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Plot[]

One crisp snowy day, some kids from school were running to the Candy Store and the candy man sings "The Candy Man" song. after Charlie watching, he goes and a man gives him his weekly pay, which Charlie uses to buy a loaf of bread on his way home, he passes the legendary Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. A mysterious tinker recites the lines of William Allingham's poem "The Fairies", and tells Charlie, "Nobody ever goes in, and nobody ever comes out." Charlie rushes home to his widowed mother and his four bedridden grandparents. Later that night after he tells Grandpa Joe about the tinker, Joe explains that Charlie was right and told him it was revealed that Wonka locked the factory. When Charlie asked why did Wonka locked the factory Grandpa Joe explained because of his rival, Mr. Slugworth, and other candy makers sent spies dressed as employees to steal Wonka's recipes. Wonka disappeared, but three years later began selling more candy. The origin of Wonka's labour force is a mystery.

To buy a Wonka Bar, he has change left that he uses to buy another Wonka bar that he intends to bring to his family. On leaving the candy store, he learns from the street that the millionaire was a fraud; one ticket is still at large. When Charlie opens the chocolate bar, he finds a golden ticket. While racing home, he is confronted by the sinister man seen whispering to the other winners. The man introduces himself as Slugworth and he offers to pay Charlie for a sample of Wonka's latest creation, the Everlasting Gobstopper.

Relieved that he is able to walk, Charlie chooses Joe as his chaperone. The next day, Wonka greets the children and their chaperones at the factory gates. Each is required to sign an extensive contract before the tour begins. The factory is a psychedelic wonderland that includes a river of chocolate, edible mushrooms, lickable wallpaper, and other marvelous inventions. Wonka's workers are small, orange-skinned, green-haired Oompa-Loompas.

Willy Wonka tries to get Augustus away from the chocolate river as he tries to get a drink. Augustus falls in and is whisked through a pipe which leads to the fudge room. Wonka summons an Oompa Loompa to guide Mrs. Gloop to the "Fudge Room" before Augustus is boiled.

After a terrifying boat ride through a tunnel filled with strange visions and sounds, the group arrive at Wonka's "Inventing Room". The children are each given a sample of Wonka's Everlasting Gobstopper. Mr. Wonka shows the group his latest invention, a machine that makes a three-course meal gum. But he tells the group it still has a few flaws and is not ready for consumption yet. Violet ignores his warning and tries it anyway. When she gets to the dessert stage, blueberry pie, the defect happens and she turns blue, fills with juice and inflates into a giant, round human blueberry. The group can only watch as Violet tries to waddle away in embarrassment. Wonka summons a group of Oompa Loompas to roll Violet away to the juicing room at once. She must be squeezed back to normal before the swelling causes her to explode.

Veruca throws a tantrum after Wonka refuses to sell her a "golden goose", and falls down a garbage chute. Mike is shrunk to a few inches in height after being transmitted by "Wonkavision", a broadcasting technology that sends objects through space instead of pictures, despite Wonka's warnings. The Oompa-Loompas guide each child's parents to a place where they might rescue their children. Charlie ask Mr. Wonka what will happen to the other children. Mr. Wonka tells Charlie not to worry and that "When they leave the factory they will be completely restored to their normal, rotten, terrible selves. But maybe a little bit wiser."

During the tour, Charlie and Grandpa Joe also succumb to temptation. They stay behind in the "Bubble Room" and secretly sample Fizzy Lifting Drinks. They begin floating skyward, and are nearly whisked into a giant ceiling mounted exhaust fan. To avoid this grisly fate, they burp repeatedly until they return to ground level. Wonka initially seems unaware of the incident, but when Charlie is eventually the only remaining child on the tour, Wonka dismisses him and Grandpa Joe then leaves for his office. Charlie and Joe follow Wonka to ask about Charlie's lifetime supply of chocolate. Wonka tells them that Charlie won't be getting the prize, thus he had broken the rules. When Grandpa Joe says that they didn't even saw any rules, Wonka angrily responds that they violated the contract by stealing Fizzy Lifting Drinks and therefore won't recive anything before he dismisses them. Angered by what Wonka said, Grandpa Joe scolds back to Wonka and acts mean until Wonka dismisses them again. Now Joe wants revenge, and decides that he and Charlie give Slugworth the Gobstopper, but Charlie returns the Gobstopper to Wonka instead and apologizes. Wonka's concerned look fades to a fascinated impression and then says to Charlie that he has won, and begs for forgiveness. Then Wonka reveals that Slugworth is actually "Mr. Wilkinson", a fellow employee of Wonka, and the offer to buy the Gobstopper was a morality test which only Charlie passed. Wonka then takes Charlie and Grandpa Joe in the Great Glass Elevator which he calls the "Wonkavator". While flying up in the air in the Wonkavator, Wonka then reveals to Charlie that the actual prize is the factory, and says that he and his family can move into the factory immediately. Charlie will take over the factory when Wonka retires.

