Ok, so I was watching **Epic Movie ** last night (quit throwing things, there was no new TV and pay-per-view is just so darn convenient) and part of it was a spoof of Willy Wonka and Chocolate Factory (is that the name? Then who’s this Charlie?) that implied that orphans are made into candy. And that this is where the “golden Ticket” idea came from.
I don’t plan on seeing either of the movie versions because they look too disturbingly surreal and grotesque for me, but I’d like in on the plot. What’s the story?
Willy Wonka is the genius who created the chocolate factory, and Charlie is the kid who won a golden ticket (along with 4 or 5 other kids) to visit the factory, which has (until now) been completely off limits to outsiders.
Wonka’s real plan is to test the children to find an heir for his candy empire, but all of the kids except Charlie fail Wonkas tests of their character. In the first movie, the children are presumed dead (except Charlie) due to various character flaws causing them to get into terrible accidents. In the Johnny Depp version, the children are shown alive and well at the end of the movie, but grossly disfigured by the accidents they caused.
Basic plot: Wonka is a reclusive candy maker who one day announces that he has put a golden ticket in every candy bar, and those who get it will be given a special one-time-only tour of his factory. Charlie, who’s extremely poor, is one of the winners. There are several other kids who are brats of one nature of another and who meet some rather grim and appropriate fate tied in with their behavior. Charlie is the only one left and Wonka names him his successor.
Raold Dahl, who wrote the book, probably had the sickest imagination of any author primarily known as a children’s book author. His work for adults are subtle humorous tales, often of revenge and cruelty, and you can see that sensibility in his children’s books. He’s sort of the Charles Addams of mystery fiction.
First off, you could read the book in about an hour or so: it’s written for young children, and it’s pretty funny and wonderful.
Okay, plot:
-Charlie is an extremely virtuous (in a Victorian way) extremely poor boy.
-Willy Wonka is a mad chocolatier who’s holed up in his factory.
-Wonka holds a contest by which five kids will find a Golden Ticket in a candy bar wrapper; these tickets entitle them to, among other things, a tour of his factory, the first time in years that anyone has seen the inside of the factory.
-Charlie, of course, wins.
-So do four other children, each of whom represents a repulsive type of child (the glutton, the spoiled brat, the obsessive gum-chewer, the TV-watcher).
-During the tour of the fantastic and mysterious factory, each of the other four children meets a karmically and comically appropriate fate, which they barely survive (e.g., one of them is turned into a giant blueberry).
-Charlie, by dint of being virtuous, is the last one around at the end of the tour, and Wonka declares him the heir to the factory.
-The end!
Have you read Lemony Snicket? I’m currently breezing my way through the thirteen books in A Series of Unfortunate Events; while I was initially skeptical, I think he’s heir to Dahl’s crown of sicko children’s book writers.
Willy Wonka owns the factory and he invites some children, accompanied by one adult each, to come in for a tour. The children, save one, turn out to be horrible urchins who each end up in a candy-making machine. Charlie is the one kid who doesn’t cause trouble, or does cause trouble and redeems himself; it varies between versions.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the name of the book by Roald Dahl, and of the recent movie starring Johnny Depp. The title Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was used for the earlier movie adaptation starring Gene Wilder.
Charlie is the protagonist (the character we’re supposed to sympathize with and see the story from his point of view) in the book and in the first (Gene Wilder) movie. I haven’t seen the second (Johnny Depp) movie, but I understand it focuses more on Willy Wonka.
What’s the story of xxxx and the Chocolate Factory?
For starters, the 1971 original was Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and in 2005, it was retooled by Tim Burton into Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. IMO, he did a pretty good job of it - there’s buckets (heh!)* of zany and dark humor in Roald Dahl’s original book for him to run with.
No orphans get made into candy in either version that I can recall. Just variously spoiled brats fall into a variety of bizarre confectionary accidents because they don’t understand “Don’t do that” and the nice, yet dirt poor kid with far more manners than money winds up winning the factory.
A little tivia - back in 1971, the actress who played Veruca Salt, one of the brats, was a brat in real life as well - despite being told not to, she apprently swiped some props.
Wonka uses Oompa Loompa’s as slave labor. He never lets them leave the factory so they can’t leak his secrets to other candy makers. In the original book, they were little dark men from Africa who Charlie speculates Wonka carved out of chocolate. That went over really well with the PC police :rolleyes: and in future printings they were white with orange and green hair.
I haven’t seen Epic Movie but I’m guessing the “orphans are made into candy” part of the Willy Wonka spoof was a parody of the plot twist of Soylent Green. If so, that wouldn’t be the first time they’ve combined Willy Wonka and **Soylent Green ** into one parody (e.g., “Johnny Bravo” did it as did the Slurm ep on “Futurama”).
Hmmmmm… it’s been years since I read it, but I’m fairly certain that Wonka DOES pay the Oompa Loompas in cocoa beans. Which they preferred to the caterpillers that they ate before they made their deal with Wonka.
I don’t recall any point in the book where it’s stated that the Oompa Loompa’s cannot leave the factory so that they cannot leak Wonka’s secrets to other candy makers. The only possibly thing I can think of is that Willy Wonka let all the regular workers go because of industrial espionage.
So…
Ooompa Loompa, doompa-dee-doo
I’ve got a little question for you
Ooompa Loompa, doompa-dee-dite
Please won’t you give us a cite.
It is stated that nobody ever goes into or out of the factory, and Wonka did close it when his secrets were leaked. And I don’t think paying people in cocoa beans is considered legal in any state.
In the book Willy Wonka explains that the place where the Oopa Loompas lived was so dangerous and horrible that they voluntarily agreed to come and live and work in his factory to get away from it. And yes, he did turn out his original workers because of an espionage incident.
Quaker specifically wanted to launch a Willy Wonka chocolate bar, just like the ones in the movie–right down to the wrapper–but they ended up with the wrong consistency. The chocolate melted at room temperature. The line of candies was started by a completely different company.
The original objection to the book wasn’t so much slave labor, as I recall, as it was rampant colonialism. Dahl had intended to write the book as something of an homage to Victorian children’s novels, certainly in that vein, and he hadn’t thought about just how little that kind of thing would fly now. He talked with the NAACP (I think) at the time, expressed shock and mortification once the issues of Oompa Loompa White Chocolatier’s Burden, and voluntarily made the changes.
