Willy's Wonderland

Willy's Wonderland (previously known as Wally's Wonderland) is an American action comedy-horror slasher film directed by Kevin Lewis and written by G.O. Parsons. It stars Nicolas Cage, Emily Tosta, Beth Grant, and Ric Reitz. It was released straight-to-video February 12th, 2021. After its release, it garnered a dedicated fanbase and some minor controversy due to comparisons with Five Nights at Freddy's.

Plot
A quiet drifter is tricked into a janitorial job at the now condemned Willy's Wonderland. The mundane tasks suddenly become an all-out fight for survival against wave after wave of demonic animatronics. Fists fly, kicks land, titans clash -- and only one side will make it out alive.

Why It's Wonderful

 * 1) Very, very fun action sequences and fight scenes that are perfectly brutal and fast paced, with very good choreography and camera angles packed with the silly twist of the Janitor fighting creepy kids' characters. This movie essentially gives off vibes of being an action version of Child's Play.
 * 2) An awesome soundtrack with several amazing musical scores, most notably all of the animatronics' themes "The Death Anthem", "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes", "Six Little Chickens", and, of course, "It's Your Birthday!" and the movie's main theme of the same name. All these soundtracks are quite unique with the usage of dubstep, death metal and typical action/horror music tracks.
 * 3) * Speaking of the songs "Six Little Chickens" "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" "It's your Birthday!" and "Willy's Wonderland", they are insanely catchy and an absolute bop to listen to.
 * 4) Great acting from Nicolas Cage, as he manages to play the "strong silent hero" character very well, as he actually shows some emotion outside of weird noises or talking and manages to be quite memorable. Not to mention, his moments of screaming and raging in this movie are still very funny.
 * 5) Hilarious sense of humor with numerous funny jokes and self-aware moments. The running gags of Tex Macadoo's partner always chewing on a Slim Jim or Tito the Turtle saying ridiculous things in Spanish are good examples.
 * 6) Pays tribute to 80's slasher films like Killer Clowns from Outer Space with the tone and visuals. In fact, this movie fully embraces the campiness and silliness of 80's horror flicks very well and manages to even feel like one at some points.
 * 7) The animatronics (especially Ozzie Ostrich, Siren Sara and Cammy Chameleon) are very creepy and intimidating, and are very accurate to animatronics from entertainment centers like Chuck E. Cheese's or Showbiz Pizza Place.
 * 8) Amazing voice acting for the animatronics, especially Willy Weasel as he sounds extremely similar to Bugs Bunny.
 * 9) Surprisingly great special effects, especially the CGI and costumes. The latter of which being very well made and cool looking.
 * 10) The kills are creative and graphic, fully showing off this movie's splatter elements. The deaths of the robotic characters are especially creative, with a good example being the Janitor curbstomping Gus Gorilla's teeth out on a urinal.
 * 11) So many quotable moments, like "Aye, mis bolas!", "Heh, gorilla greetings!", and "Look at all these naughty birthday boys and girls, I think it's time for them to go nighty night!"
 * 12) It is a roller-coaster ride of violence that can satisfy splatter fans with its violence.
 * 13) The Willy's Wonderland building is very well made and nice-looking, and also accurate to entertainment centers back then. Speaking of the building, the inside of the building is a real treat to the eye as it's very colorful and appealing (particularly Siren Sara's Fairy Forest) and can possibly make a few viewers nostalgic for entertainment centers back then.
 * 14) The backstory behind Willy's Wonderland is very disturbing and well-written, revolving around a satanic cult of killers murdering and eating people, and then transmitting their souls into the robotic characters.
 * 15) It is a MASSIVE improvement over to a similar film, mh:awfulmovies:The Banana Splits Movie and this should also be noted that at least this film wasn't an adaptation to an actual show originally aimed towards young children -- but instead, it's a movie with it's own original characters, plot, and themes.
 * 16) * Also, unlike The Banana Splits Movie, Willy's Wonderland is self aware and clearly knows what movie it wants to be. It doesn't care about being scary, it just wants to be fun, funny and memorable. Meanwhile, The Banana Splits Movie can't tell if it wants to be a serious horror film or a simple horror-comedy.
 * 17) Due to the robots having very silly voices, it's very amusing to hear them swear.
 * 18) Very nice artwork and animation, especially the posters and animated ending. The artstyle for the Willy's Wonderland building and the ending are good looking and are quite reminiscent of Looney Tunes.
 * 19) Despite the plot being flawed, it is still at the very least passable and memorable.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) This film is an extremely obvious derivative to Five Nights at Freddy's, right down to the plot and premise.
 * 2) This movie has numerous glaring plot-holes, and might just have enough for a How it Should Have Ended video. For instance:
 * 3) * How did the teenagers fall through the roof of a concrete building?
 * 4) * How is the Janitor able to survive getting thrown against a concrete wall so hard that it cracks? That much force can crack a human ribcage.
 * 5) * How did Jeremy Robert Willis and his gang get away with their crimes for so long, and how was anyone in the building not suspicious?
 * 6) * Since Willy's Wonderland is a public building, wouldn't it have security? Even then, it's never explained why there's no security at the building. Also wouldn't the lack of any security guards increase suspicions of Willy's?
 * 7) * How on earth could Willy and the others bypass the security of a school? They are all huge and colorful, so wouldn't anyone notice them? Although this could be explained by the fact the the robots are supernatural and seem to be capable of teleportation, but it's also unexplained if it's long distance or not.
 * 8) Lots of silly decision making, like the teenagers thinking they can burn the outside of a concrete building, or the ridiculous scene where Bob and Cathy literally have sex in front of Arty Alligator and ignoring the fact that he would kill them.
 * 9) Multiple instances of very corny and cheesy dialogue, most notably "Yeah, burn baby, burn!"
 * 10) The acting from the teenage characters (Except for Emily Tosta as Liv) is pretty bad. Not to mention, the other teenagers really don't matter to the plot.
 * 11) The Janitor not speaking a single word can be disappointing for some Nic Cage fans. Also, even though the execution for the Janitor is okay, it would've made more sense for him to talk considering he would have more personality and have more room for character development.
 * 12) The green-screen effects for the night background when the teenagers are on top of the Willy's Wonderland building are laughably bad, although it is forgivable because of the movie's small budget.
 * 13) It is never explained why the Janitor always has to play the Pinball machine even when others are in danger and why the animatronic robots were malfunctioned for.
 * 14) Too much shaky camera work during the fight scenes.
 * 15) Despite the creepy robots, the movie isn't really that scary. It would at least be good if this movie tried adding in some intense or suspenseful scenes.
 * 16) The jokes are sometimes hit or miss.
 * 17) The suits are pretty good, but there are some obvious errors. The most obvious one being Tito Turtle's hand almost falling off when he charges at Liv.
 * 18) Only one of the robotic characters are portrayed by a real robot, being Ozzie Ostrich. Even then, he hardly appears in-movie.

