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Back off, you little freaks!

–Mike after seeing Oompa Loompas about to sing Augustus Gloop, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Michael "Mike" Teavee is a major character in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He is the fourth Golden Ticket winner and the fourth and final child to be eliminated from the factory tour. He is played by Paris Themmen in the 1971 film adaptation and Jordan Fry in the 2005 remake. Mike Teavee is very obsessed with television (video games in the 2005 film) and also dislikes chocolate (also in the 2005 remake).

Background[]

Mike is a young boy who is obsessed with watching television, specifically, violent programs that involve shooting guns to kill people. Like Violet Beauregarde, he is shown to be American in most adaptations, but his nationality is never revealed in the book. His parents let him watch whatever he wants and serve all his meals beside the TV—instead of watching television with him like other parents.

He is the fourth child to find a Golden Ticket. Unlike the other finders, the original novel gives no explanation as to how Mike finds his Golden Ticket because he talks only about his television obsession in his newspaper interview, especially his preference for violent movies featuring gangsters. He is described as wearing "no less than eighteen toy pistols of various sizes hanging from belts around his body" and likes to act out shootings. It is also implied that he is a fan of cowboys, as he is said to have a picture of the Lone Ranger stenciled on his windbreaker when he arrives at the factory.

Movie adaptations[]

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)[]

This rendition of Mike Teavee came from the fictional town of Marble Falls, Arizona, and was faithful to the book, like most of the children. The only differences in appearance were that he did not wear a bandana over his mouth and that he wore Western-style clothing to the factory, and his favorite shows to watch on TV are Western movies and shows. He seemed more mellow in the film, and he didn't argue with Mr. Wonka as much. His parents did not seem as disappointed in Mike's obsessions. He's also not as anger-fueled (though he does get a bit irritated at the press for disrupting his television viewing) and seems to be very nice. He has three friends from back home in Marble Falls: Billy, Maggie and "Fishface". He is also very protective of those he cares about, as he pretends to shoot at one of the scary images on the wall to protect his mom during the ride on the Wonkatania.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)[]

In the 2005 film, Mike is from Denver, Colorado, and has a more contemporary wardrobe in lieu of cowboy attire, now wearing a skull t-shirt and dark jeans with white socks and Converse sneakers. His interests include the Internet and video games (especially first-person shooters) in addition to television viewing. He is confrontational with Wonka, who pretends not to understand what Mike is saying, opining that Mike shouldn't mumble so much, providing a contrast between Wonka's thought process of imagination versus Mike's based solely on logic. He only talks with Charlie one time in the movie, during their ride in the Great Glass Elevator, but seems to understand the latter's family's problems beneath his anger. Mike is more willing to talk about his Golden Ticket than his previous incarnations and provides an explanation as to how he found it, which he never did in the book or the previous film (albeit as he is playing video games). He proves to be both scientifically and economically literate: he finds his Golden Ticket by taking the derivative of the Nikkei Index and analyzing the date codes of the other ticket finds, offsetting them by the weather that day, and then calculating the location of the next ticket, thus requiring him to purchase only a single Wonka Bar. He also says that he hates chocolate and only wanted the ticket to test himself, which Grandpa George finds particularly insulting. His father (Adam Godley), who later serves as Mike's tour chaperone, laments during the press conference about his inability to understand his son's thought processes while bemoaning children's obsession with modern technology in general. Mrs. Teavee, however, doesn't seem to mind Mike's obsessions, albeit she has no speaking role, so it's unclear on what she thinks of her son's obsessions. When the five children first enter the facility, Mike is the only one whom Wonka addresses by name, adding, "You're the little devil who cracked the system." (implying he hacked the distribution of the Wonka bars). He gets along well with Charlie (as in the 1971 movie) and jumps in shock at seeing Veruca being chased by furious worker squirrels. For some reason, in spite of his claim that everything in the factory is "completely pointless", he seems impressed by Fudge Mountain.