Main Cast[]

Actors Portraying the Oompa Loompas

Musical Numbers[]

Trivia[]

  • Here are lots of secrets and facts about this movie:
    • Pay attention to Wonkatania in the movie, there are exactly enough seats for everyone, which means that Wonka knew that one child would already be gone.
    • When the kids enter the Chocolate Room, and they see the candy gardens, their reactions are real; it was the first time that they saw that part of the set. They were not allowed to see the set beforehand because Mel Stuart wanted to get a real reaction out of the kids.
      • In fact, he did not allow Charlie to be warned that Wonka would be yelling at him at the very end and no one was warned about the scary tunnel scene.
    • The chocolate river was made of water, chocolate and cream, (and some food colouring,) After filming the movie, the chocolate river quickly turned rancid and created a disgusting odor that permeated the sound stage and left a terrible smell.
    • Gene Wilder said that he would only participate the film under one condition: He wanted to do a somersault in the scene when he first meets the children. When asked why, the actor said that having Willy Wonka start limping and end up somersaulting would set the tone for that character. He wanted to portray him as someone whose actions are completely unpredictable. His request was granted.
    • The Wonkatania boat was on a track in the chocolate river; but the actor playing the Oompa Loompa at the helm thought he was actually steering it. For the sake of believability, director Mel Stuart lied to him.
    • The actor who played Grandpa George, Ernst Ziegler, was nearly blinded from poison gas in World War I. So he was instructed to look for a red light to guide him when his character was supposed to be looking in a certain direction.
    • Julie Dawn Cole (as Veruca Salt) smashed a watermelon-sized chocolate egg in the chocolate room that she didn't know was real. She severely cut her left knee as she fell onto it, and if you watch carefully, in her first see, you can see that her left stocking is bloody. She still has a scar on her knee from the injury.
    • Denise Nickerson (as Violet Beauregarde) did not want to do the nose-picking bit. She had a crush on Peter Ostrum (as Charlie Bucket) and did not want to embarrass herself, Veruca had a crush on Charlie too, except he didn't really seem that interested in them back.
    • This movie was shot in Munich, Germany, but the producers had to travel outside Germany to recruit enough little people to play the Oompa Loompas. Many of the people who play the Oompa Loompas do not speak English respectively, This is why some of the Oompa Loompas do not know the words to the song during their musical numbers.
    • Sammy Davis Jr. wanted to play Bill, the candy store owner, but Mel Stuart did not like that idea because he felt the presence of a big star in the candy store scene would break the reality. Nevertheless, the candy store song, "The Candy Man", became a staple of Davis' stage show for many years.
    • In the "Candy Man" scene in the candy store, shortly after Bill dispenses the sodas from the soda fountain, he flips open a pass-through on the counter and it hits the little girl under the chin, knocking her head back.
    • The foam used to spurt out in the "Wonka Wash" scene was made from basic fire extinguishers. But the foam was a potent skin irritant, so after shooting the scene, the actors were left in considerable discomfort when their skin puffed up and reportedly required several days of medical treatment and recovery.
    • During the boat ride scene, Gene Wilder's acting was so convincing that it frightened some of the other actors, including Denise Nickerson, Apparently they thought that Gene Wilder was going way off script during the scary tunnel scene.
