‘Wonka’s’ Flying Air Ballet Sequence Took Months to Prepare and Three Days to Shoot
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans Editor In Paul King’s “Wonka,” there is a scene where Noodle (Calah Lane) and Willy Wonka (Timothee Chalamet) have to sneak into a zoo so he can produce his one-of-a-kind chocolate.
There the duo meets Abigail the giraffe and milks her. It cues up the musical number “For a Moment” where they fly over way the town’s Galeria and back into the town square.
The scene was choreographer Christopher Gattelli’s favorite and took three days to shoot, but dancing came second nature for Chalamet.
Gattelli says the script gave little direction. “Paul and I were going through the script and when we got to the part after they meet the giraffe, the line says, ‘Willie runs on water and they fly over the Galleria.’ I asked him what he was thinking and he wanted the most economical way to get them back.” That opened up a world of opportunity to use dance as a way of moving the fantastical story along, and to get the main characters back to where they needed to be. “Noodle’s in this place where she doesn’t trust anyone and he’s trying to break through to her,” he explains.
Read more on variety.com