Reception
Willy's Wonderland received mixed-to-positive reception from both critics and audiences, with audiences being more positive about it than the critics. It was praised for the visuals, the soundtrack, the humor, Nicolas Cage's acting and it's action scenes. It was, however, criticized for its plot, script, and dialogue -- especially for it being too similar to Five Nights at Freddy's. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film currently holds an approval rating of 60% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10, with the critic consensus "Willy's Wonderland isn't quite as much fun as its premise would suggest -- but it's still got Nicolas Cage beating the hell out of bloodthirsty animatronics, which is nice." The film also holds an audience approval rating of 68% with the audience consensus, "The story isn't great, but it's got a fun '80s slasher movie feel and Nicolas Cage using random objects to destroy homicidal kiddie characters. What else do you need?" Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 44 out of 100, based on 13 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews", while having a 7.6 out of 10 "generally favorable" score on Metacritic. On IMDB, it currently has a 5.5/10.

Trivia

 * It was originally intended to be called Wally's Wonderland, but was changed to Willy's Wonderland due to copyright issues.
 * Many of the animatronic characters were changed in the final product to avoid similarities with the Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics. Douglas Dog was changed to Arty Alligator, Pablo Penguin was changed to Tito Turtle, Beary Bear was changed to Gus Gorilla, and Pirate Percy was changed to Knighty Knight.
 * Emoi, the movie's music score composer, is also Willy Weasel's voice actor.
 * The movie became extremely popular online, mainly due to comparisons with Five Nights at Freddy's and Nicolas Cage's role in it. Thus, it has spawned a small cult following and several memes over time.
 * Due to nonstop comparisons with Five Nights at Freddy's, the writers of Willy's Wonderland have stated that they were aware of the games, but weren't attempting to look like them. It's still unknown if this is true or not, but judging by this films' plot -- it seems that this is unlikely.
 * It is Screen Media's most popular film so far.
 * The original test footage for the film can be viewed here.
 * Willy's Wonderland was originally scheduled for a theatrical release in fall of 2020, but due to COVID-19, it got delayed to 2021, February 12th and turned into a direct-to-video film.
 * A potential sequel is being discussed by the crew.
 * Willy Weasel's name is practically the same as the name of the weasel (Willie Weasel) in the Foghorn Leghorn Looney Tunes shorts. It is unknown if it's direct inspiration or just a coincidence.
 * Siren Sara's design seems to be based off of Tinker bell from the Peter Pan franchise.
 * This movie is going to get a comic book series set as a prequel. It is set to be released in October 2021.

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