    • The song that Wonka sings on the boat ride ("There's no earthly way of knowing...) are the only song lyrics taken from Roald Dahl's book. All other songs were written specifically for the film.
    • Peter Ostrum, the actor who plays Charlie Bucket, retired from acting after this film. He instead became a veterinarian. Julie Dawn Cole is the only Wonka child who is still acting.
    • Mike Teavee's father's line "Not 'till you're twelve, son." took over 40 takes to film.
    • The picture held up by the Paraguayan newscaster announcing the finder of the Last Golden Ticket is of Nazi henchman Martin Bormann.
    • Before entering the Inventing Room, Willy Wonka gives an introductory speech in a German, with an accent, but otherwise phonetically and grammatically correct. It goes "Menie Herrschaften, schenken Sie mir Ihre Aufmerksamkeit, Sie komme jetzt in den interessantesten und gleichzeitig gehemisten Raum meiner Fabrik. Menie Damen und Herren: der 'Inventing Room'". He even pronounces the German R correctly, and even says 'Inventing Room' in a proper German accent. The speech transalates: "Ladies and gentlemen, please give me your attention. You now come into the most interesting room of my factory, Ladies and gentlemen: the 'Inventing Room'".
    • The film was originally financed by The Quaker Oats Company. they wanted to tie the film to a new candy bar they were going to release, so the film was renamed from "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to "Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory" in order to promote this candy-tie in. When the film was released, the company began marketing its Wonka chocolate bars. Unfortunately, an error in the chocolate formula caused the bars to melt too easily, even while they are on the shelf, so they were removed the market. Nestle now owns the Wonka Candy Company.
    • Most of the chocolate bars in the film were actually made of wood.
    • All six members of Monty Python: Graham Chapman, John Clesse, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Micheal Palin, expressed in playing the lead role, but they were deemed not big enough names for an international audience.
    • The Boeing 707 shown in the film having Wonka bars unloaded, named, "Jet Clipper Climax," was destroyed in a crash in Bali, Indonesia 1974 with 107 lives lost.
    • Director Mel Stuart initially wanted to reveal that Willy Wonka had strategically placed the golden tickets in order to give the factory to Charlie. The idea was dropped, but the hints remained in the fact that Mr. Wilkinson (aka "Slugworth") conveniently showed up every time a ticket was uncovered.
    • When Peter Ostrum was offered his part, there was no script, so the studio offered him just the full book.
    • Several days after filming, the blue make-up on Denise Nickerson's face started resurfacing from her pores while she was in math class.
    • In Wonka's office at the end of the movie, Charlie's stunned reaction to the candy maker yelling at him is real. Ostrum was not informed in advance that Willy would be yelling at Charlie. Stuart felt that doing it that way would provide a better, more real, reaction from Charlie. Wilder said that he wanted more than anything to warn Peter about the yelling in advance because they had become such good friends during the production, and he wanted Ostrum to be assured that he was only acting, but Stuart forbade it.
    • In Director Mel Stuart's original ideas, the last line of the movie was almost "Yippee!" but then Stuart rewrote the last part of the movie.
    • Universal Studios is building a Willy Wonka Inspired Chocolate Factory
    • Gene Wilder takes a bite out of wax when he takes a bite of the teacup in his Chocolate Room. He would often spit it out once after the director yelled "CUT!".
    • The movie took approximately nine weeks to film.

Goofs[]

