Roald Dahl was a bit of a jerk. Honestly, if you look at the biographies, he wasn't always the whimsical grandfather figure the book covers suggest. He was prickly. He was complicated. And his 1977 short story collection, The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and Six More, captures that edge perfectly. It’s not just for kids. In fact, most of it really isn't. When Wes Anderson decided to tackle the title story for Netflix, people wondered if his aesthetic—all those symmetrical rooms and pastel colors—would finally eat the narrative alive.
It didn't.
Actually, The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar might be the most "Dahl" thing ever put on screen. Anderson didn't just adapt the story; he staged it. He turned it into a meta-theatrical experience where actors break the fourth wall constantly, narrating their own actions while stagehands literally swap out the sets behind them. It’s fast. Like, really fast. You have to pay attention or you'll miss a pivotal plot point about a man who can see through playing cards.
The Man Who Could See Without Using His Eyes
Let’s get into the meat of it. Henry Sugar is a rich, bored man. He’s the kind of guy who lives off inherited wealth and spends his days wondering how to get even richer without actually doing any work. One day, he finds a medical report in a library. This isn't some boring tax document. It’s a journal about a man in India named Imdad Khan, who claimed he could see without using his eyes.
Sugar gets obsessed. He realizes that if he can master this "yoga" technique, he can go to any casino in the world and clean them out. He’d be able to see the face of every card before the dealer even flips it.
Why the Imdad Khan sequence matters
The story within a story is where Anderson shines. Ben Kingsley plays Imdad Khan, and he delivers his lines with a deadpan precision that feels both mystical and grounded. The film follows Khan’s journey to a jungle where he meets a yogi who teaches him the art of concentration.
It’s not magic. That’s the point Dahl was making. It’s focus.
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The technique involves staring at a candle flame until the image is burned into your mind, then moving to more complex visualizations. In the movie, this is shown through layers of sets moving in and out. It’s a literal representation of peeling back the layers of the mind. Khan eventually performs for doctors, proving he can see through a thick bandage of dough and cloth. It’s incredible, but it's also a tragedy because the effort eventually costs him his life.
How The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar Breaks the Rules of Cinema
Most movies try to make you forget you’re watching a movie. They want "immersion." Anderson does the opposite. In The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar, Benedict Cumberbatch (who plays Henry) will look right at you and say, "I walked across the room," while he is literally walking across the room.
It’s weird. It’s jarring. And it works.
Why? Because it mimics the act of reading. When you read a book, you are aware of the author's voice. Dahl’s voice was always present in his prose—cynical, observant, and slightly mean-spirited. By having the characters narrate their own descriptions, Anderson keeps Dahl’s specific rhythm alive.
- The dialogue is clipped.
- The movements are mechanical.
- The sets are clearly made of wood and paint.
- The "special effects" are mostly just clever stagecraft.
This isn't a CGI-heavy blockbuster. It’s a 39-minute masterpiece of efficiency. It won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film in 2024, and it deserved it. Not just because it looks pretty, but because it respects the audience's intelligence. It assumes you can keep up with a script that moves at 200 words per minute.
The Transformation of a Scoundrel
The real heart of the story isn't the gambling. It's what happens after.
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Once Henry Sugar masters the ability to see through cards, he goes to a casino. He wins. Big. He walks away with thousands of pounds. But here’s the kicker: he realizes he’s bored. The thrill of gambling was the risk of losing. Without the risk, the money feels like nothing.
This is where the story shifts from a "heist" vibe to something much more philosophical. Henry starts throwing money off his balcony. Literally. He causes a riot in the street because people are fighting over the bills. A police officer yells at him, telling him that if he wants to do good, he should do it properly.
So, Henry Sugar decides to build orphanages.
He spends the rest of his life traveling the world in various disguises—makeup, wigs, fake names—winning money from greedy casino owners and funnelling it into charitable foundations. By the time he dies, he’s a legend, but nobody knows what he actually looks like.
The Dahl-Anderson Synergy
Wes Anderson has done Dahl before with Fantastic Mr. Fox. But that was stop-motion. It was warm. The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar is colder, sharper. It deals with the idea of a life well-spent versus a life wasted. Ralph Fiennes plays Roald Dahl himself in the film, sitting in his famous writing hut (Gipsy House), surrounded by his odd trinkets. This framing device reminds us that these stories come from a specific, slightly eccentric human mind.
Things You Might Have Missed
If you’ve only watched it once, you probably missed some of the subtle connections. Anderson released three other shorts at the same time: The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poison. They all use the same small troupe of actors (Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes).
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Watching them in a row feels like watching a repertory theater company put on a weekend marathon.
In The Rat Catcher, Fiennes is unrecognizable. In The Swan, Rupert Friend delivers a monologue that is genuinely heartbreaking. But The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar remains the anchor. It’s the only one that feels truly "grand" despite its short runtime.
Practical Insights for the Modern Viewer
If you're going to dive into this, don't treat it like a background movie. You can't scroll through your phone while watching this. You'll lose the thread in about twelve seconds.
- Watch the "Henry Sugar" short first. It’s the most accessible of the four Dahl shorts on Netflix.
- Look at the background. The stagehands moving the furniture are part of the story. It’s a nod to the "artifice" of storytelling.
- Read the original story afterward. It’s found in the collection The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar and Six More. You’ll notice that Anderson barely changed a word of the prose; he just changed how it’s delivered.
- Notice the color palette. Notice how it shifts from the dusty, warm tones of India to the cooler, more clinical greys and blues of Henry’s London life. It tells you exactly how Henry feels about his environment.
There is a common misconception that Wes Anderson is all style and no substance. This film proves the opposite. The style is the substance. By stripping away the "realism" of traditional movies, he forces you to focus on the morality of the tale. Is Henry Sugar a hero? Sort of. Is he a fraud? In a way. But he found a way to use a selfish obsession to change the world.
That’s a very Dahl-esque ending. It’s not "happily ever after" in the Disney sense. It’s a quiet, secretive victory for a man who learned to see the world for what it really was.
To get the most out of your viewing, try to watch the entire collection of shorts in one sitting. It takes about two hours total. You'll see the actors transform between roles, which adds a layer of appreciation for the craft that most modern cinema lacks. This isn't just content; it's a specific, deliberate piece of art that rewards repeat viewings and a bit of curiosity about the man who wrote the words in the first place.