctor Dolittle’ reported that even children were walking out. Richard Zanuck (the Fox chief) referred to ‘Star’ as ‘our Edsel,’ which was unfair to the Edsel.”
Musicals seemed to disappear … then kept returning. There were animated gems, led by “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast.” There was a huge boost from Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote songs for “Moana,” “Encanto” and “In the Heights.” And there was Steven Spielberg’s masterful “West Side Story” reboot.
Two years later, Spielberg is back. He directed the original “Color Purple” (1985), finding upbeat moments amid the pain. Oprah Winfrey, who had a supporting role in the film, produced the Broadway-musical version; together, they produced this movie.
Again, it has all the deep pain inflicted by men and by whites, but it keeps rippling with resilience and zest. And now it has the music to reflect that.
For “Wonka,” that’s no problem; the joy is there from the opening moments. This is a prequel to a good movie (the 1971 “Williy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory”) and a great one (Tim Burton’s 2005 “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”). It has visual and musical splendor, plus a neatly downsized Hugh Grant. Movie musicals can do things like that.