  • When Charlie and Grandpa Joe drink the fizzy lifting drink and are floating in to the air, you can see a hook that is connected to the wire that Charlie is being held up by.
  • When Violet turns into a blueberry you can see a reflection of the blue light in her hair. But in the scenes where blue make-up is used instead of the blue light, you can see the regular flesh-tone under her hair and in her parting.
  • After Violet has chewed the gum and is blowing up, if you look near the bottom of her right leg, you can see the air hose that is blowing her up. Visible on full screen only.
  • When they're in the room with Wonkavision, as Mike Teevee jumps up on the platform to get shrunk, in the background an Oompa Loompa puts goggles on, then in the very next shot he puts them on again, with no time to have taken them back off.
  • When Mr. Wonka is first walking toward the crowd, his walk is much longer than the actual path. Watch the shadows change on the overhead shots as the day of filming went by.
  • In the Egg Room, when the golden eggs are falling down onto the scale, and particularly when the Oompa lifts one onto the cart, you can see the lining on their sides, even though they are supposed to be actual goose eggs.
  • When Willy Wonka presses the button for the Spectacular Gum Making Machine, all of its gears and parts and contraptions start working. In one shot, a tray of a pale white chunky substance is covered by a lid. As the lid lifts off of the tray, the pale white chunks are now bright colors. You can see where the cut in the shot was made for them to replace the first tray with the second tray. There is a slight jump in the position of the lid and the misty fog in the shot changes in the same instant.
  • You can clearly see the string on the elevator as it flies through the entire city.
  • When Grandpa Joe gives Charlie the candy bar bought with the tobacco money, Joe pulls it out, holding it at the top right and bottom left corners. When the shot cuts to Charlie and he says "Grandpa, that money was for tobacco." you see Grandpa Joe in the foreground of the shot, and his right hand has moved from the top right corner to the lower half of the candy bar. When the shot cuts back, his hands are as they were before, on the top right and bottom left corners of the candy bar.
  • During Veruca's song her lips don't match what she's saying.
  • In the scene where Charlie and his grandfather are floating from the fizzy lifting drinks, you can see the black harness Charlie is wearing.
  • In the "Candyman" song near the beginning of the movie, the candy store owner is on a ladder, about to drop candy into the kids' hands. When we see the kids holding up their hands and saying, "Me. Me.", none of their mouths are actually saying anything.
  • When Wonka's boat is about to depart, two shots are cut together, but the sound recorded of the second is used over both. This results in a clear view of the Oompa Loompa steering the boat with the boat's bell (and the rope to ring it) not being rung by anyone whilst you can hear it ringing - then the shot suddenly changes, and the Oompa Loompa is obviously ringing it in time to the sound.
  • In the Chocolate Room, there are numerous see-through pipes coming out of the chocolate. The chocolate is supposed to be being sucked upwards in each pipe. However, in some of the pipes it is actually flowing downwards, since it was easier for the filmmakers to only pump it upwards in some pipes and then send it into the other pipes to go back down. This is confirmed when Augustus Gloop gets stuck in one of the up-pipes - there is no chocolate at all flowing in one of the down-pipes while he is stuck in there.
  • When Wonka transports the giant chocolate bar, the stand the chocolate lies on inside the TV is visible.
  • After introducing Mr. Wilkerson, Wonka's hands magically appear on Charlie's shoulders.
  • On the boat ride, when Wonka explains about "The Sailor's Way", his head changes position between shots.
  • When Wonka finishes handing out the Everlasting Gobstoppers, you can see the shadow of the cameraman on Wonka as he walks away.
  • In every version of the story, including the book, in the scene where Augustus Gloop is sucked into the chocolate pipe, there's no pressure below him (it is an open river, with the pipe sticking into it) so the pressure must come from a vacuum at the top of the pipe. Augustus would have had his lungs and innards sucked out until he was thin enough to pass through the pipe. He would not have survived.
  • When the boat that Willy Wonka and the passengers are riding on is heading for the tunnel through the river of chocolate, two crewmen are cranking the paddle wheel. The wheel is in an opening in the middle of the deck. As the paddle is rotating, moving the boat through the river, the blades are always clean and dry and never have any chocolate on them whatsoever.
  • In the Fizzy Lifting Drink scene, as Wonka leaves the room, a bubble machine is just visible at the bottom left of the screen.
  • When Violet is introducing herself to Willy Wonka, her purse strap is resting beneath her collar. When Mr. Boulregard pushes her away to introduce himself, the strap has moved above her collar.
