In a year of “Barbie,” Harry Styles and Taylor Swift, we now get Timothee Chalamet as Willy Wonka. Wonka, of course, was created by the now problematic British author Roald Dahl in his 1964 novel “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory.” Dahl has recently been accused of antisemitism and racism.

Wonka has been portrayed previously by the great Gene Wilder in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” a film I have never liked, directed by documentary filmmaker Mel Stuart (“Wattstax”). More recently, Johnny Depp played Wonka in Tom Burton’s 2005 effort “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” another film I was not enthusiastic about, although at least it was deeply weird.

“Wonka,” which was directed by Paul King of those pleasant enough “Paddington” films, is certainly sugary enough,  maybe too sugary. It is a prequel to “Charlie & the Chocolate Factory,” an “origin film” co-written by King and his co-writer Simon Farnaby (“Paddington 2”). Wonka first appears on the mast of a ship, which he has sailed on the high seas for seven years, singing of his “hat full of dreams,” referring to his chocolate colored top hat. Wonka, who also wears a long purple coat, lands in an imaginary London, where he encounters two villains: Mrs. Scrubbit (Olivia Colman), the decidedly Dickensian sadist who runs a boarding house and laundry, where Wonka is turned into an indentured servant; and the chocolate cartel headed by the evil Misters Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas) and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton). The cartel will not allow Willy to open his much-dreamed-about chocolate shop or even to sell his chocolates in the street. Keegan-Michael Key plays the film’s chocoholic and ballooning Chief of Police, a pawn of the cartel.

Also in the cast of characters is Noodle (an appealing Calah Lane), an “Annie” knockoff in search of her roots (you half expect her to break into “Tomorrow”). Also noteworthy are Tom Davis as Mrs. Scrubbit’s loving enforcer Bleacher; and “Downton Abbey” veteran Jim Carter as croaking launderer and accountant named (really?) Abacus Crunch. Rowan Atkinson, the screen’s Mr. Bean, is mostly wasted as the conniving local priest Father Julius.

Willy is both a chocolatier and a magician. He makes chocolates that cause people to levitate and he can pull a lot of things out of that hat. “Wonka” is also a musical, and we hear songs by Joby Talbot and Neil Hannon that become production numbers such as “Scrub Scrub.” The songs do not exactly make us tap out feet, but are sufficient, if also forgettable. We see sentimental flashbacks to Wonka as a boy (Colin O’Brien) and his beloved chocolate-making mum (Sally Hawkins). He cherishes a chocolate wrapper she once made. Chalamet (“Dune”), whose hair-style has been adopted by a lot of adolescent boys, is not a great singer or dancer. Speaking and singing in a soft British accent, he’s hardly the world’s greatest showman. But he can carry a tune and is a pleasant enough companion. He’s like an unusually handsome, clean and polite Uber driver.

Instead of multiple Oompa-Loompas, who were once depicted as African pygmies, we get only one in an Oompa-Loompa named Lofty in “Wonka,” played by a digitally-transformed, orange-colored Hugh Grant, who has said that he hated playing the role. But the truth is the film comes to life whenever Lofty’s on the screen. Get ready to find an Oompa-Loompa wig under your Christmas tree.

(“Wonka” contains mature themes)

“Wonka”

Rated PG. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters. Grade: B