Video Games[]

In the 1985 video game based on the book, Mike's level consists of the player having to avoid various "TV men" to collect the chocolate bars that lie around. In the 2005 film's game, Mike's story is far more explained. During chapter 3, Mike notices that Wonka's robots are not efficient enough and decides to upgrade them himself, which causes a massive short-circuit that makes the robots hostile (and turning them into the game's enemies). His endgame at the Television Room is the same as in the movie, only his shrinking damages the Television Chocolate's circuits, which causes Charlie to go inside the machine to fix the problem.

Endgame[]

In the novel and both films, Mike is stretched with a taffy puller after he shrinks himself. This insinuates that every basketball team in the world will want him because of his new height. In the novel and both films, Mike is shrunk when he disobeys Wonka's request to stay away from the Television Chocolate camera. In an attempt to distribute free samples of Wonka's candy, Television Chocolate was intended to send larger-than-life-sized Wonka Bars through television sets around the world. After the bar is teleported by the camera, it is shrunk down to normal size, and can then be extracted from the television set and consumed. The Television Chocolate camera transmits Mike to a television set across the room, shrinking him to a size that enabled him to fit within the screen. Prior to this, Wonka says he has not yet released Television Chocolate to the public because he is still trying to work out problems with the Television Chocolate camera; one time when the Oompa-Loompas experimented with the camera only half a bar of chocolate materialized, and that could be Mike's fate. In the book, Mr. Teavee remarks "Let us hope it is the top half" while Mrs. Teavee expresses horror.

In the 2005 film, Mr. Teavee thinks Wonka is being absurd asking a question about which half of Mike would he prefer. In the book and the 2005 film, Mike is left with a very high, squeaky voice after being shrunk. Wonka orders him to be stretched to his normal size in the gum-stretching machine (taffy puller in both films). But the that they could at least fatten Mike up with his special vitamins, with all save for Vitamin H, because it makes one grow horns like a goat, and Vitamin S, because it makes one sick. It includes Vitamin Wonka, which makes one's toes grow as long as one's fingers. Willy Wonka says this will be ideal for Mike as he will be able to play the piano with his feet.

In the book and the 1971 film, Mike sends himself through the Television Chocolate machine simply due to his television fanaticism. In the novel, when his parents lament the loss of his ability to attend school or engage in society, he asserts his retained ability to watch television, whereupon his father finally blames the television set for Mike's behavior and attitude, and swears to "throw it out the window" once they get home, much to Mike's rage. This can be used in the theatrical versions if a director chooses to show the parents of the "rotten" children realizing the errors in raising them, but recent real-world studies reveal it just makes a child's fury worse. Mike's demise was also supposed to come before Miranda Piker's as well.

In the 1971, the ultimate fate of Mike Teavee is not shown.

In the 2005 movie, Mike sends himself through the machine to demonstrate its potential use as a "teleporter", after becoming frustrated that Wonka never considered using the machine in any other context beyond distribution of his products. After realizing that he has been shrunk by his trip through the machine after his mistake, Mike tells Wonka to "put him back through the other way" and return him to normal size, but unfortunately the process is seemingly irreversible, so Wonka then suggests to stretch him in the taffy puller. Unfortunately, this process is overdone and he is transformed into a very thin giant.

Differences[]

In the original book and the 1971 film as noted above, Mike is obsessed with television; in the book he is also crazy about cowboy and gangster movies; in the 1971 film he acts more like a "Dennis the menace" kid getting himself into trouble {for example chewing exploding candy in the Invention room despite Wonka orders not to touch anything}; in the 2005 film although he has a knowledge of Television, science, and mathematics..he has a violent streak in him in which in the Chocolate Falls mixing room causes him to stomp on and destroy the eatable candy.

Musical Adaptations[]

Willy Wonka Jr.[]

Mike is revealed to be from Television City, California (likely a reference to Los Angeles) in this adaptation. In addition to his television viewing, Mike is also into video games and owns a cell phone that he uses to talk to his friends as well as a desktop computer in his room. However, to his parents, he is a bit rude and rather snarky. His song is called "I See It All on TV".