  • White microphone equipment is visible in Mr. Beauregarde's shirt pocket throughout the movie. This is particularly noticeable when he tells Wonka not to talk to him about the contract.
  • At the start of the movie, when the school children are running out of the school towards the candy store, the time visible on the school clock is 3:00. At Bill's candy store right next door the time is 3:20.
  • While Charlie and Grandpa Joe are floating toward the fan, it is spinning in a clockwise direction; seconds later, when they get dangerously close to the fan, it is now turning counter-clockwise.
  • When Grandpa Joe, Charlie, and Willy Wonka get into the Wonkavator for the first time from Wonka's office, the Wonkavator has a plain hexagonal shape. As it flies over the city, however, it sports an elaborate design complete with an ornate minaret on top.
  • In an overhead shot of Wonka's boat, Charlie faces to the left, but in the closeup Charlie faces to the right.
  • When the group is on Wonka's Pop-mobile and covered in the foam, Mike Teevee's mom says her line, "It's even in my shoes." From this point to the end of the shot, her lips don't match what she says and neither do Mike's, but the mom is more noticeable.
  • When Wonka hugs Charlie saying he won, Wonka's hair at his left is unruly. When he invites "Slugworth" in, his hair is back in (better) shape.
  • The centermost of the five "Eggdicator" stalls is missing the plastic bowl that drops the egg onto the trap door, as shown in the "good egg/bad egg" shots earlier.
  • When Grandpa Joe falls on Charlie immediately after being informed of his Golden Ticket win, one of the other old guys in the bed has a shocked look on his face. In the next shot however, the old guy now has his hand over his face and not enough time has passed for this to occur.
  • Right before Augustus goes up the pipe, there is a long shot of the pipe. Look very closely. You will see that there is a dummy of Augustus, not the real Augustus.
  • In the scene where the group enters the weird elevator with the escher wallpapered walls when the shot looks from the back of the elevator you can see the shadow of the camera/light reflector on Mr. Salt.
  • As the case of wonka bars is being auctioned, and the auctioneer says "3000 pounds, 4500 pounds", his arms go from being at the edge of the table to next to his sides.
  • When the children stick out their hands to receive gobstoppers, Mr. Salt, who is standing behind them, changes position between shots.
  • When Charlie's mom and grandparents are watching the TV, hearing about the end of the Wonka contest, look at the TV. In the first shot, the left panel of the TV housing is missing. In the next immediate shot it is there, and remains for the rest of the scene.
  • When the crowd is mobbing Charlie after he finds the Golden Ticket, the man with grey hair says "Come on Charlie, hold onto it" but his lips do not move.
  • When Charlie and Grandpa Joe are first being lifted into the air after drinking the fizzy-lifting drinks; Charlie tells his Grandpa that it's Okay. But instead of saying "Grandpa", he very clearly says "Grandma".
  • When the Candyman is singing his song, he tears a long paper strip with candy dots on it. Look closely–some of the children aren't even taking them off to eat them; they are only pretending to eat them.
  • In the scene where Willy Wonka and the group of golden ticket holders enter the room with the chocolate river, Willy Wonka picks up a mushroom head with his cane. If you look closely, you can see holes under the mushroom head where he has previously done this, probably more than one take for that scene.
  • When they are all in the inventing room, and Mike Teevee is eating the explosive candy, you can see the explosion come out of the machine he is standing next to. In the next scene, when Mrs. Teevee is leaning over him, he blows out a puff of smoke like it had come from his mouth.
  • When Wonka introduces the geese that lay the golden eggs, the geese change positions between shots.
  • During the Oompa Loompas' first number (Augustus Gloop), the lyrics are animated on the screen - but one word doesn't match. The song line is "What are you at getting terribly fat"; the words on-screen read "WHERE are you at."
  • In the scene where Wonka shows the tour the Everlasting Gobstopper machine, you can see that the candy is already on the finished belt before he turns it on. In the close up of the candy, there are a lot of extra candy, but after they get passed out, the excess is gone.
  • When Charlie sees the newspaper about how the fifth ticket was faked, the position of the newspaper in the man's hands changes between shots.
  • When Charlie visits his mother at the Laundry, he sits down at the washing bowl. When you see Charlie from behind you can see the big wooden spoon sticking out of the bowl. When the shot turns to the front of Charlie, he is stirring the laundry with the spoon. In the next shot of Charlie from behind the spoon is in the exact same spot as previously - it has not moved.
  • Just before Charlie opens his winning Wonka bar, we see printed on the back label: "Packed by The Quaker Oats Company Chicago, Illinois". It is made clear in the film that no other companies are involved in the creation of Wonka's products - they're dispatched from his factory wrapped and ready to sell.
  • When Veruca tells her dad that she wants a golden goose the stuff in the bowls behind them keeps changing.
  • When Charlie is working with Mr. Turpentine on the wart-removing potion, the bottles and cups on the table change between shots.
  • At the end of Veruca's song she sings "Don't care how, I want it now". In one shot her hands are at the far sides of the box, but in the next shot they are together at her sides.
  • When the first "good egg" falls on the eggdacator, its position changes between shots.
  • When Willy Wonka comes out of the factory to greet the children who will be touring that day, he walks down a red carpet. A minute or so later the lucky children walk up the same carpet. As the scenes cut back and forth between Wonka and the children the viewer sees a shadow on the carpet of the building next door. At one point the shadow has shifted noticeably and then reverts to its former position.
  • When Wonka comes out of the factory to greet his guests, we see from a far away shot that he comes to the corner of the red carpet. When the scene cuts to a closer shot, he is coming up on the same corner again.
  • When the red shirt kid comes into the classroom and talks about the tickets, in the closeup, he is facing inward. When he says "You've got to buy Wonka bars", and the shot goes wide, he is facing the door, turning to his right to leave. His mouth doesn't appear to be moving.
  • When Charlie is watching the TV about the Golden tickets for the first time, he turns around to talk to Grandpa Joe. When he does, the TV is off.
  • At the beginning, in the candy factory, Bill (the store owner) is handing out candy left and right and singing to the kids. There is a shot where he turns around and a girl is pretending to throw candy into her mouth. Clearly her hand is empty.
  • When Willy Wonka first opens the door to the chocolate room for his guests, the long, shrinking corridor they have all just walked through is no longer behind them. Instead, there is now a short patio with a huge wrought-iron gate.
  • When they show the different components of the 3 course meal gum machine, they show a bee's nest that supposedly generates honey. If you look at the coil of tubing you can see that water is dripping out of it, not honey.
  • When Mr. Wonka bites into a teacup at the end of the song of the room with the Chocolate River, you hear a crunching sound, yet it looks like he has to "tear" the cup a bit. How can he crunch on somethng that requires him to tear at it? [In an interview, Gene Wilder stated the cup was made out of wax - not excusing the mistake, but in case anyone was wondering...]
  • If you look closely at several scenes, Veruca Salt's and Violet Beauregard's hairstyles change. For example, Violet's hair is wavy, then it is even curlier.
  • When Charlie first comes home after he obtained the golden ticket, he hands the ticket to his grandfather to read. After he says, "You've done it Charlie." and hands the ticket back to Charlie, look carefully. The ticket is thinner, less wrinkled, and does not have any writing on it.
  • When Mrs. Teevee puts the shrunken Mike into her purse, it is a very obvious fake Mike.
  • In the scene where the newscaster is about to announce that the first gold ticket has been found, he walks over to a map of the world. Take a look at the northwest corner of the United States. There is a big blue dot just to the right of Idaho that cuts through Montana and covers half of Wyoming. The dot is where the newscaster will later hang the number three marker.
  • When Charlie and his grandpa are burping to get down after drinking the fizz drink, their mouths do not match up with the times or lengths of their burps. When Charlie gets his feet on the ground he takes a last burp and his mouth does not even move.
  • After Charlie gets the chocolate bar for his birthday the position of his fingers on the bar change between shots.

Title in other languages[]

Language Name Meaning
Basque Willy Wonka eta Txokolate-Lantegia Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Shop
French (France) Charlie et la chocolaterie Charlie and The Chocolate Factory
French (Canada) Willy Wonka au pays enchanté Willy Wonka at the enchanted country
German Willy Wonka & die Schokoladenfabrik Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory
Italian Willy Wonka e la fabbrica di cioccolato Willy Wonka and the Chcolate Factory
Portuguese (Brazil) A Fantastica Fabrica de Chocolate The Fantastic Chocolate Factory
Portuguese (Portugal) Willy Wonka e a Fabrica de Chocolate Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Spanish (Latin America) Willy Wonka y la fabrica de chocolate Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Gallery[]

Screenshots[]

Behind The Scenes[]

Trailer[]

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