West End[]

In the 2013 stage adaptation of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", performed at the Theatre Royal in London, Mike was portrayed by child actor Jay Heyman. His character here bears a resemblance to that of his 2005 incarnation, in that he wears dark, modern clothing and is completely fixated on his video games. During his interview ("It's Teavee Time!"), Mrs. Teavee is forced to rip his game controller away from him to get him to even acknowledge Cherry Sundae (the reporter), which prompts him to burst out shouting into song. During these moments, the music turns rapid and electronic and the lighting dims to exclusively be on Mike, the solos ending in him pointing a finger gun at either the audience or Cherry with a gleeful cry of "Die!" It is through these that he explains (like in the 2005 film) that he won the golden ticket by hacking into Wonka's computer and finding his password, "goldenstar", never even having to buy a bar to win the competition.

Mrs. Teavee explains that, due to Mike's obscene behavior (stealing a German tank, chloroforming a nurse, etc.), the authorities have asked the Teavee family to keep him inside at all times, hence why they stick him in front of the television to get him to behave. It's also described that they use medication to keep him calmed down, specifically Ritalin.

Broadway[]

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" opened in 2017 at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, with the role of Mike instead being played by an adult: Michael Wartella (this was done for all of the golden ticket winners besides Charlie in order to really emphasize the Bucket child's innocence). His appearance is still very modernized, yet even more so: he wears both dark and very bright colors, with the typical skull t-shirt, orange jacket, and camouflage pants, with his hair sticking straight up under a black-and-white baseball cap. He wears white headphones and has two lanyards on- one that holds his golden ticket and one that holds his iPad. It's not explained exactly what he has done, but Mrs. Teavee makes a side remark in his interview about the mayor letting him take his ankle monitor off for the afternoon. Though his rotten behavior is not elaborated on in this version, it shows very clearly that he's blatantly rude and nasty for the love of it- he's constantly shoving off his mother's affections, shouting over her in the interview ("What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"), and is immediately hateful to Wonka when they step into the factory, stating that the chocolatier "knows where he can stick it". He also doesn't seem to have much sympathy for the other golden ticket winners, exclaiming "That was so cool!" after Veruca's dismemberment.

In this version, it is again explained that Mike hacked into Wonka's mainframe in order to get his golden ticket. He also seems much more enthusiastic about his success in the competition, despite claiming that he isn't a Wonka fan- throughout his solo in "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?", he brags about how "Mike Teavee is changing up the USA". When he's introduced, he's also surrounded by an entourage, who clings onto his every word as he brags about his success in winning the golden ticket, all the while insulting Wonka for being such an easy victim. As his mother sings the introductory song, he eventually begins playing on his phone, uninterested now that the attention is no longer on him.

Fate[]

Much like in the books and movies, Mike meets his doom in the TV room, shrinking himself down to go inside the television and hopping from channel to channel until they are able to retrieve him ("Vidiots"). However, he is not stretched back out in the end, Mrs. Teavee expresses her relief that he is unable to cause his usual trouble, anymore, and brings him home as-is. This makes him the only of the four other golden ticket winners to survive their tour through the factory in the musical adaptations.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

  • In early drafts of the book, Mike was going to be called Herpes Trout.
  • ”Teavee” is a pun on TV.
Charlie and the chocolate factory poster2 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Augustus-Gloop-charlie-and-the-chocolate-factory-31958202-1024-768-1-
Characters

Augustus Gloop · Veruca Salt · Charlie Bucket · Willy Wonka · Grandpa Joe · Grandma Josephine · Grandpa George · Grandma Georgina · Hellen Bucket · Mr. Bucket · Angina Salt · Rupert Salt · Mrs. Gloop · Mr. Gloop · Violet Beauregarde · Scarlett Beauregarde · Sam Beauregarde · Mike Teavee · Norman Teavee · Mrs. Teavee · Reporters · Oompa Loompas

Locations in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory

Glass Elevator · Willy Wonka's yacht · Chocolate Room · Marshmallow Room · Factory Gates · Fudge Room · Chocolate River · Storeroom Number 54 · Cream Room · Whip Room · Bean Room · Inventing Room · Gum Machine · Edible Marshmallow Pillows Room · Lickable Wallpaper Room · Hot Ice Creams Room · Cows that give Chocolate Milk Room · Fizzy Lifting Drink · Square Candies that look round Room · Nut Room · Television Room

Franchises

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory · Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005 video game) · Charlie and the Chocolate Factory the Musical · Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1985 video game) · Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) · Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (film)

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